New Ford Mustang set for world debut

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7 Jun, 2011 1:17pm Sam Hardy

Ford to bring legendary muscle car to UK showrooms for first time, dealers already being briefed ahead of its arrival

A big slice of America is crossing the Atlantic: the Mustang is heading to UK showrooms, Auto Express can reveal. To coincide with the muscle car’s 50th anniversary in 2014, Ford will launch it across the world, and in right-hand drive for the first time.

Sources have revealed that dealers are being told to prepare for its arrival. The newcomer will sit at the top of the range alongside regular models such as the Fiesta and Focus in dealerships. It will be the most European-friendly version of the coupé ever – but will still be a proper Mustang, with V8s for the fastest models.

The company’s ‘One Ford’ strategy is behind the Mustang’s migration. To cut costs and reduce the number of models (and platforms) the firm makes globally, the all-new model will be a ‘world car’, sold in different markets virtually unchanged.

The Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo already follow this approach, and it means there is a business case for producing right-hand-drive Mustangs in the States and shipping them to Europe. But the UK won’t be the only right-hand-drive market the car is offered in; Australia and Japan will take the car, too.

An insider revealed: “The design studios in Europe and Australia are working on it, as well as those in America. It will be smaller and closer in spirit to the original 1964 Mustang.”

Our illustrations give you a good idea of how the new ‘pony’ car will look. It’s leaner and ever so slightly smaller, but still very mean, and packs all the visual aggression for which the legendary model has been famous. This includes recessed headlamps, a traditional C-pillar and triple lens tail-lights.

Yet while it harks back to Sixties Mustangs, the new car will be the most technically advanced version ever. It will be far lighter than the current model, for improved fuel efficiency and reduced CO2 emissions.

Plus, for the first time, it’s set to feature independent rear suspension. As on the Chevrolet Camaro, this set-up replaces the decades-old live rear axle of the current car, and should mean better ride comfort and traction.

Power will come from a new 2.5-litre four-cylinder EcoBoost turbo with around 300bhp, while a range-topping 500bhp 5.4-litre V8 will be available, too. Six-speed manual and auto transmissions are likely to be offered with torque vectoring to keep the performance in check, while the handling is expected to be tuned by Jost Capito and his team at Ford’s Global Performance Vehicles arm.

As well as upping quality under the skin, Ford will have to pay attention to the materials used inside – current models fall behind their European rivals in terms of fit and finish. The move to make the Mustang a world car will be controversial.

Bosses will need to tread carefully so as not to alienate the model’s huge fan base – nearly 75,000 examples were sold in the US in 2010 – and still appeal to discerning UK buyers used to the BMW 3-Series Coupé and Audi A5.

But with Vauxhall’s VXR8, and the Monaro before it, proving that there’s room for powerful muscle cars in the line-up of a mainstream maker, Ford will be confident of success.

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Submitted by johnbryansfontaine on Wed, 2011-06-08 22:42.

Hello Ford:

IMHO, This Mustang design for 2014 looks fantastic, please don't change anything between now and then.

Submitted by snappyuk on Thu, 2011-06-09 12:20.

The addition of independent rear suspension and the adoption of softer-feel plastics and a higher-quality interior will give Ford the excuse to drive up the price in the UK and Europe.
Independent importers can sell the current 5.0 GT for about £35k, I'd expect the equivalent new car to be the wrong side of £40k.

Submitted by craiglife on Thu, 2011-06-09 14:06.

At last Ford gets the modern Mustang right. So what if the price is the wrong side of 40k, if a Mini can sell for >30k in the UK this car has to be great value. 500 horses packed into a lean looking machine like this. Great.

Submitted by lairdfp on Thu, 2011-06-09 16:28.

Good to see Ford appealing to our emotions with a powerful, attractive car. Makes a nice change from all the me-too stuff out there.

Submitted by blinkster on Thu, 2011-06-09 20:43.

