Times have changed and you must change with the times. People wanted big power and FORD gave them that for the least amount of $ around. With that power people say we want it to handle and do they gave us the boss. Now it's time for some bigger fish to fry. Sure they should always have a token car with which the average person can drive but why limit yourself, FORD has no supercar why not be more like Porsche who has a 50k car and goes to 250k+ . With ford it could be 25k - 150k for the same performance.

 

Im all for the super car Mustang.

 

Im all for giving what the people want. If there is a market out there for building a 900 hp super mustang cobra, then I say rock out. I just hope that Ford still sticks with the basic roots of why most people love and buy the pony cars. They were affordable hot sports cars that most working class Americans could purchase. I hope Ford doesn't raise the design to where they have to charge 35 to 40 k for a base sixer model. Many years ago in the 90's Nissan did the very same thing with there 300 z and the sales took a huge nose dive. Nissan priced the base 300 Z way to high and they didn't sell.

 

I personally think the base model is already a bit too pricey- i'm pretty sure the margins on mustangs are huge compared to other models...just wish they had a basic entry level car that a young working person could get- like the original mustangs that sold like 2 million units in a year and a half

 

How many people buy a totally stripped down V6 model? The take rate is probably less than 1%. They make the bulk of their sales on the Premium trim cars.

 

Well I did get the spoiler package and automatic. Lol. Notch above stripped down. Lol

 

I'm pretty happy with where the Mustang is priced right now. I wouldn't want to see it move significantly up-market or down-market. I don't think Ford is going to try to raise the Mustang into the Corvette's price range, since the Corvette sells in much smaller numbers.

Ford probably should have a cheaper performance car, but I wouldn't recommend getting there by making a cheap stripper Mustang. I'd rather see Ford start with the Focus or Fiesta chassis, make a sleek 3-door coupe body, give it an EcoBoost 4 that will get it from 0-60 in about 6 seconds, and call it the Probe. Then you've got a zippy car that you can sell for less than the V6 Mustang, without diminishing the Mustang name by making an el-cheapo edition.

 

I agree with Randy, that there is room in the Ford lineup for a performance car somewhat below and also parallel to the Mustang. I neo Probe/Capri based off of the Fiesta or Focus chassis would fit the bill, with the aforementioned Ecoboost motor in 1.6 and/or 2.0 guises in FWD and possibly AWD configurations.

This car would be both below the Mustang in the overall pricing structure, taking the place of stripper Stangs, but also somewhat parallel to the Mustang in its higher performance AWD varients which would appeal to a somewhat different market demographic than the big-motor RWD Stang.

I'm not sure the Mustang would move too much upmarket, per se, but rather eliminate the down-market stripper version that somewhat dilute the Mustang's performance car cache. A few aspects of the Stang would have to be improved to make it viable for world markets, including better interior design and materials and IRS, to name two.

If Ford were compelled to offer a more upmarket Mustang, then do that variant as a Mercury Cougar as Mercury is desperate for any car with a bit of soul to it.

 

FYI Rhumb ! Ford killed off it's Mercury brand this past summer.. With that said, if there were to be a new Cougar or Capri ? It would end up on the Lincoln platform which is highly very unlikely..

 

Oops, yeah, Lincoln, that's it, Lincoln! :-)

My sentiment is still the same though, and Lincoln more than the late Mercury brand could use a youth/performance injection. My guess is that the next Mustang platform, rather than being a bespoke platform limited just to the Mustang, will under gird a number of RWD Ford vehicles and Lincoln would be an obvious beneficiary of this platform sharing, be it a two door coupe of four door sedan (or five door wagon, ala Cadillac?).

 

Wih all this talk of going upscale (and assuming this guy actually saw anything at all) I wonder if it's possible that this guy actually saw a Lincoln coupe of some sort. There's been rumors for a while that Lincoln is getting a Mustang-based coupe and being "upscale" would make way more sense for a Lincoln product. If you want an upscale Mustang, just buy a Lincoln MKStang, or whatever they'll call it...

 

The Lincoln Mark VII was built on the FOX platform, it would be neat to have a 2016 Mark IX that shares the next gen Mustang platform...but would it sell?

 

Most people don't even know what platform the 2015 Mustang will be built on, so it's hard to speculate on what could stem from that.

 

Some interesting thoughts there, guys. Is it time for Lincoln to bring back the personal luxury coupe? Perhaps. It would have the field pretty much to itself. There is no Cadillac El Dorado anymore, nor a Buick Riviera. The larger German coupes are very expensive, so maybe there's a profitable niche to be exploited there.

Lincoln could also use a stretched version of the the next-gen Mustang to make a high-performance sport sedan. Or use a shortened version to make a 2-seat luxury/sports car. If Ford is developing a whole new chassis and not just tweaking the current one, they are very likely going to have more than one model using it. The Mustang alone doesn't sell enough volume to justify a totally unique chassis.

I'm not one of those who think that Lincoln needs to follow Cadillac and convert their entire fleet to RWD, but they ought to have one or two RWD units, even if they are lower-volume "specialty" vehicles.

 

Rumors, rumors... Have to love the creativity though! I will love to see what the 2015 will look like, but for now I'm enjoying watching 11s-13s and wishing one day, after the kids move out (hopefully), I can enjoy one of my own. In the mean time, I'll be asking for rides in them.

Deysha

 

I think I know what 2011 Kona Blue,GT1000, and ford4v429 were getting at. I think they were hoping Ford would build a less expensive version of the Mustang GT. I am sure there would be a big maket for a less expensive V8 powered Mustang like the LX Mustang. I still have two 5.0 liter Mustang LX cars and enjoy driving them just because they are so basic. The LX Mustang was a car that younger people could afford. Ford could offer an LX type Mustang that would have almost as much horsepower as the GT but be less expensive to purchase. Right now a person needs to have a pretty good job to afford a GT and up Mustang.

 

Amen brother

 

Larry, specifically what would you remove from the non-Premium GT to reduce cost? Air conditioning? Cruise control? Fog lamps? ABS? You're willing to give up a few horsepower, but still want the V8. What would you remove from the engine that would bring the cost down? Headers? Dual exhaust? Would people want a V8 Mustang that had the wheels, tires, or brakes from the V6? They could remove power windows and put in cranks but would that really save money over just building all the doors the same? The old 5-speed manual transmission might have cost less than the new 6-speed, but would it be enough cheaper to justify having three different manual transmissions for the Mustang line?

I'm not trying to bust your chops but I've read this suggestion in various threads before, and I've never seen anybody give specifics on what should be removed to bring the cost down.

 

On a similar note, many criticised the '12 Boss for it's lack of toys. The Boss........a track-orientated Mustang............and now the '13 has addressed this by offering those toys.

I don't think we'll be seeing a stripper GT any time soon.

 

Boy, don't let the boss owners on this site read this, they will bite your head off. Those boss folks are a different bread of pony. Lol