953 nut 65,040 #1 Posted Friday at 11:52 AM April 17, 1964 The Ford Mustang officially debuted at the New York World's Fair in New York City. 8 1 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ri702bill 11,719 #2 Posted Friday at 12:10 PM Marketing genius. Merely an existing Falcon floorpan & drivetrain repackaged in a fresh new sporty package with a pretty face. Actual sales blew away the projected sales. A couple of years later came the fastback, bigger motors & the Bullitt movie - all good. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
953 nut 65,040 #3 Posted Friday at 12:30 PM 5 minutes ago, ri702bill said: Falcon floorpan & drivetrain repackaged in a fresh new sporty package with a pretty face. I was stationed at the Brookline Navy Yard in 1964 and attended the World's Fair several times. I remember looking at the Mustang as it rotated in its display and wanting to own one. On Navy pay at the time it was not something that would happen then. Nearly four decades later Chrysler did the same with it's PT Cruiser using the Dodge Neon platform and running gear. It looked cute and an aggressive marketing campaign (including PT Cruiser events paid for by Chrysler) made this underpowered, underwhelming car a commercial success. Poor timing with the economic downturn of 2008 brought it to a painful death rather than evolving into a legendary success the way the Mustang did. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ri702bill 11,719 #4 Posted Friday at 12:44 PM 11 minutes ago, 953 nut said: Chrysler did the same with it's PT Cruiser using the Dodge Neon platform and running gear. The PT Cruiser convertible with the top down always looked to me like it was a poor mans Funeral Flower Car. I was involved with the power top switch cluster where I worked... not the actual switch, but the cluster we assembled. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Handy Don 16,212 #5 Posted 11 hours ago The Mercury Cougar cousin to the Mustang was the car I wanted. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
rmaynard 17,085 #6 Posted 11 hours ago I was in Boy Scouts when that car came out. One of the other scout's father got one of the first units available in Maryland. When he came to pick up his son from a troop meeting, he didn't realize that he would be spending the next few hours giving rides to scouts and dads. At the time it was referred to as a 1964 1/2 Mustang. 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
