A fighter plane name and an 18 month project
The Mustang began as the T-5 project inside Ford Division. Lee Iacocca, then the division’s general manager, championed it, and head engineer Donald N. Frey led the work, which took just 18 months. To save time and money the car was based on the 1960 Ford Falcon compact. The first clay model followed a side view drawn by designer Gale Halderman.
Ford credits John Najjar, a fan of the P-51 Mustang fighter plane, with suggesting the name. He co-designed the 1962 Mustang I prototype with Philip T. Clark. Another account credits Robert J. Eggert, a Ford Division market research manager.
April 17, 1964: the World’s Fair debut
Production started in Dearborn, Michigan on March 9, 1964, and the car was introduced at the New York World’s Fair on April 17, 1964, 16 days after the Plymouth Barracuda. The advertised list price was $2,368, about $24,193 in 2025 dollars.
Demand overwhelmed the forecast. More than 400,000 were sold in the first year, and the one millionth Mustang was sold within two years. Ford sold 559,451 for the 1965 model year and 607,568 for 1966. The Mustang created the pony car segment, named after it.
The Mustang II and the oil crisis
By the early 1970s the car had grown larger and heavier. Iacocca, by then Ford’s president, ordered a smaller car: the Mustang II, built on a longer wheelbase version of the Ford Pinto. It debuted on September 21, 1973, two months before the 1973 oil crisis, and sold 385,993 in its first year. It was built until 1978.
The Fox years
From 1979 the Mustang moved to the Fox platform, which it shared with 14 other Ford vehicles. The car stayed on Fox based underpinnings for a quarter century and was the last Ford to use the architecture. The 1994 model (SN95), introduced in November 1993, was the first major redesign in fifteen years, on an updated platform called Fox-4.
Retro styling and a global car
The 2005 Mustang (S197) moved to a platform of its own and used styling that recalled the fastbacks of the late 1960s. The sixth generation, unveiled on December 5, 2013, brought an independent rear suspension developed for this car and was the first Mustang designed at the factory for right hand drive export markets.
Ford built the 10 millionth Mustang in August 2018. The seventh generation was previewed on September 14, 2022, and production began on May 1, 2023. The electric Mustang Mach-E, announced on November 17, 2019, is a crossover that shares the name but is not counted as one of the pony car’s generations.
Keeping a Mustang on the road
Many Mustangs, old and new, are weekend cars that cover few miles a year. For cars like that, service intervals based on time, not only mileage, matter: oil and fluids age even when the car sits. Badger’s maintenance schedule tracks both mileage and time. Our guide to the car maintenance schedule by mileage covers the basics.
