montreal ponies

IF......i highly doubt it.

Boomer

You highly doubt there'll be a 'refresh' in 2013MY?

Wager

Topnotch

I'll see your wager and raise ya

Eagle-1

It depends on what one considers a refresh. To me a refresh is the amount of change that went on from the 05' design to the 10' design. Personally I think Ford will tweak the design to include an updated front and rear clips and maybe the hood but thats about it, just to keep the car fresh for one or two model years. Historically Ford has never done this with the mustang so I'am not expecting much from this 'tweaking'.

So for those expecting a major refresh for 13'....don't hold your breath.

Twin Turbo

Yep, that's all I'm expecting. Nothing to the degree of the '09 to '10 change, just relatively subtle updates. The sort that non-Mustang enthusiasts may not even notice!

Guess the next 6-9 months will prove one who was right

Boomer

Deal

vistablue mustang

Most of what I just read in your post made my stomach turn a little......
I shudder at the thought of a Mustang designed to look like a nasty Japanese sports cars (they all look like fish/turtles). Not really found of a Euro style Mustang either, the lineage of the car is based on its American roots if you take that away you might as well not call it a Mustang. I am all for a global Ford and think taking cues from its Euro competitors for its SUV's, Sedans and small compacts is great (I really like the new Focus) but the Mustang should only be a global platform in terms of where its sold not in style.

I am sure many Classic car collectors in EU/UK would agree with this. I seem to remember having a conversation with KC (Ford Parts seller) a few years back, during which he said he felt that after 05's Ford had only one good Mustang design left before they screwed it up, if most of what was posted above were true then so was his prediction (imo)

Automagically

Goodbye to Mustang posers, it's going to be a new world for the Mustang. Oh well, we all know what the Aussies are capable of. Now to Ford N.A., you do remember that the Mustang is all American, and is completely adored by the world over for it's brash American style. Just because you have to make cars for the world doesn't mean that the world won't love a cocky Mustang.

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...110309969/1164

Twin Turbo

Interesting......but you potentially don't have anything to worry about. I was at one of the "Mustang clinics" mentioned in that article when it was held in London. I was there with about half a dozen Mustang owners (mainly s197 owners) and we pretty much, to a man, told them (there was a snr Marketing manager for Mustang there too) NOT to forget what makes a Mustang a Mustang - V8, RWD, classic 60's inspired styling, the noise, getting the rear end out without too many nannying electronics trying to stop you, etc etc.

Picking from a bunch of photos of men and animals and being asked which "represented" Mustang was a bit weird, but wild horses and Steve McQueen were definately the most popular choices

They even asked what sort of engine we'd want in Europe. We told them to forget about diesels and the very least we'd want is a 5-cylinder (think Focus ST)....but we'd only ever buy a Mustang with a V8.

In the studio was a 2010 V6 (the only 2010 they could get at the time as this was about a year ago), an Audi A5 coupe and a Nissan 370z. Again, we only had eyes for the Mustang and were able to feedback on what we liked (front end/profile/hips/interior) and what we didn't (rear end and 4x4 stance).

I know we were only a small group, but if they listened to us, we'll get a very cool new Mustang in 2014/15

Automagically

I really don't worry that much honestly. I just don't want to see people loose interest in the Mustang just because it's shifting gears to a global platform. The reason I harped on the heritage is that I loved the GTO but not as a GTO. Should have just been a G8 Coupe and I would have thought worlds of the car. It wasn't a GTO but sometimes I think that car leaves a bad taste in the mouth of Mustang owners when you say global platform.

rhumb

I wouldn't necessarily worry too much either, and more likely, the Mustang will end up significantly the better for it, assuming its done correctly.

Yes, it could be done very badly too, ending up a rather bland stew -- an incoherent "must have" list cobbled together by the marketing department, forced upon an overly compliant engineering department that, rather than making a cohesive whole simply puts it all in the pot to stew (think just about any Toyota). This all-to-common approach, consensus taken to its absurd end in order to do nothing wrong generally results in a car that does little truly right, much less something that has, gasp, genuine character.

I think getting broader input is fine, a great idea even -- don't want to get insular, myopic and provincial -- but what's important is how that input is incorporated into the car itself. I think a small development group, a design skunk works if you will, with the authority to use said "outside" inputs as they see fit, can result in a Mustang that is superior and even more characterful than if done just the U.S. Indeed, I think the 2010+ Stang has gotten a bit more muddled, design-wise, relative to the cleaner, crisper and more coherent 2005-09 version and the 2010 design was, I presume, a purely U.S. effort. So again, it isn't necessarily the input a design team gets, or even where that input comes from, but rather, how they use it to craft the next Stang.

Of course, the Stang must reflect a distinctly American character, but it seems the foreigners are even more ardent about that than us local yokels.

Moosetang

I'm not worried. HTT was born in Vietnam and his work on the 'Stang was quite excellent. if Mustang fans around the world are picking McQueen as their person who represents the Mustang, they're OK in my book.

In related news: Wes and B2 are out with info today .

