The Ford Mustang: An American Icon, but why?

When you think of something that could be an American icon, you may think of something like apple pie, baseball, or even hot dogs. You may not think of a car as an icon or legend, but if people think of the Ford Mustang, they think of it as one of the biggest American icons, but why is that? How could a car be an icon of a whole country? Why would the Mustang be a good contender and not some other car? Why would anybody even care?

First of all the Mustang is not a very good car to drive. It is only good at going fast in a straight line. It can't go around a corner fast without crashing into a tree. It only looked good twice. The first time was when it first rolled off the Ford assembly line in 1964 and the second time as in 2005 when Ford redesigned it to look like it did in '64. Ford called it reto-futurism. So if it's not that great of a car to drive, why do people love it?

In the 1950s the American car makers made cars for just one person, dad. Ford finally woke up in 1957 and saw something coming, the baby boom. What they woke up to was that America was getting younger and richer. So in '64 they were ready for the boom, with the Mustang. It helped that it was cheap, $2,300, for a new muscle car! It was for everybody too, not just for dad. You could also just rent one for about $17 a day and race it. It also was one of the first cars with an options list. The Mustang wasn't designed for the driver, it was designed by the driver.

The Mustang shared components that other Ford models had. The interior, chassis, suspension, and drivetrain came from the Falcon and Fairlane. This helped keep the cost down. It also helped dealers get the Mustang in their showroom without having to spend a load of money on new parts. Of course, sharing parts with another car doesn't mean that it will drive well.

Ford projected that they would sell less than 100,000 Mustangs in the first year. However, they sold over 300,000 in the first year. No other car in the world has ever sold faster. A record the Ford still holds to this day. In the first eighteen months, more than one million Mustangs were built.

Then in 1974 it all went down hill. Ford came up with a smaller fuel-efficient car for '74. The new Mustang was based on the Pinto, need I say more? Another problem was the U.S. emission and safety regulations. The new car was heavier, because the regulations. It also came as a hatchback, which was a mistake.

Then in 1979 to 1993 we saw the the bad 80s looks on the Mustang. The interior was styled to accommodate four people in comfort. The car almost became a front-wheel drive model, based on the Mazda MX-6. The Mustang had bad slumping sales, because of high gas prices in the early 80s. The MX-6 became the Ford Probe.

1994 to 2004 we saw a new look for the Mustang. The first major redesign for fifteen years. The base model came with a V8 that only had 145bhp. Ford started to use their New Edge styling theme with sharper contours, larger wheel arches, and creases in it's bodywork. This New Edge styling combined arcs and other features, creating "surface tension by adding creases to soft aerodynamic shapes." This new Mustang came as the base, Bullitt, Mach 1, and Cobra.

Finally in 2005 Ford redesigned the Mustang to look like the fastback Mustang of the late '60s. For '05 to '09, the base model had 210bhp. A new option for the '09 Mustang was a $1,995 glass roof. The new '10 models are redesigned with reduced drag coefficient of 4%. Base cars has a 315bhp engine. Other new features included new spring rates, dampers, traction control system standard on all models.

The Mustang was the first car to win the Tiffany Gold Medal for excellence in American design in 1965. It was on Car and Driver's Ten Best list in '83, '87, '88, '05, and '11. It won the Motor Trend Car of the Year award in '74 and '94. In '05 it won the Canadian Car of the Year award.

The Ford Mustang is an American icon, because it was first made for the American environment in the late 50s early 60s. Ford could see the that there was a change coming to the U.S. and knew that they had to change with it. The customer could modify the car anyway they want to. When other car makers made cars for your dad, Ford made a car for everybody. If you compare it to other cars similar, it's not as good a car.

The 60s was a party. The Beach Boys brought the music, the mexicans brought the smokes, Mary Quant brought the clothes, and Ford brought the car. There were riots outside of Ford dealerships, people would crowd around the windows just to get a peek of Ford's new creation. So is it an American icon? Well it changed the world, mobilized a generation, redirected the way we thought about cars. So I would say so, yes.