I believe this is one of the most varied galleries yet of a car and its owners/admirers. The folks in these are all over; there are young, old, boy racers and glam girls, all happily posing in these images. Something that ultimately isn’t a surprise, since it’s well known that the allure of the Mustang was awfully wide.
The images of today date from the early days of the model to the early ’70s, all showing Mustangs and their excited and proud owners in a variety of settings and situations. And BTW, outside of these vintage photos, I can’t recall the last time I saw those original Mustang hubcaps in the real world.
The last picture is a bit jarring – the 1971 was really a different and much less pretty car.
and the “new gen, Camaro” in the background..
The “b/w” pic of the very proper lady next to her ride is awesome!!
WOW! What a panacea of drivers! As you assert, the Mustang has a wide demographic. I like the lady in the black gown posing with her Mustang. “Pops” is proud of his white Mustang coupe. Unlike his neighbor, he was not about to drive a Chrysler Newport sedan. Thanks for a fine overview in just a handful of pictures. And to think that Ford had to wait for White Trucks to cease using the name and then turn the name “Mustang” into a legend amongst young and old motorists.
It would be interesting to see that lady in the long gown actually get in the Stang!
Thanks for that! Krupp also had a Mustang in their line-up, later also available as a cabover.
This must be the trademark reason Ford couldn’t use Mustang in Europe and instead called them the T-5. I actually have seen a couple here in Indiana at car shows.
I think there were two European companies that held rights to the Mustang name – Krupp, and the German motorcycle company Kreidler. Both were amenable to working with Ford to grant use of the Mustang name for a relatively small fee, but for some reason Ford refused.
I’ve never seen a T-5 – would love to see one!
Maybe that fee wasn’t so small. Ford worked out a deal with Triumph to use the Thunderbird name.
Yes, there were Kreidler Mustangs too. Just an example, a 1977 Kreidler Mustang Cross.
I can think of no postwar new-car introduction that was as significant as the “1964.5” Mustang. I studied it as a Marketing student at university, as a piece of the marketing movement that came with the realization that the teenage and young adult Baby Boomers were starting to have money of their own to spend. Prior to this (and to the creation of marketing as a “science”) people aged 16-25 were thought of by marketing folks to want the same things as older adults.
It was Pontiac’s head, “Bunkie” Knudsen, who famously said, “You can sell a young man’s car to an old man, but you can’t sell an old man’s car to a young man.” but I don’t think that either he or Lee Iacocca had any idea of what a smash hit the Mustang would become.
Boomer lightning struck Lee twice in his career – by the time he got the T115 minivans to market they were ready for a roomy family car and the fact it was so different from their parents ’59 Country Squire was a huge plus.
Most of his other Greatest Hits were aimed more at his own generation – the ’65 Galaxie 500 LTD, the Lincoln Mark III, and both Imperial revivals. The Granada and Monarch were four-quadrant hits, though – something someone pushing 30 and coming from a beater early Mustang (or VW) could feel like a real grownup driving and their parents could replace an LTD with without feeling like they were coming down.
Having gotten my drivers license 3 months before the Mustang came out, I have had a ringside seat over the years to observe what different types of people drive them. My three siblings and I all have different interests but we have all owned at least one Mustang. Many of my friends have owned them. The first car my wife and I rode in together, long before we started dating was a Mustang.
This gallery reminds me of what I have told my friends that everybody has a Mustang story. I hear lots of them when I attend car shows and even get them when I drive my daily driver ’09.
Thanks for all the great pictures.
Ford Motor Co. always had a talent for finding an underserved market niche and exploiting it. Wagons, pick-up trucks, personal luxury cars (T bird) all received special attention from Ford to its advantage. The Mustang, though, was its greatest success in executing this strategy. As the first pony car it opened an untapped market for a smallish, inexpensive, conventional, sporty vehicle that appealed to librarians and gear heads alike. Supported by a brilliant advertising and marketing campaign, it caught GM flat-footed once again, giving Ford this field to itself for two years until the Camaro could be unveiled. You really had to be there to understand what a sensation the Gen1 Mustang was.
I remember that the Ford pavilion at the NY Worlds Fair in 1964 featured riding through the exhibit in various Ford product convertibles, pulled around a track. People would skip their turn in line, passing up the Galaxies and Montclair’s, to ride in the Mustang.
I still think the ’65-68 Mustangs are the best looking to date. I’m sure a lot of them went to the crusher but a lot of them is still available.
The tornado parked behind the mustang with the cool chick
1970 Toronado.
Someday, I’ll write an article on my wife’s ’67 Mustang. It had been her parents’ car before she was born, and they used it as their primary family vehicle into the 1980s. Eventually, it became hers, and she drove it until 1995, when rust finally did it in.
These photos demonstrate the wide variety of people that Mustangs appealed to – truly remarkable.
The Mustang ran the gamut from grocery getter to track car so the owners were the same, the two proper middle aged ladies with the fast backs are still surprising.
I will note the 4th pic at the beach is definitely from the 70s or very early 80s based on the bikini top
I needed some paperwork signed by my 80-something year old, German-born neighbor and I went online this morning to check the correct spelling of her name. Google being what it is, and I being who I am, I went down a long rathole of reading an interview with her about her distinguished academic career in global politics and international relations. In the interview she mentions owning a Mustang in the 1970’s at the same time that another male colleague also owned a Mustang. There goes the stereotype of college professors driving Volvo’s or Saabs. Today she drives a Civic Hybrid.
Oh yeah..the 2+2 and GT/Shelby versions were bad-ass.
