Team Chevelle banner

Is the Mustang in trouble?

9K views 53 replies 28 participants last post by  93Polo 
#1 ·
I know, this is not a ford forum, but I thought this article was interesting. The photo of the new design looks not very appealing to me. But take a look at the sales numbers chart. They have experienced a really serious decline in sales in recent years. I had wrongly assumed that the pony was a pretty good seller in most years.

http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...y-2015-mustang-could-alienate-loyal-fans.aspx
 
#4 ·
Yeah, and that huge decline also occurred when the economy tanked and all american car sales tanked with it. Notice it says mustang sales in the US. The new mustang is meant to be a global competitor (hence the 4 banger base engine). But if that's what the 2015 model looks like, they'd better count on European and Asian sales, looks like crap to me.
 
#6 ·
It's gotta change, they had a home-run with the 95 version, now how do you come up with an encore? Check out the new Vette, sucky design in my opinion. cheezy taillights, funky Micheline man grill, crappy toyota style chinese slanted headlights. Go sell it in Japan. It's darn hard to always be ready with the perfect design. Same with the new Camaro, crappy taillights. This year is the best of all worlds.
 
#7 ·
If I was a F*** fan,,,and I am not,,,that would run me off for sure,,looks like a steaming pile of dog poo poo,,,
 
#12 ·
that "artist rendering" is probably not anywhere near what the car will actually look like.. someone saw those recent spy shots of the new Mustang driving around with the camo cover thing on it and drew the fugliest possible interpretation of what they thought it looked like under the wrapper to use for the article.
 
#16 ·
#17 ·
Andy's link said:
Greasing the front Triple-Link Suspension
Ford has been fighting going to an independent rear setup because of the drag racers that don't like wheelhop and grassroots level Ford road racers that like solid axles.. also, it's probably cheaper to manufacture and has a lot less moving parts than an IRS does.. they've kept the ever reliable 8.8 solid axle around for about as long as they could, but they are about to put it out to pasture in favor of some flavor of independent rear suspension... maybe they'll keep the 8.8 center section like they did in the Thunderbird and Cobra Mustang IRS setups of the 90's..
 
#19 ·
Yeah I get that part. But again, the rest of the world does things differently. Big hulking solid axle top heavy rear drive cars just don't sell well in the rest of the world. Heck, you can't even get a Mustang in right hand drive.

I'd like to see them move the Mustang in the direction of a poor man's M3. Decent performance both in a straight line and in the curves, but without the snobbiness, high price, shoddy build quality, poor reliability and high repair costs of a typical German car.

They do have to be careful though, lest they end up the same way they did last time they tried to turn the Mustang into a global car. Not that the Probe was a bad car - I almost bought one and wish I had, the GT was a fun car to drive if a little under powered - but it was too radical a departure from the Mustang.
 
#18 ·
With the gov't EPA requirements all of the muscle/retro cars will disappear. I don't like the looks of the new Mustang either but IMO Ford has better designed cars and trucks now than GM has.

The new Mustang is a repeat of the Mustang II mistake of the 70's, another EPA/OPEC inspired disaster.
 
#20 ·
So, this is where the Guy that came up with the originol Prius landed.

GM hit a home run with there newest Camaro, it just looks good, retro or not.
The only big complaint is the weight, the darn things bump 4400 lbs wet.
 
#22 ·
That looks like a rat fink drawing of last uears mustang. Only thing missing is a set of slotted mags, side pipes and a big hairy arm sticking out of the window.
 
#23 ·
Detroit has screwed up great cars before, and they are perfectly capable of doing it again. :D

BTW, so is BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi and Jaguar.

History is full of famous flubs.
 
#25 ·
I dont think you can keep up with the common solid axle setup forever and continue to keep selling while the rest of your competition switches to more modern setups. I think its cool that Ford stuck to those principals for so long but I just dont think the market will continue to accept that type of setup anymore given the changes the competition have made. While I dont dislike Mustangs, I dont feel sorry that its starting to decline. I prefer the Camaro and Challenger anyways.
 
#26 ·
Properly designed, a solid axle is as good or better than many IRS setups, especially struts.

It's just not as marketable.
 
#28 ·
But is the one on the Mustang? I agree, the solid rear axle can be made light and kept in check with a Watt's link, but it goes beyond just the rear axle with the Mustang. You know as well as I do how poorly they handle.

But the bottom line is, there is a reason high end sports cars use IRS, and it's not as a sales point.
 
#27 ·
Yes...IRS at the Formula 1 level is NOT the IRS on your under 50k mass produced "sports" car...but most people buying that IRS equipped assembly line car conveniently forget that detail.

The marketing gurus know all about that little self deception, and capitalize on the convenient ignorance of the self deceived and barely informed.
 
#30 ·
I love when Ford "Redesigns" things. But like everything else, we as a coolective fear change. Yes, Coolective. We keep 40 year old dinosaurs from the crusher. And those that don't like the new as of '10 Camaro don't like them because they have never spent the weekend in one. All the BS of "Oh, it's too heavy, or " Oh my God, Harvey, look at that blindspot".

I own one. and it rocks. I have driven a dozen GT500s, ZR1 Vettes, ZL1 Camaros. Everyone can keep its owners inline with bramd loyatly and also be a crapton of fun at the same time?

And who is argueing IRS? Ever hear of a Corba? But Ford made interchange easy if you wanted to go drag racing. Solid and IRS bolted to the same holes.
 
#33 ·
Good points in this discussion, and with civility!

What a win for the forum! Wow - with thee pages of posts on a potentially divisive topic, including Chevy vs. Ford stuff, racing issues, and with even some ricer talk in the mix...and NO ONE has resorted to stupid name calling "my dad is bigger than your dad" juvenile idiocy.

I salute the contributors!
 
#34 ·
When the latest Mustang came out it was competing with and if I recall correctly even beating out the BMW M3.

I wouldn't say they handle too poorly.

But considering the heavy 5th gen Camaros with the 1le suspension package are doing better, there should definitely be room for improvement.

Personally, I would take a solid axle any day of the week over the low budget wheel hopping heavy junk IRS with weak half shafts that typically find their way into American muscle cars.

The IRS from the Ford Cobra was an over 300lb hulk of pure ****.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top