Judy Pohlod saw herself surrounded by change in the automotive world, but as the Ford Motor Co. executive in charge of the Mustang, she was compelled to steer the same course followed for 33 years.
“If you don’t react to change, it’s a formula for disaster,” says Pohlod, who until a recent promotion was brand manager for Mustang, the oldest and most successful American “muscle car.”
“But our owners say this is the way they want it to be,” she said. “When we talk to our current owners and Mustang collectors, they all say don’t deviate from the formula you have today.”
Pohlod, now Ford’s vehicle strategy manager, recalls that in the late 1980s, word leaked out that the next Mustang would be a tamer sports coupe with front-wheel-drive and a 4-cylinder engine like the Toyota Celica or Honda Prelude.
Outraged Mustang loyalists picketed the Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., and bombarded the company with angry calls and letters.
So the next Mustang maintained the rear-wheel-drive/V-8 engine heritage that started in 1964.
“To be a true Mustang, it has to be a classic American sports car. It has to be an evolution of the expressive vehicle it was originally,” Pohlod said.
Dozens of models have disappeared in the last 30 years as buyers’ tastes changed. Others have downsized, switched from rear- to front-wheel-drive, traded V-8s for smaller and more efficient engines and undergone other major changes to keep up with the times.
Meanwhile, Mustang and its main competitors, the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, have stayed true to their original concept.
These cars still have low-slung styling, a long hood/short rear deck profile, a stiff suspension, rear-wheel-drive and the roar of a performance V-8–the formula used in the 1960s.
Chevrolet hears the same warning from Camaro owners that Ford gets from Mustang owners.
“We get five to 10 letters a week telling us, don’t even think about changing to front-wheel-drive,” said Scott Settlemire, the assistant Camaro brand manager for marketing. “We constantly talk to our customers, and they are telling us they like the V-8 performance, the sound of the exhaust, the way they sit in the car.
“If there is enough consumer demand to change those things, we would listen to that. Right now, they’re telling us this is what they want,” Settlemire said.
Rear-wheel-drive and a V-8 are necessary for good results at drag strips, where cars compete head-to-head in quarter-mile acceleration contests. In the late 1960s, nearly every American car company offered at least one muscle car designed for neck-snapping acceleration, but now it is down to these three.
As the last American muscle cars, they continue one of the longest running rivalries in the U.S. auto industry.
Ford has sold more than 6.6 million Mustangs since 1964, more than its two rivals combined. Camaro arrived as a 1967 model and more than 4.2 million have been sold. Pontiac has sold about 2.2 million copies of the Firebird, introduced for 1967, which uses the same chassis and engines as the Camaro but sports different styling.
Mustang peaked in 1966 at 549,436 and dropped to a low of 80,247 in 1991. Sales perked up to 158,421 with a restyling in 1994 but slipped to 122,674 last year. Sales are running about 15 percent lower this year.
Camaro shows a similar trend, reaching a high of 260,201 in 1978 and hitting bottom at 68,773 in 1993. A restyled model boosted sales to 116,592 in 1994, but last year’s total was less than 67,000.
Pohlod said the sports-car market historically is cyclical, and potential buyers now have more choices in cars and trucks.
“A lot of people are looking at the truck market,” she said. “People who want an expressive vehicle like the Mustang are looking at sport-utility vehicles today.”
These cars historically have appealed to younger people, but Camaro brand manager Dick Almond says the average age of V-8 buyers climbed to 41 this year.
“We are seeing more empty-nesters coming back into the market,” Almond said. “They’ve had enough of the cargo boxes like the mini-vans and even sport-utility vehicles. Now, they want something a little more expressive.”
Indeed, agrees 55-year-old Wheeling resident Mike Krich, a sales manager for a beverage company.
He could buy a Cadillac or Lexus but says: “They just don’t do it for me. Most cars today are dull boxes with rounded corners and four wheels. They have no individualism, no personality.”
That is why he drives a red 1995 Camaro Z28 for business and occasional races at the drag strip in Union Grove, Wis. He often is asked if he borrowed his son’s car.
Krich raves about his Camaro’s performance, the main reason he bought it, but he also cites practical considerations.
“This is the only vehicle where I can put the seat all the way back and extend my left leg without hitting the fire wall,” said the 6-foot-2-inch Krich. “The suspension is stiff, not like a wet sponge, and that helps maintain your awareness of the road.”
But there are not enough hard-core enthusiasts like Krich to sustain the market, warns Christopher Cedergren of Nextrend, a California-based market research firm.
By not changing the basic character of these cars, Cedergren says the car companies are catering to a dwindling number of loyal customers instead of finding new, younger buyers.
“They need to find ways to attract a whole new generation of buyers,” he said. “The market for these cars has really dried up. Baby Boomers have rejected them in favor of vehicles with an even better image, like SUVs and pickup trucks.
“This is the only market segment where the cars haven’t downsized. They’re almost like dinosaurs. They really haven’t evolved as the market has evolved.”
Cedergren says the Camaro and Firebird are too big. At about 193 inches front to rear, they are a foot longer than the Mustang and three inches longer than a Chevy Malibu, a midsize sedan.
“They also need to evolve from a styling standpoint so they have less of a boy-racer look,” he said.
Chevrolet’s Settlemire argues that’s Camaro’s key selling point.
“Buyers like the aggressive styling because it gets them noticed, and they want to be noticed,” he said. “They’re almost as flamboyant as Corvette buyers in that regard. There are always going to be people out there who want a sports car with expressive styling.”
Pohlod says Ford’s research shows high awareness of the Mustang name even among teenagers too young to drive.
“They tell us the car they would like to have is a Mustang,” she said. “It’s so well known that young people want it even if they’re only 14 and can’t buy it.”
Though less than half of their sales are V-8s, both companies say the performance image of the Mustang GT and Camaro Z28 attracts even those who buy the more economical V-6 models.
“We call it `GTism.’ They want their friends to think it’s a GT, even if it’s not,” Pohlod said. “It’s part of the aura that makes a Mustang a Mustang.”
Ford tried to capitalize on nostalgia by giving the Mustang styling links to the past–the galloping horse grille emblem and side scoops that appeared on the original. Even the faithful are hard to please.
“I’m not that crazy about the styling of the new Mustang,” says Steve Hebert of Bourbonnais, president of the Northern Mustang Corral, an affiliate of the national Mustang Club of America.
“It looks too much like a lot of other sports cars. When they’re coming down the street, they can look like a Mitsubishi. Previous Mustangs were more distinctive.”
For the future, Hebert agrees rear-wheel-drive is a must, but a V-8 engine isn’t as long as whatever is under the hood delivers at the drag strip. The styling, though, needs to stand apart from the herd.
“It should look different from everything else on the road,” Hebert said. “Look at the way the Corvette distinguishes itself from everything else. You should be able to tell what it is from a block and a half away.”
