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Mustang II : Forerunner of New Breed of U.S. Small Cars
By Al Duprey and Bill Wolfe
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Back in the early '60s, when Detroit was gussying up the original America compacts, transforming the cars from plain Janes to jeweled dames, a Ford Executive made the somewhat cryptic observation that "Americans want an economy car and they don't car what they pay for it."
The man who made the remark has gone on to bigger and better things, from general manager of Ford Division then to president of Ford Motor Co. now. He is Ford's phrase-maker in residence: cigar-waving, fast-talking Lee A. Iacocca.
An astute, almost psychic, spotter of trends, Iacocca was 10 years ahead of the pack when he made his economy-at-any-price observation. Most of the industry is now headed in the direction the Ford executive indicated a decade ago.
Iacocca's remark requires explanation. Economy-at-any-price appears to be a contradiction. Economy and price are incompatible words, one cancelling out the other. That may be true if you're talking the large economy box of soap chips or corn flakes versus the regular-size box But automakers speak a different language.
Economy if the sense Iacocca used the word is synonymous with small. What Ford's president was saying is that Americans want less cumbersome cars, less bulk, less metal. Cars dimensioned down in size, but with all the luxury and trimmings. Bijou cars, meaning little jewels.
That's what Detroit's stirring up now: a new batch, a whole new breed, of small luxury cars. The first one on the track will be the new Mustang II. Ford will announce the car formally the end of this month. And showroom display is expected for September.
Aimed at the fast growing sporty subcompact market segment, the Ford Mustang II is 19 in. shorter than the '73 version, and 7 in. shorter than the original 1965 Mustang.
No spartan car.
Mustang II is no spartan mini-car. Its attention to detail rivals European automotive craftsmanship.
Front appearance is typically Mustang with a wide oval grille highlighted by a newly designed galloping horse. Large three-pod taillights with amber turn signals are other European cues.
Two-door models - Mustang II hardtop and Ghia - have a classic notchback roofline reminiscent of the original Mustang. Three-door models - Mustang II two-passenger, 2+2, and Mach 1 - have a racy fast-back design.
The 2+2 and Mach 1 have a fold-down rear seat; a fully carpeted load floor opens to the expansive third door. The two-passenger three-door is Ford's first two-passenger model since the original Thunderbird.
Standard appointments include all-new front buckets seats; cut-pile carpeting on the floor and lower door; tachometer, and other gauges for fuel, temperature and anmeter; and rich, simulated-woodgrained accents.
Mustang II will be powered by two new engines. Standard on all except Mach 1 is a 2.3 liter overhead cam 4-cylinder engine built at Ford's Lima, Ohio engine plant. Standard on the Mach 1 and optional on all others is a 2.8 liter version of the European V-6.
Obviously, other car companies are well aware of what Ford is up to and Ford won't have the field to itself long. But, there is something in being first off the track. And Ford even designed a whole new engine to integrate the emission controls - not add them on.
Does the definite trend back to smaller cars sound familiar? Is it the 1960's all over again? There's an important difference.
The little cars of the early '60s - Falcon, Corvair, Valiant - started out as low price, build-them-cheap cars. They were referred to as import fighters and were aimed primarily at Volkswagen. But Detroit says it can't make money on a basic transportation car. So after a year or two, the sub-sizers of the '60s got bigger, bulkier and costlier. They were glamorized and gadgeted up to a point where they were priced out of existence. (Exception: the Valiant name survives, but the Valiant of today is only a remote relative of the first car that carried that name.)
Deluxe small cars
The difference between the small cars of 10 years ago and the wave of the future cars symbolized by Mustang II is that the new crop of compacts will start out as deluxe, high ticket cars. They won't be the drab little girls of a decade ago waiting for appointment at the beauty shop. They aren't aimed at the bottom-priced VWs, Toyotas and Datsuns. In terms of foreign competition, the new wave cars will target on Datsun's 240-Z, VW's Audi Fox and Porsche, Toyota's Celica and, in the case of a junior edition coming from Cadillac, Mercedes. Different cars for different times.
Why has it taken the car companies - Ford in particular - 10 years to act on Iacocca's prediction? If the handwriting has been on the wall all along, why didn't Detroit see it before this?
