Bark's Bites: The Mustang Is Dead, Long Live The Mustang

Mark "Bark M." Baruth
by Mark "Bark M." Baruth

(The Mustang in that photo isn’t just here for irony — it’s for sale! Down to $799 OBO… it’s a GT and the seller is a well-known decent guy in Ohio. Contact us for details — JB)

Embargoes be damned. There’s not a soul on the planet who cared about the 2015 Mustang who couldn’t have told you everything you wanted to know about it before today. Independent Rear Suspension. Fastback. EcoBoost 2.3 liter four-cylinder option. No room for the beloved (or maligned, by ZL1 fans) 5.8 supercharged Shelby motor. The first Mustang to become global under Mulally’s pet project, One Ford. Either god-awful ugly or beautiful, depending on the eye of the beholder. It’s hard to remember a pony car that generated this much buzz.



As an owner of a 2013 Boss 302, I take an especially personal interest in this launch. The Boss 302 did exactly what it was supposed to have done in my case—it enticed somebody who had the budget and the inclination to buy an E92 M3 to visit a Ford dealer instead. I’d never, ever thought of myself as a potential “Mustang man” before the introduction of it. In fact, the S197 as a whole did a great deal to change the perception of Mustangs amongst the upper middle class. It no longer seems strange to see a Mustang in the driveway of a $300K house. In 2011, the V6 went from a joke to a 300+ horsepower, respectable, smart option for lower cost performance. The GT brought back the 5.0, much to the delight of all Robby Van Winkle fans. And, of course, the latest incarnation of the Shelby GT500 was simply sublime, providing mind-boggling horsepower and torque in a mass production car that may never be seen again.

But perception doesn’t always equal reality. Something went wrong with this fairy tale. The Mustang hasn’t cracked 100k sales since 2007, and actually had its worst sales run in the fifty year history of the model in the last four years. It has lagged slightly behind the Camaro in sales for several years and has seen the Challenger creeping up in its limited rear visibility as of late.

So perhaps the time for change is now. Perhaps the decision to abandon the live rear axle that has been the most Mustangish of all Mustang qualities was the right one if Ford has any hope of competing overseas. The available paddle shifters may as well be designed to shift paradigms as well as gears. Paddle shifters? On a ‘Stang? The mind boggles just a bit. MyFord Touch is rearing its less-than-well-received head again here, and this time it has KNOBS. GTFO. And apparently, there’s even a place to put your sunglasses in the 2015, you know, for those times when putting them in the glove box just won’t do at all.

I’ve never sat behind the wheel of a 2015 Mustang, never touched its three-inch-wider Mixalotian rear end. I’ve never felt the IRS adjust for the bumpy Kentucky backroads around my town that tend to greatly upset the solid axle of my 302. Visually, it certainly looks every bit a Mustang, so much so that I doubt the man on the street will really be able to identify it as a new model (well, at least from the front). And there’s really no reason at all to not think that this brave new Mustang world won’t be a great improvement over the current generation.

But as I consumed all the leaks and the photos and the hype this week that led up to the announcement, I began to feel something that no thirty-six year old man ever wants to admit he feels. I started to feel a bit of nostalgia. While all the right things are being said about this not being a “global Mustang,” doesn’t it kinda feel like it is? And in an age where American Exceptionalism is routinely mocked, I honestly can’t figure out if I should be proud that Ford is making the equivalent of red label Levi’s for Russian kids available worldwide, or saddened that they are making changes to the fundamental nature of what a Mustang is in order to do it. Does the Mustang NEED to be a global car? Can’t they just sell a few more Focuses (Foci?) over in Europe and call it a day? Should I just end this paragraph with “And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn’t for those meddling kids and their dumb dog?”

Ford says they’ll sell close to 100,000 Mustangs next year. I believe them. I hope they do. But I don’t think that one of them will be to me. I don’t suspect many other Boss or Shelby owners will be lining up either. I’m kind of glad that I got one of the last live axle, touchscreen-lacking, fuel-guzzling dinosaurs. I own a Mustang. Loud, brash, and unapologetic. And I have a feeling that my resale value might have just ticked upwards a bit… but it doesn’t matter. This one won’t be for sale.

Mark "Bark M." Baruth
Mark "Bark M." Baruth

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  • Baconator Baconator on Dec 05, 2013

    Look, saying the Mustang will lose pony-car fans because it's added some European dynamic virtues is like saying that Tea Partiers will suddenly vote for Democrats because the Republicans have gotten soft on crime. There's still nothing more pony-er than a five point oh. The last live-axle Camaros and Challengers available are now old enough to drink. Where was the press assailing their drag-strip fortitude when the latest-gen models of those rivals came out? And where is the epidemic of snapped Camaro and Challenger halfshafts left shorn and smoking at the end of 1/4 strips? This Mustang has a big snoot, a short trunk, and a couple of motors with enough torque to rip open new potholes. What's not to like? Unless they canceled the Mayhem Package - that was just fun to say. I haven't owned a Mustang since my '81 with the horrible 3.3L six succumbed to its second engine fire, so the fact that I'm even considering this one is a win for Ford.

  • Zykotec Zykotec on Dec 07, 2013

    The first Mustang was a cheap(ish) solution to sell more cars based on a popular compact platform, and to get attention from younger buyers with the different more sporty design.(secretary car anyone?) It got alot more popular than expected though, and soon grew completely out of it's proportions, and into something else. The new 'Mustang' since the late 90's would be the CUV's. The RAV4 and CR-V did more or less exactly what the Mustang did in the mid-60's, without the market going quite as crazy as in '64. Except 'secretaries' today are probably 32 year old single moms...And there are no 'Shelby' versions...

    • See 1 previous
    • 3Deuce27 3Deuce27 on Dec 10, 2013

      @Dan R " Scandalous that you get one with drum brakes up front." The Sting Ray had Drum brakes at all four corners for the first two years, and they had up to 375hp rated engines. It took a long time to bring one down from 150mph. Ford very quickly put disc brakes on the Mustang as an RPO and the GT.

  • Joe This is called a man in the middle attack and has been around for years. You can fall for this in a Starbucks as easily as when you’re charging your car. Nothing new here…
  • AZFelix Hilux technical, preferably with a swivel mount.
  • ToolGuy This is the kind of thing you get when you give people faster internet.
  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
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