The 2.5 will appeal to wannabes only ,probably 2% of the market . The 305ci. is the answer with 415HP right now ; just wait till the supercharged Shelby Cobra arrives . The Mustang is a niche car (coupe) that can be a daily driver but will appeal to the younger or older market looking for a "fun" or "chick" catching car. As to fit and finish the Mustang rates as well as the bottom line bmw's and audi's and in general the layout and materials look much better than the European counterparts at mega dollars below the price.

Submitted by Kwashi on Thu, 2011-06-09 20:44.

If it looks like this, handles like a Euro Ford, and yet kicks like an American horse, then Ford will have a winner for both sides of the Atlantic. Even other markets would want one. And rear wheel drive too! A dream replacement for the Ford Sierra, yet up market enough, without alienating the Americans and budget buyers! A real Ford in other words! why not in 2012? We cant wait!

Submitted by PeterJK on Thu, 2011-06-09 21:21.

Does this car remind you of anything? Mitsubishi 3000 GT ? Something in it does to me. Having said that , I have to agree that it is in a difficult place pricewise. For real petrolheads it will have to compete with Holden big V8's /Manaro ect but having said that they make the Mini silly stupid Expensive. If it sounds like a Holden and Ford stick to the original principal of "Everyone can have one" then it will succeed. But like comments above I expect Ford will get greedy in Europe and Milk the Mustang name for all it is worth with silly prices to go with it. Instead of using it to promote all the other models worldwide and hence lifting sales in general. It was supposed to be cheap muscle even at the top end with V8's across the range that fitted into all price brackets. I think the nearest that has been achieved here so far was the Broadspeed Bullit. Although being a V6 it did go a fair bit in it's time. If Ford stick to V8's across the range that people can then go on and tune to whatever level they want then it will have a real following. All great mass produced cars have had this ability and hence following. Even the Mini. How times have changed.

Submitted by xevious on Thu, 2011-06-09 21:49.

Firs off let me say WHERE ON EARTH DO YOU SEE ANYTHING RESEMBLING A 3000GT!??.
no.. back to the stang. CLEARLY Giugario got it rite! he hit the nail on the head!, When you run thru mustangs long history its easy to forget just what an impact it made upon its debut and why. The original mustang had panache , it was low sleak sexy and effordable jet setter. over time it became a muscle car but still maintained a level of exotic flare. Then came the 70's and disco and all things good went very bad. Power was gone the econmy was poor and Power was a thing of the past not to mention style. The mustang lost its own chassis a recieved a handme-down which changed the cars dimensions forever afterwards. The Fox bodied mustang gave way to the 5.0 which single handedly revived the affordable performance car market. still.. gone was the slow sleek sexy styling of old. The current gen mustang still maintains that Tall yet stubby boxy but bulky proportions and no matter what performance gains are made its always fighting against the very obvious, the chassis is all wrong for the task. Thankfully in 2014 its all about to change, These illustrations clearly shows a winner, And unlike whats been done with the FT-86 (great near final production concept to be axed for a watered down final product) Ford should seriously consider the fact of simply delivering of the goods. what they have here is a HIT, a car whos proportions and styling hits all switches. watering this down would make no sence in a world where selling vehicles is the goal. Ford listen to what im saying, if you want success commit to the successful idea youve made. and remember no-one likes a tease.

Submitted by Richie767 on Thu, 2011-06-09 22:10.

Just been down to Ford with my deposit, beam me up Scottie fast forward me to 2014 now!!!

Youngsters will forget about Global Warming & Friends of the earth ole nonsense in 2014 & drive a Mustang instead.

Worlds economy will pickup, banks will lend again, the recession will end become & austerity history & turn into an economic boom in 2014.

Submitted by badboyrocco on Thu, 2011-06-09 22:23.

Looks too similar to the Camaro. Which is a nice car...but....Mustangs should have their own look and identity.

Submitted by xevious on Thu, 2011-06-09 22:57.

The headlight issue, OK in a nutshell the only thing about the concepts headlights that are not mustang like is how the ends are Tapered upwards and not downwards. Thats it!, Look at past mustangs and you will see they very much did have partially obscured headlights. In fact all muscle cars of that era had very simula front facia's, but remember the mustang is the original pony car. And the concepts front facia is completely mustang.

Submitted by Jimconnor on Fri, 2011-06-10 18:13.

