Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 15, 1993 TAG: 9312300020
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The car will be introduced simultaneously at that and 99 other sites nationwide in a promotional event designed to re-awaken interest in a vehicle that knocked the country off its feet when it first came out in April 1964.
This year's version is the first to undergo a total redesign since 1979. Ford almost decided to discontinue the car when a study in 1989 estimated the cost of redesigning it at $1 billion. An in-house corps of Mustang loyalists persuaded the automaker's management to let them try to recapture the Mustang mystique while keeping the car affordable.
Given more independence than most project teams, the 400 or so employees at the Dearborn, Mich., plant brought the car on-line in three years and for about $700 million - 25 percent faster and for 30 percent less money than for any comparable program Ford had ever done.
Vitramon Inc. of Roanoke makes capacitors, or energy storage units for electronic systems, for Ford trucks and cars, including the Mustang. It's the first of 14 new Ford products scheduled for introduction over the next two years. Vitramon employees and their families will get a look at the new Mustang at the plant Monday morning. Phil Nome, Ford Division merchandising manager, will tour the plant.
Ford officials hope the new Mustang will recall the old while representing the modern era of automotive fashion. The Wall Street Journal says the Mustang ``belongs to an elite group of Detroit creations that have inspired romance, rock songs and riotous hormonal glee.''
In the beginning, that was true. But the oil crisis, recession and stiff competition among world automakers combined to push the Mustang out of the limelight. Annual sales dropped from 500,000 in the 1960s to 86,000 last year. Mustang loyalists are delighted to have a new ``pony car'' to look at and maybe even buy.
Owners of about two dozen vintage Mustangs from Roanoke and Lynchburg will lend their vehicles to Sunday's unveiling. Hot dogs, sodas and door prizes will be given away, and music will come from a country band. There will be no admission charge.
The new car has a base price of about $13,365, a few dollars less than the base of two of its competitors, the Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. The base engine is a 3.8 liter V-6 rated at 145 horsepower; the standard tranmission, manual.
The car comes equipped with dual airbags, four-wheel disc brakes, AM-FM stereo, power steering and a power driver's seat.
Also available are a Mustang GT coupe with a 5.0 liter V-8 engine. With a manual transmission, its prices start at $17,280. The 3.8 liter convertible will start at $20,160, and the GT convertible at $21,790. According to USA Today, a GT convertible with V-8 engine, automatic transmission, leather interior and audio buff's sound system would run some $24,000. A removable hardtop also is available for convertible buyers.
The base price of the original Mustang was $2,368. With glamour plus affordability, the car was an immediate hit. More than 417,000 - four times the company's projection - of the original 1964 1/2 version were sold within 12 months. Ford says consumers bought 93,000 pedal-powered Mustangs for children during Christmas of 1964. More than 6 million real Mustangs have been sold.
``My father gave me a '66 for graduation from high school back in '72,'' says Rick Payne, general manager of WHPT Trucking and Mulch 'n More in Roanoke. It was Wimbledon white with a parchment interior, and options that included power steering, power brakes and factory air. Payne, 38, went to William Byrd High. He drove the car regularly to classes at Virginia Western Community College, ``on weekends, cruising and dates and whatever.''
In the late '70s he realized it might have value as a collector car, so he began to drive it less often. By the early '80s, Payne was limiting his use of it to weekends, something he still does. The car has some 62,000 miles on its odometer. Payne is president of the Roanoke Valley Mustang Club.
Ford officials say the new Mustang has a stiffer suspension and better ride than recent models.
They hope, too, that women will continue to love the vehicle. In the beginning they bought as many as men did. The car also had strong appeal to the middle-aged consumer, though its primary audience was people under age 34. It's middle-range price made it an everyperson's car.
Mustang took on many guises as it passed from the 1960s into the 1970s. One of the most memorable was its incarnation as a Muscle Car, when its Mach I of 1969 was followed by the Boss 302 and Boss 351 in 1970 and 1971. There was even a Boss 429. The Mustang II, a lighter, gas-thrifty model, came out in 1974. Though far more were sold than in the previous year, Payne and other fans consider those the dark days, which lasted until the redesigned 1979 model made its debut in 1978.
The Mustang II, says Payne, ``took a back seat to what we'd been seeing. It had a little old four-cylinder [engine] that couldn't get out of its own way.''
Nowadays, the classic models from the '60s and high-powered versions of the early '70s are among the most favored.
Ron and Jane Milliron of Roanoke have four Mustangs - a 1965 GT, a 1966 convertible and '66 Shelby and a 1970 Boss. They keep them in their six-car garage, travel to Mustang meets together and will be on hand at Sunday's unveiling.
``I'm looking forward to it,'' said Jane Milliron. ``A lot of our friends have a very strong interest in Mustangs.''
The car officially will go on sale nationwide Dec. 9.
by CNB