Don't look back!

Razer81 said:

I agree, those mustangs did look nice in their days. My dad has own his fair share of '60s and '70s mustangs, that's why I had been a Ford guy, but to keep designing around that body style now adays??!! Give us something new, some thing we can call our "OWN"! As far as quality and style put together, IT CAN BE DONE, IT HAS BEEN DONE. Just look at the SUPRA, 300ZX, 350Z, G35 COUPE. Let's compete with today's import market, let's show 'em we too can build 21st century cars worth mentioning! Let's make them aware that in our shores we should dominate!

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All of the cars you mention are front engined - rear drive two door sport coupes. Exactly what a Mustang is!! What do you want? Front wheel drive?Your complaint is only about exterior styling. The Supra? No one bought it. The 300ZX? No one bought it. The 350Z and the G35 Coupe are the same car so that enough can be built to justify the investment by Nissan and the Mustang will handliy outsell the two of them combined. Your complaint is about styling and while there is a risk with "retro" styling the Mustang is the longest running Ford model in the company's history. The customers will decide whether it is a good idea of not. If its not, styling is the most easily changed aspect of a car.

I know what you mean. Same problem with Porsche. I mean, they've been making the 911 for 40 years now. The 911 looks about the same as when it first came out, too. It's a total bummer. Ford and Porsche have run out of ideas. Why can't they build something that will appeal to 20 year old "gear heads" who like the gimmicky styling of Japanese cars?

tjredgt2000 said:

I guess three-valve heads, variable valve timing, and drive by wire throttle are "old school". Funny, I don't remember any of those on my '67, '81, '88, or 2000 Mustangs! What a boob.

Oh yea, regarding quality. My 2000 GT has had regular oil changes and a scheduled radiator fluid replacement. Otherwise it hasn't had a single service visit.

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Don't get me wrong, i dont think the technical specs and quality of the new stang are outdated...i just think it LOOKS outdated. I find the exterior styling to be too retro and it just looks dumb to me on a new car.

66Satellite said:

I know what you mean. Same problem with Porsche. I mean, they've been making the 911 for 40 years now. The 911 looks about the same as when it first came out, too. It's a total bummer. Ford and Porsche have run out of ideas. Why can't they build something that will appeal to 20 year old "gear heads" who like the gimmicky styling of Japanese cars?

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Sarcasm I hope?

CatmanJJ said:

Are you arguing build quality or styling? Seems like you're mixing the 2 together. I'm in teh same generation and I want a Mustang? Actually I think the majority of mustang v8 owners are 18-25 year olds.

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The majority of V8 Mustang owners is not in the 20's. The Majority of Mustang Wanters is. The actual statistics are floating around on this forum somewhere...

Haven't we already had this discussion 5 times before?

Razer81 said:

I agree, those mustangs did look nice in their days. My dad has own his fair share of '60s and '70s mustangs, that's why I had been a Ford guy, but to keep designing around that body style now adays??!! Give us something new, some thing we can call our "OWN"! As far as quality and style put together, IT CAN BE DONE, IT HAS BEEN DONE. Just look at the SUPRA, 300ZX, 350Z, G35 COUPE. Let's compete with today's import market, let's show 'em we too can build 21st century cars worth mentioning! Let's make them aware that in our shores we should dominate!

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I agree that Ford needs to do some things to the Stang to modernize it, but not necessarily in the styling department. Japanese cars have a very distinict look to them, as do Europeans. For a while there, American companies left their roots to replicate this trend. Now that American's are accustomed to the European and Japanese invasion, they are returning to their roots. And, the Japanese and European companies are not competing, but following suit. You have more new cars with retro styling than ever, especially in the interiors.

The Ford T-Bird, despite a horrible retro job on the interior; The Chevy SSR, looks likie a '45-'52 pick-up; the vette has some new retro styling cues in the interior, the Prowler, the Mini is very retro, the interior gauges of the GTO, the Infinity G35 has a very "antique" yet modern feel with it's ANALOG, yes analog 3 handed clock in the dash, Chrysler 300 & PT Cruiser, I can go on and on.. my point is, you don't see all sorts of flashy digital junk in the dashes, like digital spedo's in the 80's... they returned to analog... even lexus, mercedes and cadillac have moved from a digital look and feel back to analog controls, even if they are digitally controlled behind the scenes. Remember when the interior was all plastic and no metal? Go further back... remember when the interior more metal and no plastic? And, what do we have alot of in cars now? All sorts of Metal accent packages?

So why aren't the Japanese and Europeans so aggressive and/or successful with this retro revival? They can't be. Simple as that. At least when it comes to American Retro. You see an Italian Sports car; it clearly looks italian; see a German Sports car, it clearly looks German. We weren't successful at trying to replicate the Euro's and ***'s and they aren't successul at repolicating us.... We're successful at American styling... and most Americans are happy to return to their roots. Need proof? Go browse the car lots. You'll see lots of American styling cues dating all the way back to the 20's on modern cars.

Haven't posted for a long time...reason mainly is because after renting a 2004 Mustang for a week, decided to wait for some simple cheap and modern things to make their way into Ford products. I totally love the look of the 05 Mustang but because of the lack of these small things I will not buy one.

1. Retained power when the key is off. It's a cheap simple timer that when you turn the key off, providing you don't open any doors you can still run every electrical thing in the car for about 15 minutes.
2. AUTOMATIC HEADLIGHTS...come on now a 2 cent diode, why have a stupid light switch that can be forgotten on to kill you battery.
3. Battery run down protection. After you have forgetten to turn off your headlights and it kills your battery, you will see how great such a cheap feature is so usefull. It's a small circuit that monitors the battery charge and if it sees a continuous reduction it turns off all left on powered things (like headlights) usually takes about 40 minutes on average (tested on my 98 S10)

I could go on and on. Fords has done a great job with designing a totally cool car, but it needs to get into the modern age and offer some simple pleasures that cost nearly nothing to include into each and every car/truck. All of these things have been available on GM car/trucks for a minimum of 10 years, maybe more. I don't know if Dodge has this since I have never driven a Dodge product in my life (and I likely never will).