Like the others say - sign me up now! Looks fab. Hopefully they won't take the urine with the price (hope about Capri pricing?) but I suspect it will still hit £30k but with a mid-life crisis coming up perhaps I can treat myself to this rather than a Porsche :-)

Submitted by autoenthusiast3 on Fri, 2011-06-10 21:49.

Does anyone else notice the familiar lines to the 2009 concept by Guigiaro? Fourth image down shares alot in common.....is this rendition just another ruse?

http://mustangspeed.com/2009_m...

Submitted by TrueMustanger on Sat, 2011-06-11 07:28.

As soon as I seen this car what came to my mind was a camaro with a mustang grille. This car looks like crap. Can anybody say Mustang II or Probe? I have been in love with the Mustang since I was a teenager when the original was introduced. I hate the bowties and do not appreciate the fact that this car looks like a camaro. This version will not sell in the US. I showed another Mustanger this picture and his comment was Ford ruined the Mustang. This will not fly with Mustang enthusiests.

Submitted by john45 on Sat, 2011-06-11 15:08.

The headlight look a lot like the Camaro.

Submitted by uncle_paulie on Sat, 2011-06-11 18:46.

I think it looks fabulous. I think the Camaro is the best looking of the current muscle cars, followed by the Challenger but this looks better than both and much, much better than the current Mustang. Bit of Aston about the back but thats no bad thing. Front looks similar to the Giugaro Mustang concept which came out before the Camaro I think. Definitely looks like a winner to me anyway.

Submitted by jmdinger on Sat, 2011-06-11 18:56.

Heck...if you are going to take it global...which I like the idea....why not make it AWD so that Mustang fans in tougher climates can drive it year round?!

Submitted by MonkeeBoi on Sat, 2011-06-11 19:20.

Nice Camaro clone...

Submitted by dunkhy on Sun, 2011-06-12 11:32.

i dont understand those here who say "wooo amazing design, keep it as it is!!".
first, if i understood correctly, the design displayed here is not from ford but from autoexpress.
second, the front is mean and agressive, shark style. it reminds many cars, sharky is trendy nowadays. and so sharky is common, trendy and therefore temporal: all of that opposit to the mustang spirit.
if you look to the first mustang design, appearance is more neutral, the car does not look sharky or agressive, she just looks powerful. so is a mustang: it can rest quietly in the nature, or it can go like hell and crush the ennemy lines. in fact, it all depends on the rider. and so it shall stay for the car/driver relation: the car must stay singular, powerful but non agressive in appearance, it s the driver that will decide what will be.
so in term of design, i would not bet (and moreover not hope) on the sharky style, and i would rather have a non-curved hood.
so definitly not the proposed designed here.

Submitted by Feragho on Tue, 2011-06-14 09:42.

Ok first things first, ford just came out with a brand new 3.7L v6 that gets 31mpg (in the current larger body style) and throws out 305hp without a turbo... why on earth wouldnt this perfect sport-coupe engine be sold in the sport-coupe kingdom of europe?

Secondly, despite the recent updates, the 5.4L block is old as dirt and usualy only put in the supercharged cobras solely for the extra displacment . This block boasts 550hp in its current form. (though early indications show that the block will be bumped to 5.7L and mated with a larger supercharger for the 2013 model so producing around 600hp to compete with the new camaro LS1)

Thirdly, ford has a brand new 5.0 (302ci) engine that throws off 412 naturally aspirated horsepower, and by 2014 will likely have direct injection and other goodies probably pushing it up to around 450hp. If a non-supercharged v8 engine were to be offered in europe THIS would be it, not the old modified truck engine that is the 5.4L.

Finally, that rendering has nothing to do with what ford is actually going to do. Theres a million different renderings on the internet and NONE of them have any evidence to back them up. Were just going to have to wait and see what they come out with, theres nothing else for it.

Submitted by squarehead on Tue, 2011-06-14 09:42.

Why does is seem that everyone hate the car? Its looks great,but will never sell in the numbers they want over here, especially with fuel, insurance and tax.People wont pay top dollar for a ford, so if they cut corners with the build of the car to drop prices then it will flop.they're in a bit of a pickle i think

Submitted by Froogl on Thu, 2011-06-16 01:08.

