THRUST_

I guess I wasn't really thinking about the fleet average MPG. What percentage of ford vehicles are actually mustangs anyway?

Would increasing the ratio of GTs to V6s by only a small amount make a whole lot of difference in the fleet average?

Giddyup

I wonder if Gas Prices will play a significant role in whether the Camaro or Challenger goes from concept to production......

V10

Ford sells about 3.2 million vehicles in the US per year but only sells 45,000 Mustang GTs per year. The Mustang GT represents less than 1.5% of Ford's total sales.

Selling another 5,000 or even 10,000 Mustang GTs per year would have a negligible effect on Ford's CAFE fleet average.

Ford is making too many V6 Mustangs because they are using historical Mustang sales data. The screwup is that Ford used to sell a lot of SN-95 Mustangs to fleet customers like rental companies. With the S197 Mustang Ford has reduced fleet sales but has never properly adjusted the V6 - GT production ratio to reflect retail sales.

Giddyup

Good reading Brad....Thanks for the info

nonsensez9

http://www.chevrolet.com/performance/

GM has a pretty good track record for bringing the concept cars to market after they put them up on the web page. SSR, GTO, and Solstice come to mind, but the 1000hp Caddy didn't make it to market. 3 out of 4 is a pretty good track record. If they tone down that bumper a bit it'll be a nice car.

Thunder Road

Chevy has an oppertunity to build a 500 hp Camaro and sell it for 40K. Wouldnt have any competition from Ford as the Shelbys will rarely see the light of day.

Mustangfreak

Negative, August 18th 2002 was the last production day for the F Body.

vistablue mustang

Thats me in a nutshell, I am glad Ford makes a V-6 it's a great platform and for people like me (Mustang nut, but still in College) it allows me to have a Mustang. GM though has always lacked foresight, hense why the Camaro is not around and why they are in such financial trouble. Dodge on the other hand has had some hits in their new line up(Magnum, Chrysler 300, and to an extent the Charger) so financially they seem more likely to pull the trigger on a new car then GM.

CatmanJJ

Interesting, Dodge and GM are definilty playing catchup to the Mustang again.

rhumb

Both GM and DC have some nice V6s for the bulk/secretary models, which I'm sure they'll put into their respective pony cars, so I hope HTT doesn't take too much comfort on that consideration. And they both certainly each have a rich vein of V8s to mine for the real enthusiast versions too, so I wouldn't derive much comfort there either. And both appear as if they might have more sophisticated IRS chassis too, so I'd be stocking up on some Ambien if I were HTT.

The only real comforts I might find are that the Stang might be a bit cheaper given its more rudimentary chassis, though DC/GM using shared platforms with other high volume models, vs. the Mustang's bespoke S197 chassis, might negate that advantage in large part. And the other comfort might be that the Challenger is looking to be even bigger and pudgier than the none-too-svelte Stang.

And of course, all this really depends on how well the final products are executed. DC has a pretty strong record of late while GM is a bit hit or miss on this account, though the Soltice/Sky and Vette show its potential. And Ford does have a big head start and a few rabbits (IRS, 3.5 V6, 5.4 V8) it could pull out of its hat for a bit more Mustang magic to counter the upcoming competition.