Today in Automotive History
1964 Mustang Sallies Forth
The first Ford Mustang was produced on this day. The Mustang wasn't released to the public until April 16, 1964. However, one journalist described its unveiling as "the most sensational introduction of modern times."
The Mustang was the result of Ford's desire to make a small, sporty car which was inexpensive enough to appeal to young car buyers, an increasingly important market. The Mustang was the brainchild, or at least the mouthchild, of Ford executive Lee Iacocca. David Halberstam explained Iacocca's relationship to the Mustang: "Outside the industry, Iacocca, who controlled the publicity for the car, was always considered the father of the Mustang... Within Ford, however, Don Frey, the product manager, was seen as the brains behind it."
But to sell short Iacocca's impact as a salesman would be a mistake. The car's development never would have made it past the reluctant upper echelons of Ford management without Iacocca's push. The Mustang was not an entirely new line of car in the traditional sense. In fact, Iacocca's production team intended to make a car readily adaptable to existing Ford parts. By making the Mustang a Ford Falcon under the hood, Iacocca's team cut their costs dramatically. Iacocca called the Mustang a Ford Falcon with "a whole new skin and greenhouse." He would never have called it that during its development, however.
Iacocca stressed the Mustang as a whole new breed of Ford: muscular, small, and young. The base price of the car was only $2,368, but buyers averaged over $1,000 of extra features. Iacocca said, "People want economy so badly they don't care how much they pay for it."
Over its first two years the Mustang earned $1.1 billion in profits for Ford. Iacocca created an astounding media blitz surrounding the car's release. He and the Mustang made the covers of Time and Newsweek, and the car appeared in every major business and automotive publication. Historian Gary Witzenburg explained, "No new car in history had ever received the publicity and attention that the media lavished on Ford's sporty small car." One of America's most popular car models, then, is a testament to one of America's greatest salesman.