I think this is a hoax. Look at this side-by-side:
http://froo.gl/images/giugiaro...

Submitted by xevious on Thu, 2011-06-16 12:23.

WE KNOW ITS A COMPILED ILLUSTRATION IDIOTS!
THATS OBVIOUS! you think FORDs gonna slap up a finnished illustration of a final product 3 years before its debut.
It mearly taking the many of the successful cues from the Guigiaro concept. And as for all the Camaro Haters, Lets not forget you guys lost the battle and was discontinued for several years while the mustang (THE ORIGINAL PONY CAR) went on strong and gave your red-neck mobile a chance to return in the first place. And as far as the headlight issue goes, Check your history Young kids that dont know, the original camaro was designed after the mustang to be its competitor, not the other way around, the fronts do look simular because of that reason.
For years the mustangs facia evolved it now mearly a facia more faithfully designed after its original looks. And least we not forget the 2005 mustang and it retro styling came out before the renewed camaro and once again they copied fords deisgn move (as they always do) so get it rite!.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And as for the Mustang-Mustang haters, im sure you love the car thats currently produced, its good but the changes theyre talking about will make it great. The current car IS a tank!, it deceptively looks small and is even tight inside (as always) with stubby proportions but in fact its actually the biggest mustang of them all. Figure it this way, whats wrong with a stang being a touch smaller, Lighter weight, Better handling no heavy live rear Axel , better interior materials,, all the things that holds the current car back addressed. The same type of changes will also re-shape the nex-gen corvette and Im more than sure it will perform on par with the mclaren mp12-c level.
So Please stop living in the past, look how fast the average sedan has become, even SUV's for that matter, the current mustang can perform as well as an M3 but its still dosent match the overall quality of the bmw, I doubt the 2014 will either, but im willing to bet it will be REALLY REALLY close!.

Submitted by Caribbean on Tue, 2011-06-21 13:24.

I hope the car really works out and ends up differently than the last world car they attempted, the first FWD Escort, which was also the beginning of the end of the brand. When the US finished their Escort and England did their XR3, they didn’t share a bolt in common according to one of UK’s best magazines of the day. The US Escort went on to be car of the year for many years until it was dethroned by the 1989 Honda Accord.

On the other hand, Ford UK has always known how to please its drivers from the Capri 3000 GT an E models, BDA Escorts, Cortina Lotus, Granada 2.8i, and later Cosworth Sierra which rescued that awful car. Whatever this Mustang looks like, it is a good looking car, and Ford has everything already in it’s arsenal to make it super. Can you imagine what a Ford Taurus SHO transplant would be like in this car? V6 for better mileage, twin turbo which will deliver 450 HP and 450 ft/lb torque, tunable to 1000 HP for the after market, and 4WD independent suspension to safely put down all that power. America already loves this set up in the F150 Truck which already outsells all the V8 models (no surprise there). The good thing about all this is that the Taurus SHO with all this equipment sells for under £23k. I would think that Ford selling the Mustang as a Premium brand could do 30K and still cream a decent profit. If it does 40K, then it’s just about pricing the car for the sake of making it expensive and exclusive, pretty much like how the German brands of Audi, BMW and Benz brands do. Hope this Mustang makes it to the world market,

Submitted by Caribbean on Tue, 2011-06-21 13:25.

Submitted by jaguarrr2 on Sun, 2011-07-10 01:09.

This Mustang is a big joke. If this is ford's answer to the Camaro, then they need to put this horse down now!! I have to agree that this photo looks like an old concept, OLD!! What ford needs to do is design an Mustang for the future and let go of that fan club mess of the PAST.

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Submitted by deviras on Thu, 2011-07-14 13:13.

It change a but from the previous 2. But it great.

Submitted by liverpool on Sun, 2012-02-12 03:47.

car looks OK too

Submitted by lateloop on Wed, 2012-10-03 16:16.

Funny that people think it falls short of european counterparts. For the price, it definitely does not.