ehh, I cant take the 1964 till 2014 statement seriously.
you telling me the 2015 does not fit in with your "what mustang is" , and the the whole dark ages that contained all the fox, and new edge cars do?
I can understand 1964-1973 and 2005-2014 all have same style cues, but saying the S550 is too far from the mustang recipe, while including the Fox body cars which are on the other side of what a mustang "is" aka, 1960s cues.

 

As for the new one not my cup of tea. But it was not meant for me at 48 years of age. They are after younger buyers. The ones who will carry the brand for the next 50 years. I dont think they hit the mark with the 15 with them. But they will in the near future. I'm happy to hand the baton to the younger guys. After all ford was kind enough to provide me with the Mustang of my dreams in both looks and performance. I'll stick with my 11 and smile all the way into the future with it.


This sums it up well for me... at 46, the 2015 Mustang misses the mark for me as well (not surprising, since I've spent 2 years and thou$ands restoring a 1965 Mustang). Every time I see one, the word that comes to mind is "meh." What concerns me is this is the same reaction my 20 year old son- and his friends- seem to have as well!

Personally, I hope Ford sells a ton of 2015s, because I want to see the Mustang last forever. However, Ford seems to have been attacked by the "trying to please everyone = actually pleasing no one" bug. IMO, the S550 isn't neither radical enough to excite the 20 something nor retro enough to excite the 40 something. Hopefully, someone at Ford grows a pair and takes the Mustang in a definite direction in the immediate future. Fortunately, 400+ hp will always talk to someone out there!

For now, the S197 is the finest Mustang ever built- its an awesome blend of performance and American muscle-car style!

 

For me personally I like everything about the 2015 except the head on view of the front end. It just doesn't quite crab me. The rest of the car I think is fantastic looking. Now with respect to the front end I was discussing it with an uncle of mine who is also a big car enthusiast the other night and we noticed something just by chance.



Okay now take notice of how wide the grill opening is on this new car. Now look up at the hood. See how the outside hood lines come down and meet the upper corners of the grill opening? Now take a look a this next car.



Alright, now see how the corners of this grill have in essence been "cropped" by the placement of those horizontal inserts? They also sort of flow with the hood lines. Now, imagine if you will that the little corner section that grill is filled in with body color. I have zero Photoshop skills or I would do this myself instead of just describing it. At any rate, the end result is a slightly more narrow grill opening. This would also allow you to move the headlamp assemblies further inboard on the front end instead of having them pushed so far to the edges as they are now. The "cropped" opening would also flow better with the hood lines above. I personally think that this would really clean up the front end design and give it a look that would have broader appeal. Or maybe I'm out in left field who knows. lol

 

I really like the 15 but those wheels are hideous ^^

 

My car has been paid off since before it was a year old. I'd rather spend $7k on the conversion than $40k on a 2015 GT.

 

I think I understand the logic here, and of course the value is different in everyone's eyes. To take the financing out of the question... if the car was $35k new, would I have paid $7k for an "IRS package"? Not sure I'd bite. Maybe you would have.

I also kind of feel that the solid rear axle adds a little to the retroness of the car, if that's your thing. It's sort of mine.

 

Let me be more specific for you. I am a fan of the 1964 1/2 to the 1973 model and the 2005-2009 models that bear a similarity to the 1969-70 editions. The 2015 while having some styling cues of previous generations does nothing for me, it looks way to European. If it suits your fancy that's great but I would not go out and buy it. I was not to impressed with the shrunken headlights and front end of the 2010-2014 models and their redesigned tail end but I would buy one of them over a 2015. To each their own.

 

Yeah, agreed. I have to admit that I didn't become interested in Mustangs again until the Coyote came out. I was bummed to find out they'd done a body redesign for the same reasons you mentioned. I have (literally) the same objections to the 2015 design. However, I came around on the 2014, so maybe with a little time I'll come to appreciate the 2015. I have to admit the GT350 is appealing in every way except the 2015 front and back design.

 

Ditto. I'm 34 and when I look at a 2015 I also think "eh". I look at my 2014 and I think "YES!" I also feel the S550 missed a mark on exterior design.

 

I agree with Varilux's post that those 400 plus ponies will "always talk to someone out there". Amen to that. I think 400 is the magic number. Couple that with the outstanding styling of the 2011 through 2014s and you have an important car that will be highly valued down the road. Also, production numbers are relatively low in those years, which prompted the redesign in the first place, so I think future values will be high.

 

I like the new platform. I am seriously considering a GT350. All versions (except the mustang II) have their pros and cons.

I am 47.