Topnotch

[QUOTE/]Re: Confirmed: The RWD Ford Falcon is Dead!
At the core of it, the Mustang is simply too valuable a brand name to limit essentially to North America. With a small diesel and turbocharged engines, along with a more diminutive footprint, it could be a very hot seller in Europe and other places.

So, engineering the Mustang for global sale opens the doors for a lot of other product development opportunities, both locally built where appropriate, and exported from Michigan.[/QUOTE]

bob

IMO, people look alot at GM's use of global platforms and it seems to equal lots of added weight, ergo Mustang guys would be nervous hearing about a Mustang based on a global chassis.

Really though, you have to look at what global chassis Ford is going to use? If Ford says something along the lines of; " The X-XXX global chasiss will underpin their unitized SUV, CUV, Full size and mid size cars" I'd be really worried. If Ford says; "The X-XXX global chassis is going to underpin the Mustang and similar sized cars" there is less to worry about.

The Camaro's problem is twofold - it was based on a full-sized car and GM wanted to maintain the Camaro's show car image. The former could not be scaled down without alot of added cost and significant re-engineering (to the point of just developing a whole new chassis, as it stands, the Camaro is considered ZETA-II) and the slavish adherence to the show car dictated added metal to maintain stiffness.

On another note, The next gen Mustang needs to really get here fast, the current car has run its course with the public at large. This month alone, Camaro nearly outsold Mustang 2:1

Itravelalot

If the sales trend continues to greatly favor the Crapmero, then could Ford hypothetically speed up the redesign from the possible 2015MY to a sure 2014MY? A few small tweaks in 2013 will not be enough to convince enough people that it is a fresh design.

I do not think sales should continue to be this imalanced, but there is a chance that Chevy will continue to dominate sales enough to warrant a speed up in the release of the new design. There are a lot of buyers who just feel that the Mustang design is too stale. I was honestly one, until I saw how well the craftsmanship of the Mustang just blew away the Camaro. The visibility and the weight of the Camaro are bad too, but the design is newer and it will always be newer until the redesign comes.

GTJOHN

I wouldn't worry about Camaro sales. The Camaro is making up for lost time.

I think the Mustang is doing well, considering all the cars they sold during the first five years of the re-design(2005-2009).

Boomer

Its tough to say how long the newness of the Camaro will last.
Its only in its 2nd year since a 7 year hiatus.
I think we sorta predicted about 2-3 MYs for that to happen.
Especially since they are dragging out the models over 3 MYs.

The Mustang will continue to change over the next couple years into the redesign.
I wouldn't want them to rush the redesign, however I do see enough changes to keep customers interested enough to trade up or come onboard.

Myself I'm waiting till the next design, but it'll be even tougher to not hop on in the next year moreso than when the 5L came out in '11.

rhumb

The sports coupe market, of which the pony cars are a subset, is a fickle one, especially now with so many capable players. Ford in the past had tended to let its sports coupe fruit whither on the vine, hanging on to old platforms too long (Fox chassis Stangs) or not updated a chassis enough (2nd Gen Probe, FWD Cougar) to keep them competitive, even if they all were well received initially.

Stylistic changes will help, a little, but in this more discerning market, the meat itself's gotta be kept fresh and the platform can't reach museum status while still in production. Ford got away with some of this, more or less, in the past due to less competitive situations which simply don't exist today.

I don't expect Chevy to sit on its laurels nor does Dodge seem to be throwing in any towels either. Both those current cars are stuck with rather overly large full-sized platforms to their detriment, but both will likely be replaced by smaller, tighter, tauter platforms around the 2015 neighborhood, right along with the NextStang.

One ought not to either forget or ignore Hyundai either coming out with a left field V8 pony car in the next couple years either. They've basically got all the necessary parts -- excellent RWD chassis and an excellent 5.0 V8 -- sitting on their shelves just begging to be lashed together. As of late too, Hyundai is aggressively breaking out of its bargain-basement, follow-the-pack mentality and coming up with some top notch products, yet still at excellent value/price points.

Refreshingly, in the past couple of years, Ford has shown every indication of shedding this lackadaisical attitude with aggressive and very substantive continuing development of the Mustang. The '10 mid-run platform refresh was fairly extensive while '11 brought in not one, but two VERY impressive new motors along with accompanying drivetrain and chassis upgrades. This seems to be continuing into '12 with the Boss, which is anything but your typical SE cosmetic package.

I could excuse Ford for slowing the pace a touch on the current platform for the next year or two in order to focus resources on the NextStang, which will likely be a heavily modified version of the current platform at the least but more likely to be a fairly clean sheet design by all rumors. I'm sure they'd love to roll out the production NextStang for the 50th anniversary in 2014 as a 2015 model year. That might allow a bit of a styling refresh in '13 (released mid '12), hopefully cleaning up the lumpy, droopy rear at least.

Topnotch

We already know what Australia thinks....
https://themustangsource.com/f806/20...4/#post5923964

Boomer

I've always liked the blackout sunken panel harkening back to the earlier stangs.
(like the Aussie and BMs renders)