MotorTrend awarded the god-awful Mustang II its Automobile of the 12 months award in 1974. Nevertheless, to be truthful, lots of people have been fooled regardless of the way in which it appeared, and it offered effectively based mostly on simply having the Mustang identify and returning to its small-car roots. Nevertheless, there have been pink flags aplenty. It was based mostly on Ford’s Pinto platform, for a begin. Then Lee Iacocca, the daddy of the Mustang, stated, “It will be compromised. It is not gonna slam you again within the seat. And in case you put air and computerized on a (2.3-liter four-cylinder engine), you don’t precisely have a bomb in your fingers.” With hindsight, he stated, “Typically I believe we’re luckier than we’re sensible. Right here we provide you with a 20-mile-per-gallon automotive in the midst of a gas disaster.”
Ford’s official and laughable hindsight got here on the automotive’s fortieth anniversary in a press launch. “Regardless of being among the many best-selling Mustangs of the previous 49 years, Mustang II has been maligned by hardcore pony-car followers because the black sheep of the household virtually because it went on sale,” stated Ford, “Wanting again now, nevertheless, it is clear that with out the brand new course cast by Mustang II, Ford virtually definitely would not be celebrating 50 years of Mustang as we speak.” We are saying that is revisionism, and the Mustang identify survived on the laurels of the primary technology and regardless of the Mustang II.
