On a quiet day in Flat Rock on the eve of Mustang's 44th birthday, a new car is born.
04-22-08: According to sources, Ford has built the 9,000,000th Mustang. A 2008 model, the car rolled off the assembly line on Wednesday, April 16th in Flat Rock, Michigan. The milestone Mustang is said to be headed to a dealership out in America’s Heartland. No information was available at post time about the car itself, which model it was or which color.
Mustang has enjoyed many of these high points in its history. In 1964 it's unlikely that anyone knew that we would be here 44 years later with the Mustang still galloping through our lives. Few nameplates have survived as long as Mustang. Those which have been with us as long can be counted on one hand.
Throughout its storied history, the Mustang has had both its high water marks and its lower points. 1966 saw the first million Mustang’s built. The coming years brought larger more powerful Mustangs including the BOSS 302 and 429, Mach 1, and Shelbys. It all ended in 1974 when the Mustang II was introduced in the era of the first gas crunch. While car enthusiast’s gave the Pinto based Mustang a solid thumbs down, the car buying public made it a phenomenal sales success.
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The Fox bodied Mustang brought back the life in 1979. Shortly thereafter the 5.0 V8 was back in action and performance once again ruled the showrooms. But all was not well. In the late 1980’s Ford was seriously considering letting Mustang die. Sales were down and efforts to replace the Mustang with a front wheel drive car based on a Mazda were roundly squashed by enthusiasts.
Forces within Ford including John Coletti helped bring about the new SN-95 Mustang in 1994 which started a new era for Mustang. Of course recent history is much easier to contemplate as our memories are still with us. Though the 1990's were not long ago, it seems like eons when we look at the new 2008 Shelby GT-500 with 500 horsepower sitting before us. Who would a thunk it?
Mustang has come a long way. That would be 9,000,000 cars away from the day Lee Iacocca dawned his darling. Congratulations Ford for sticking with the pony car through thick and thin!