 

Well I think we should keep in mind that while it is easy to point out the short comings of the Mustang II by modern day standards the reality is that in 1974 it is exactly what people wanted. Mustang had become a large bloated beast by 1971 and many wanted the car to return to its original idea of a small and lightweight car. The 74 Mustang did this and in point of fact it was the 6th best selling Mustang of all time at nearly 300 thousand units. In addition it offered better handling than previous generations and while that better handling wouldn't be considered anything impressive by today's standards, in 1974 it was a dramatic improvement. I have personally seen a few owners of first generation Mustangs that have modified their car to use the front end from a Mustang II thus allowing them to remove the engine bay shock towers. The end result was not only better handling but also more room in the engine bay for big block motors.

While we tend to look at the Mustang II and the Fox Body Mustang as the dark ages of the car we should keep in mind that during that time people didn't exactly see it that way. In 1979 the first Fox Body Mustang hit the streets and Ford sold 370 thousand Mustangs that year. These are sales numbers that dwarf anything we see today even though the modern car is vastly improved. Having grown up in the 1980's I don't recall anyone regarding the Mustang as some sort of unwanted junk heap. Quite the opposite in fact, there were countless numbers of young guys who really liked the car and dreamed of being able to buy a 5.0 GT. It was a time when two door coupes were far more popular and far more common place on American roads than they are today. It was a time when even super stars like Arnold were driving the Mustang on the big screen in movies like Twins.

If anything I regard the current era as the dark ages for cars like the Mustang. We live in a time when everyone just wants to run out and buy some boring appliance car from Toyota or Honda. Either that or they just want a big old boring pickup truck or SUV. I don't have anything against a good truck mind you and they come in handy from time to time. But for daily driving they are just about as boring as can be. Yet these are the preferred vehicles of the day while Mustang struggles to break 100K units a year. I just have to wonder if the general public even has a clue what they are missing out on by not buying these cars and yet I'm almost glad they don't. Increased demand would mean increased output at the factory level and that generally ends up meaning less quality control. That's how we end up with cars that live at the dealership to be fixed. Still it's a shame that the general public regards two door sports coupe as some sort of albatross to be avoided and prefer instead to drive vehicles that in my opinion tend to induce fits of narcolepsy.

 

well said.

 

 

Worthy reading.

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...40-years-later

 

Thanks MJJ, but again that is an article that was written only last year and looks at the Mustang II through the rose tinted glasses of 40 years of automotive history between then and now. In 1974 the Mustang II was Car of the Year and received a lot of accolades in the press. It sold well and people liked it. I know a lot of people point out that it's based on the Pinto chassis and what a terrible car the Pinto was. Keep in mind that during the early to mid 70's the Pinto and by extension the Mustang II was not yet regarded with the disdain and scorn that we look at them today. Furthermore it was not at all out of the ordinary for Ford to base the Mustang on an existing chassis. It wasn't until 2005 that the Mustang got a chassis that was "its own" chassis so to speak and even then it was a modified variant of the chassis that was once under the Lincoln LS.

Mind you I'm not trying to make the case that the Mustang II is some sort of great car. The only way that I would even consider one is in the King Cobra trim and even then I would restomod the crap out of it to address all the many short comings that car clearly has. But in its day it was a popular car and was not looked at with the critical view that we have of the car today.

Ford has claimed that if not for the Mustang II we would not be celebrating the Mustangs 50th anniversary. Perhaps that is true but I'm also remembering that it was Ford who wanted to turn the Mustang into a front wheel drive car that later became the Probe. Now that, in my opinion, almost surely would have meant that we would not now have a 50th anniversary car.

 

Agree!!!

 

I grew up during the Mustang II heyday. I never liked it nor did any of my friends. The only positive thoughts were Farrah Fawcett cruising around in the white and blue cobra!

I recognize its contributions to corporate but I still don't find any redeeming value to the car itself. Just one man's opinion.

 

The '74 to '93 Mustang were essentially a response to high oil prices and supposed oil shortages which we now know were bull. The rest of your story though is basically on target. I had an '84 V6 and really liked it until a family came along.

 

Yes the Mustang II was in part a response to the oil crisis of the 70's. It was also in part a response to the public demand for the car to return to its roots of being a small and lightweight sports coupe. In point of fact however the Fox Body car didn't really end in 1993. Remember that Ford wanted to turn the Mustang into a front wheel drive car around that time and there was a tremendous uproar from Mustang enthusiasts. As a result they didn't really have a rear wheel drive chassis ready to go for the 1994 model year. So they kept using the chassis that had underpinned the Fox Mustangs, just updated slightly. That Mustang was really just a Ford Fairmont chassis. So in essence the Fox Body Mustang was from 1979 to 2004.