Ford Mustangs roll off the line in Flat Rock.
Exactly 49 years to the day after the public got its first look at the all-new pony car, Ford Motor Co. celebrated as the one-millionth version of the Mustang to roll off the assembly line at its assembly plant in Flat Rock, Michigan.
The event helps usher in what is certain to be a loud, ongoing celebration of Mustangs past and present – with Ford dropping broad hints but few details about the all-new version of the pony car that insiders say will debut at the 2014 New York Auto Show. The original sports coupe was the centerpiece of Ford’s sprawling pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair.
Among the few things that Raj Nair, group vice president of product development, will confirm is that the next Mustang will be built in Flat Rock — and also exported from the U.S. under the auspices of the company’s global “One Ford” strategy.
“It’s part of the One Ford product plan,” he said, as the 50th year of Mustang production got underway.
Ford can clearly use a boost as it has slipped to second in its segment behind the resurrected Chevrolet Camaro. And with the Chevy coupe getting a significant update for the 2014 model-year, it could leave Mustang low on momentum as it heads for its Golden Jubilee.
Perhaps, but Ford officials contend Mustang remains one of the industry’s most beloved nameplates, and one that should see a big bump as the anniversary – and the new model – approaches.
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Dave Pericak, Mustang chief engineer, noted very few car lines have succeeded in staying in production as long as Mustang has. In fact, Camaro was off the market for the better part of a decade.
“Not too many vehicles have been around for 49 years,” asserted Pericak. “It’s more than a car. It’s an icon. It’s been in rock and roll songs and a star in movies,” he added, and has been a major success at the track.
Introduced as a 1964-1/2 model, the first Ford Mustang was available for as little as $2,368. Ironically, while the galloping horse has been the image Ford associated with the original Mustang, the car’s original designer, John Najjar, was actually a great fan of the most successful fighter plane of World War II, the P-51 Mustang. Company officials liked the name but thought the equine image was more appropriate.
(For more on Ford’s plans for Mustang’s 50th, Click Here.)
While the Flat Rock plant’s clock just ticked 1 million, Ford has built more than 8.5 million Mustangs overall since 1964. More than one million Mustangs were sold in just the first two years after its introduction at the World’s Fair, which pushed Ford to add production capacity at an assembly plant in the Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan.
It also added Mustang capacity at assembly plants in Metuchen, New Jersey and San Jose, California. Though Metuchen and San Jose plant closed years ago, Dearborn built four generations of Mustangs until 2004 when production of the fifth-generation model was moved to Flat Rock, a half-hour south of Detroit.
The one-millionth Mustang, a Ruby Red 2014 convertible, with Nair in the passenger seat accompanied by long-serving employee, Ed Salna, rolled off the assembly line during the anniversary celebration.
“The team here at Flat Rock Assembly has built an outstanding reputation for quality while producing one million Mustangs over the last nine years, and we expect that to continue for many years to come,” Nair said.
Tim Young, the manager of the Flat Rock plant, noted the Flat Rock plant is in the midst of an “amazing” transformation that will cost Ford more than $555 million dollars. The upgrade calls for the construction of a new, flexible body shop and a new environmentally friendly paint shop. Ford is also adding 1,400 employees and a second shift to support production of the more mainstream Fusion sedan. The plant is expected to start building the Fusion next fall.
Both Nair and Young declined to comment on when the plant will actually start production of the next-generation Mustang, which is expected to come out from behind a heavy veil of secrecy early next year in time for the 50th Anniversary celebration of the Mustang’s official debut.