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Mustang II 1974 Domestic Car of the Year
It comes on the scene in the nick of time to offer a new leasehold on the automotive Good Life in the face of eroding buying power, overcrowding and an energy shortage.
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There is no way Ford planners could have foreseen conditions that would prevail at introduction time when the Mustang II program was initiated, but it's doubtful if they could have formulated a more timely car if they somehow could have gazed into a magic crystal ball. The realities of 1974 promise to bring down the curtain on the traditional domestic car as we have known it - certainly for the masses. Such cars were feasible with unlimited supply of cheap fuel, lots of wide open spaces and smaller populations, but those conditions no longer exist.
Times may change, but human nature does not. We have never been an austere people; we could not have achieved the world's highest standard of living if we were. We are not content to merely achieve our barest needs but go on striving for a measure of opulence, and nowhere is this trait reflected more than in the cars we drive - or someday hope to drive. What is necessary then, is a reassessment of what truly constitutes a finer car. Does a car have to be big and long and heavy to yield a good ride and be a fine car? The Europeans, who early in the history of the automobile were confronted with the high price of fuel that had to be imported and less than ideal space on their streets and roads, addressed themselves to the question decades ago and found this not to be the case.
In the Mustang II we have a car that sets some popular misconceptions aside when common sense, and indeed our welfare, demands that they should be set aside. It is a car that a working man can afford, yet one that also has the most important qualities his boss in the paneled office has always demanded in a car. The may or may not choose the same options - or any options at all, but both would get a measure of opulence, a car that exceeds their real transportation needs. For the fact is that the plainest base car contains such features as a full set of instruments, including a tachometer, and comes with not very plain looking trim and appointments.
From that auspicious beginning there's a long list of optional equipment for virtually limitless possibilities to outfit a car. There are two basic directions in which to go in equipping a Mustang II. One is for the sporty minded enthusiast that culminates with the V-6 powered Mach I fastback, and the other proceeds to the ultimate in quietness, luxury and good riding in the new Mustang family, the more formal appearing Ghia notchback. Or, as lots of buyers no doubt will want to, just the basic luxuries for a comfortable family car can be had with the addition of an automatic transmission, air and a radio.
Yet, not matter what is chosen among the options or how much or how little the price tag comes to, the car will be sporty, chic, fun to drive, and also of paramount importance, a car that makes good use of fuel and can cope with the realities of 1974 and the years ahead.
Also of conceivable benefit to the country as a whole is the fact that the Mustang II's standard engine is built to metric standards. While almost every other country in the world has adopted the metric system for automobiles and other manufactured goods, the U.S. has been laggard in this respect - and to our detriment. Adherence to the U.S. system of sized for nuts, bolts and other fittings has meant that our cars have been "odd balls" to work on just about everywhere in the world, putting them at a serious disadvantage regardless of how attractive they otherwise might have been. The original Mustang, despite mountainous tariff walls, caught on to a remarkable degree with the likes of certain affluent Europeans and Japanese motion picture actresses.
Now that the dollar devaluation has had the effect of erasing the restrictive influence of high tariffs, making U.S. goods cheaper than ever for foreigners to buy, Ford is first among passenger car makers with a competitive product for world markets. The Mustang II certainly lacks none of the charm of the original Mustang, and it has the additional advantage of having a truly economical engine that can be worked on with metric tools. In assessing the Mustang II's possibilities abroad, it should be bourne in mind that it can be sold in most countries of the world without any kind of emission controls, which means that the engine can be tuned to give substantially more power and economy than the version legal for sale here. And export models can be more competitively price by eliminating some of the costly (and weighty) safety equipment that many both here and abroad consider superfluous.
With the twin exigencies of an energy shortage and a balance of payments deficit, it was an obvious conclusion that Detroit would sooner or later want to consider producing small, possibly exportable cars. But what is most significant about the Mustang II is that it is a result of an avowed effort by Ford to produce a fine small car. As such, this marks the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that any domestic manufacturer has attempted anything like this since Cadillac, in the early 1900s, built its single-cylinder, 10-hp model with then revolutionary total parts interchangeability and billed it as a "fine small car." In the 65 or so intervening years the trend has been toward large cars, with the term fine car reserved for the largest cars of all. Against this background of long time economic and philosophical commitment to large cars by domestic auto makers, Ford's decision to produce a car like the Mustang II marks one of the more pioneering breaks with tradition witnessed in modern times.
Therefore, in the course of sifting through the qualifications of the list of candidates for our annual Car of the Year award, we at Road Test found that Ford's Mustang II towered over its opponents in virtually every regard. To summarize, it is the most timely offering of the 1974 crop; it's the first car with a metric engine ever to be produced in this country, and because of this it is the first form our industry to have a potential international impact; it's the first U.S. car in over a half century to invade what has become the exclusive province of imported cars - the fine small car market. And yet the car remains very much an American car in that it preserves the buyer's traditional freedom of choice in the way it will be equipped, and even the body style.
Our hearty congratulations go to Ford Motor Company for its innovative spirit and leadership in bringing out the all new Mustang II, Road Test's 1974 Car of the Year.
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