My first ride in a convertible, there has only been two, was in a 1965 Mustang. I was twelve when my father took us from Maryland up to Pennsylvania for a vacation and visit. A friend of his had bought a new 65 Mustang convertible for his daughter and it was 1965. White with red interior. After that all I thought was Mustang for the next 20 years.
My father had other ideas, ergo the 68 Cougar, I got at 16. However, I was always looking at Mustangs and decided to finally deal with that in 1985. A woman in San Francisco, a transplant from Houston in 1973, had a hardtop 68 for sale. Your basic Mustang. Pebble beige, 289-2V, auto, pwr sterring, drum brakes, and A/C. Options were console and hood mounted blinkers. Today one sees very, very few ordinary, basic hardtp Mustangs which were the common version back then. Either fastbacks, resto-mods, or red.
Actually, your Mustang sounds pretty well-equipped. A/C demand was growing, but still pretty rare for a Mustang in ‘68. And many were still sixes w/o power steering. The console was a nice touch and I always liked the hood mounted turn signals. Nice car – nothing basic about it. But you’re right that today most of what we see are the Mach 1’s, GT’s and 2+2’s. In reality these were greatly outnumbered by coupes like yours.
Backgrounds are so interesting —
Who can resist photo #8 —
the colorfully dressed young lady …. with her gold 65-66 Mustang.
Is that her dad’s 66 Toronado behind her? A good job of patronizing varied manufacturers
1970 Toro. The flattened out wheel arches for ’70 are the giveaway.
I’m quite surprised to see two “mature” women with 2+2 fastbacks. Somewhat shocked, actually, as that body style really was targeted to younger buyers. I can see them in a Mustang coupe, but not the 2+2. But there they are…
and in picture #1 a Beetle photo bombs the new kid on the block. Hmm, that new kid looks too sexy for my fenders.
I’d love to see a family of 4 sit on the hood of a modern car! Haha!
Almost bought an old White Mustang,great looking car just as the Ford Mustsng was
I have been a Ford man ever since my oldest brother bought a new black on black Mustang with a 289, 4 barrel Holly, Ford modified carburetor and duel exhaust. Behind that was a 4 speed manual transmission with a really cool chrome shifter on the floor. All my brothers friends had Stangs, There was a dark midnight blue metallic with black interior, an orange one which was very popular and the time, but I can’t remember the name of the color, I think it was called Poppyseed orange. There was a white with blue racing strip Shelby GT 350, with black interior, it was a super charged 289 4 speed, it was a real monster. There were a few of the square backs as we called them. Then in 1969, another friend bought a 69 Mach I with the 429, 4 barrel carburetor and duel exhaust. It was light blue metallic with black interior and it was the best-looking car I had ever seen. It had black vinyl interior with red trim on the seats and red rubber floor mats built into the carpet. It also had front power disc brakes, power steering and it even had factory air conditioning. When I graduated high school in 1972, I had just gotten my driver’s license and that summer I found a 69 Mach I the same colors as my brother’s friends. Only the one I bought for $1950. had a 351 Windsor, a 4 barrel Motorcraft 4300 series carburetor. Duel exhaust with 18 inch glass packs and those really cool quad chrome tail pipe tips, it sounded great. It had Ford’s FMX automatic transmission. It had all the same options that my brother’s friend had, including air conditioning and a non functional hood scoop with the cool amber turn indicators mounted to it, and it had 2 chrome hood pins that really finished off the look. The 69 Mustang was the only model year with quad headlights until the 1979 Fox Platform came out. I still love that Stang as much today as I ever did. My brother and I took it on several cross country road trips from Los Angeles to the east coast and everyplace in between, and it never missed a beat. As I got older, and my life changed, I joined IBM in May of 1979. I bought a black on black 1981 Mustang fastback.with Gia interior trim, and a 255 cubic inch V8, one of the very few with a factory V8. I special ordered it, and it was the only black Mustang with duel red pinstripes on the sides.I loved that cute little Mustang, but it was in no way anything like my 69. I put over 200,000 miles on it, then in 1990, I gave it to my uncle Bob when I bought a black with black leather 1990 Lincoln Mark vll LSC, but that’s another story for another time. Over the years the Ford Motor Company put out many iconic and collectable cars. More than any other manufacturer, and to this day the Mustang is still definitely one of them. I am waiting for Ford to bring us back the Thunderbird. I think they will.
It’s fun to see all the owners/passengers, etc…….I wasn’t old enough to drive in “1964-1/2,” but was very car-conscious (Ford especially), and excited by it all. My father (career Ford) explained to me that it had engines and other stuff in common with Falcon-Fairlane, but I was still smitten.
Advertising: I remember the mass-market ads (LIFE, etc.) being different from the car-magazine ads, but it was a really multi-pronged rollout. Nowadays I can go back and peek through 1960s college newspapers archived online—and see Mustang ads with their own flavor.
Back in 1966 I was impressed with Ford offering the “old people” ad—I wonder how its gentle humor would play today?
I had no clue about the lineage until after I bought my ’64 comet a few years ago (had a project one well over a decade ago that I ultimately couldn’t rescue)
Both had the 289/C4 combo. At the car shows, the mustang guys have been very helpful in assisting me.
No 429 in 1969 Mach 1….428
I’m sure the girl standing in front of the gold mustang got more looks than the car did…especially when she wore those shorts.
1967 I bought a new 1967 Yellow with black top Mustang GT Convertible 289 271 HP 4 on the floor. I installed a McCollough Supercharger. On the trip back from the 1968 Indy 500 I buried the 125 mph speedometer past 125 until the needle stopped! WHATTA CAR!!!
Why the superchgr.? Hot Rod magazine tested one that did 0-60 in 4.6 seconds! I never raced the car.