Here is an interesting story about introduction of 1987 Mustang that some of you may not know.



The debut of the 1987 Mustang was greeted with much applause because the GT finally got a body update that reflected the performance potential under the hood. But it also was a critical time of change.

The automotive industry was rapidly moving away from rear-wheel-drive vehicles, especially in smaller cars like the Mustang, in favor of front-wheel-drive. The advantage of front-wheel-drive was that it could be better packaged in small cars and generally was lighter than a similar car with rear-wheel-drive. Also, the Japanese invasion of the American marketplace was going at full throttle, and the Japanese were the masters of front-wheel-drive.

And with fears - unfounded fears, as it turned out - that gasoline price prices would soon hit $2.50 a gallon, small, front-wheel-drive performance cars were starting to take over the marketplace. Ford and other U.S. manugacturers were trying to cope.

Ford's Japanese partner, Mazda, began building front-wheel-drive sedans at a Michigan assembly plant, and Ford was exploring ways to streamline its product line by finding multiple uses for single chassis platforms.

That started Ford down the road of looking at building a front-wheel-dirve Mustang of the Mazda 626 platform. No V8 would be available for this platform, limiting the all-new Mustang to a V6 and a four-cylinders engine. The idea was to debut the new Mustang as a 1989 model.

Although Ford though this was a good idea, Mustang fans didn't. The idea of a Japanese-bred, front-wheel-drive Mustang was just plain wrong to them. A Mustang should be rear-wheel-drive and have a V8 on the option list.

A letter-writting campaign in 1988, spurred on by most of the car magazines conviced Ford that a front-wheel-drive Mustang would not be looked upon favorably. But what to do with the car that was already in the production stages?

In 1989, Ford unveiled the Probe, a variant of the Mazda MX 6 sports coupe. Although some ridiculed the name - Ford though the name inspired thoughts of space, while most other thought of uncomfortable medical procedures - the Ford Probe wasan initial market success.



So, I guess that now you know why the name of this topic is Ford Mustang = Ford Probe.

 

This as a Mustang would be just wrong.

 

The Maztang!

 

Had it not been for a letter writing campaign to Ford the Probe would have been the Mustang.

 

not that there is anything wrong with the probe, its still a cool car

 

the probe is a good car, no doubt

but it there is no way it could ever be a mustang..

I bet ford does not regret changing its mind at all..

 

No, they don't regret changing their mind. They ended up with two very good selling sporty cars for a few years.

And, agreed, the probe wasn't bad ... It just wasn't ever a Mustang (or Mustang like).

 

I wonder if the VP that suggested the mustang be FWD was canned. I hope he was.