I’m sure most of you are familiar with the origins of the Mustang and evolution through 1973, but this R&T feature encapsulates very concisely, especially its origins as a response to the surprise success of the Corvair Monza. That caught Detroit off guard, and Lee Iacocca in particular. No wonder he disdained the Falcon; it cannibalized sales from the big Ford whereas the Monza brought in a flood of new buyers into Chevy showrooms. He wanted in on that action, desperately so.
So a group of Ford Execs started informal meetings at the Fairlane Inn Motel and set out to remake Ford’s dowdy image, starting with bucket seats in the Falcon and then semi-fastback rooflines on several models. But those were just the warmup act; the grand finale would be the Mustang. And it succeeded way beyond anyone’s expectations; in sales that is. R&T was a bit disappointed about its rather flaccid standard suspension and slow steering. But that was just fine with 90+% of Mustang buyers; it was the looks and image that counted most of all. And a bit of straight line performance from a V8 under the long hood was icing on the cake.
I can’t overstate just how influential the 1960.5 Monza coupe was, in offering a package that had simply not been available before. It was compact, stylish, chic, and fun to drive, even if it wasn’t exactly a stormer either. It not only spawned the Mustang and the other pony cars, but in essence it helped recreate the concept of what Americans wanted in their cars, leading to the massive popularity of well-trimmed compact, sporty and mid-size cars and not in dull and dowdy Biscaynes and Ford Customs. It was a concept that the Japanese eventually embraced, leading to the reality of a couple of well-equipped trim lines instead of the a la carte approach with endless options that Detroit had championed. The US car market would never be the same, thanks to the Monza.
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R&T is to cars as a wine connoisseur magazine is to wine. Both are expecting a $100 bottle of wine back then while the average American was satisfied with a $1.50 bottle of Gallo Hearty Burgundy and 35 cent copy of Motor Trend. Hearty Burgundy was introduced in 1964 and brought wine to Americans.
For all the fuss they caused, the Corvair bucket seats barely look different from a bench to my modern eyes, being very close together and lacking a center console as nearly all modern bucket seat interiors have. Only in the overhead shot can I tell they’re not a bench seat.
R&T wondered in the last sentence whether the Mustang II would be what the public wanted again. Despite that generation often being outright ridiculed today, it was what the public wanted in 1974, with the best sales since the 1965 model. That didn’t keep up, but the MII sold close to 200,000 cars a year in 1975-78, ensuring there would be a follow-up. Mustang sales today are far lower than that, and they don’t have the price-cutting advantage of sharing many underpinnings with other Ford vehicles.
The Mustang experience clearly left an indelible impression on Lee Iacocca, who observed most buyers cared more about stylish appearance than unique or up-to-date mechanicals, with the Falcon-based Mustang outselling and out-profiting the Corvair with its numerious exotic (or at least unshared by other GM cars) underpinnings. So what if underneath the sexy Mustang there was a mundane Falcon? The Lincoln Mk III offered an even longer hood and a knock-off RR grille – luxury! Then at Chrysler everything from sports coupes to minivans to big luxury sedans to limousines could have K-car platforms and they’d sell anyway. Well not the limos at least…
FWIW that’s a rendering you’re looking at in that ad. The Monza bucket seats were essentially the same ones put into millions of subsequent GM bucket seat cars. No, not exactly racing buckets, but buckets in the modern mass-production parlance. The point is that customers liked them and were very happy to pay extra for them in millions of Monzas, SSs, and in other GM brands.