It was a matter of waiting for the times to be right for the concept of the car. The industry now feels the hour and climate are right for a class compact. The car firms cites a long list of indications, social and economic pressures, supporting that decision.
1. The energy/fuel shortage. Big cars burn up energy two ways. First, in consumption of gasoline. Because of its weight, a big car naturally burns more fuel than a small or mid-size car. With fuel supplies dwindling and gas prices pushing up, the big car is in serious trouble. There are threats to tax cars on the basis of fuel consumption - the lower the number of miles per gallon, the higher the tax. Big cars are also blamed for the energy drain in another way. Oversize automobiles burn up enormous amounts of energy in the production process. The car manufacturer uses more energy to produce the vehicle, as do suppliers of raw materials and parts that feed the car factories. "The large private automobile epitomizes our waste of energy," S. David Freeman, director of an energy conservation project sponsored by the Ford Foundation, said in an ironic blast at Detroit. Ironic because the Foundation derives its funds from the automobile.
2. The conservation/ecology movement. Big cars may not be anti-conservation, but they are in conflict with the conservation movement. They use up vast quantities of almost every natural and man-made material - coal, steel, glass, rubber, fabrics, plastics, you name it.
The price is right
3. Cost/prices. The auto companies have a helpless feeling that they are losing control of pricing their own products. The government decides it wants a certain piece of equipment on cars and on it goes. The car maker is told to collect from the buyer. Prices go up every new model year and Detroit is concerned about pricing potential buyers out of the new car market and forcing the customer to settle for a used car. There is a definite relationship between car prices and what a car weighs. The more pounds, the higher the price. One solution to this dilemma would be to reduce the size and weight of the automobiles. Even Cadillac, king of the biggies, talks about cutting down to something "a little shorter, a little lighter."
4. The big-cars-are-a-nuisance factor. Big cars have been hurt by high insurance rates, the parking problem, service and repair costs - tires, plugs, a tune-up, oil change or whatever costs more for a big car - and the fact that big cars are prime targets for thieves and vandals.
5. A trend among buyers to buy more car and keep the car a longer period of time. Even in the face of rising prices, most buyers want more extras and luxuries. Air conditioning, tape decks, powered everything. This may necessitate stepping down a notch on the basic car, buying the next cheapest model, but the customer is willing to make that concession to afford the add-ons. At the same time, buying a new car every year or two isn't the status symbol it once was. Many Americans are stretching use of their cars over an extra year or two. This ties in with the increase in sales of accessories. "I'm going to keep it longer," the buyer rationalizes, "so I'll splurge on the options."
Those are some, but not all, of the reasons Detroit has decided the time is right for a new type of car. Not an economy special, as the original compacts were. Smaller cars, yes, but without stinting on looks, luxury and quality.
The first of the new breed of bijou cars are ready ow. There are two of them. One's the new Mustang. The second entry will be a limited edition - a production run of about 5,000 units during the '74 model year - Vega from Chevrolet.
Vega to have "extras"
Called the Cosworth, the Vega will carry all the extras, including a double overhead cam engine and a special driveline. The car is expected to sell for something like $1,800 over the price of a standard Vega. Sporting-up and existing car, as Chevrolet is doing, may sound like the 1960s all over again. The doll-it-up treatment is the same technique Chevrolet used on its original compact, Corvair. But there's a difference. Chevrolet is not abandoning the baseline Vega, as it abandoned the baseline Corvair. The Cosworth is Chevrolet's temporary answer to Ford's Mustang II.
GM has at least one and perhaps two other Mustang II-type cars in the works. The next one to surface will be a small Cadillac. It will be out next year. There's also talk of a small, luxury Pontiac, possibly built off the Vega shell.
What of the other companies - Chrysler and American Motors? Chrysler and AMC haven't yet committed themselves to tooling up to produce luxury compacts. But both companies are going through the pre-production motions - working up preliminary designs and engineering specs - so they'll be ready to bring out class compacts if Mustang II is the runaway success Ford expects it to be.
What it all adds up to is that Detroit is taking Volkswagen's advice and thinking small. But with a twist. Small is the way to go, automakers agree, but without equating small with the contents of the package or price it sells at. In contents ad price, the new concept cars will be high quality, high ticket products.
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