It’s 2025. That means it’s been twenty years since we’ve had a new Mustang.
Oh, I know they still make America’s favorite pony car, and that it’s been updated over the last two decades. However, with the introduction of the S197 in 2005, each “new” Mustang has essentially followed exactly the same design pattern: create a modern interpretation of the 1965-70 car.
Sure, virtually every sports car from a Porsche 911 to Miata is an “interpretation” of the original version, but in the case of the 2005 S197, the new iteration was in the same vein as the New Beetle or Ford’s own GT and Thunderbird from that era. This formula was simple: lift every visual cue from the earlier car, transpose it onto the latest platform, and essentially remake the original – but with better tech and safety and performance, of course. But an actual new styling direction? No.
Some balk at these types of “retro” mobiles, but I’ve generally found them to be appealing, though that appeal runs its course. The 1997 “new” Beetle was “updated” in 2011 but eventually discontinued, while the Ford reboots are also deceased, except for the pony car. The Mustang continues, heavily modified but still essentially a “current” version of the late-sixties product.
The approach has certainly worked (and was echoed by Chevy and Dodge with the Camaro and Challenger revivals), but what if Ford had chosen to follow the true spirit of the Mustang and what it represented back in 2005?
Ride, Sally, Ride
So, what exactly do I mean by “true spirit of the Mustang?” Well, for much of its life, the Mustang was a semi-cutting-edge car.
Before I was born, my parents really wouldn’t have minded a European sports car, but the compromises they’d have to make in terms of practicality and debt made such a choice unrealistic.
The 1965 Mustang (there was no official 1964 1/2 model, people) let them have a sporting, 200-plus horsepower green convertible with easy-to-maintain Ford mechanicals at the price of a loaded Falcon.
As cars got bigger in America and the muscle power wars struck almost every class in all brands, the Mustang followed suit. Many thought that this upsizing in all aspects was to the pony car’s detriment, but the “sumo” class ‘Stangs were still pretty damn cool.
What about when the gas crunch hit, and Boomers wanted imported sport coupes in the seventies? Or, when some of them wanted posh tiny luxury coupes? The 1974 Mustang II took what must be one of the most dramatic one-year change for a nameplate ever by doing a complete about-face. Laugh all you like, but Ford gave these buyers what they wanted.
From luxurious Ghia notchbacks to V8 fastbacks (with those Euro amber rear turn signals!), the much-lambasted Pintostang had something for everyone.
Moving ahead to 1979, a Mercedes 450SLC coupe was what you wanted, but it cost as much as a house and there’s no way that your sorry ass could have afforded it.
What if you could get something sort of similar looking, with V8 or Turbo power designed by exactly the same person who designed the Blue Oval’s German products? Ford gave us exactly that:
You might not believe it, but when it came out, the Foxstang didn’t even look like an American car to most people, especially with the blacked-out trim and metric TRX wheels and tires.
With the 1995 SN95 model, the Mustang was given a more rounded look that followed visual trends popular in the Japanese and European sport coupes of the time.
Styling details like the “side scallop” were small callbacks to the Mustangs of the past, as were the three-bar taillights of later models, but overall, it was a new design that wasn’t an unabashed copy of anything from the past.
In 2005, however, all subtle nods to the Mustangs of yesteryear gave way to a flat-out S197 “retro futuristic” vision of a first-gen Mustang (though primarily the 1968-70 editions). Styling-wise, it was basically the same damn car.
This was good fun at first, and it certainly caught the eye of people who wanted to revisit the “great generation” of Mustangs. However, in doing so, one might argue that the original intent was lost. As our man Adrian Clarke put so much better than I could:
…the Mustang took a step back into the warm bath of nostalgia. Since then it’s been, like it’s contemporaries the Camaro and Challenger, trading on a heritage appeal that does a disservice to those earlier generations.
If the Mustang’s appeal is its authenticity, why are we getting a fuzzy copy of a copy, like a bootleg cassette that’s been passed around high school and re-recorded repeatedly?
You have a car with nearly sixty years of design heritage, that adapted to reflect the circumstances of its time, but Ford is determined to keep us in 1964.
That’s the whole conundrum there. Buyers of cars in 1964 generally weren’t looking at something that referenced a 1924 car, much less a 1904 car. Why do buyers of a 2025 car want something that heavily references a sixty-year-old design?
What if, as a buyer in 2005, you really aspired to a high-end European sport coupe just like many 1964 customers did? In the past, a Mustang would have been aimed at a person like yourself, but the decision to rehash the past was a double-edged sword since it effectively cut out that potential market.
Ford likely isn’t crying about this choice of direction, and ten years from now we will likely be seeing a 2035 vision of the 1968 car. Still, it does make me wonder: what it they had taken a different path in 2005 and tried to keep the Mustang as a current, up-to-date foreign car-inspired design that was within your reach and also your grasp?
Do Pay Attention, 007
As it so happens, I was a thirty-something buyer in 2005, potentially interested in buying a sports coupe. But what kind of sporting two-door would I have been looking for? The first thing that comes to mind is an Orient Blue E46 BMW Three Series; a vehicle that, as a new car, would have been a bit more than I wanted to spend. Perhaps an Infiniti G35? Maybe. I hate to say it, but a sixties-inspired Mustang would not have been on the list.
No, I wanted a car that made me feel like I was buying something beyond my station. Ford had successfully done this for years with everything from the cheesy fake-Mercedes Granada to legitimate high-design-for-the-masses entries like the 1983 and 1989 T-Bird or the 1986 Taurus. What could the 2005 Mustang have aspired to? A Ferrari is a bit too sporting, and BMWs were starting to get Bangled up. Mercedes might not have been tough enough looking, but maybe a Maserati was?
Actually, at the time of the S197’s debut, Ford had a brand in their own “Premier Automotive Group” stable that might have been a good aspirational goal: an Aston Martin.
That’s right; Astons from the late-sixties DBS forwards always looked like high-end Mustangs to me anyway, so why not take it the other direction? James Bond was known for his Aston Martin, but he did drive a ’71 Mach II in Diamonds Are Forever (plus a Mustang-based Cougar convertible for good measure).
Now there’s a car we all really wanted but could only have afforded in 2005 if we sold both kidneys, and then there wouldn’t have been enough room for the dialysis machine we’d have to carry with us at all times. Could we really apply an Aston Martin aesthetic to a Ford? Well, either intentionally or not, Ford actually did just that in the 2010s; remember the Fusions with front ends that looked like a DB9 if you weren’t wearing your glasses?
What if we stole the look of Ian Callum’s 2004 DB9 design and modified it to a Mustang? I think you’d have a pretty muscular but sophisticated-looking thing that might just make hardcore Euro and import car snobs take a second look.
Obviously, the whole thing would need to get a bit taller and with a higher roof in back for more of a usable rear seat. The nose of my rough idea is an abstract interpretation of the typical Mustang face, with the downward-facing grille of 1965-70 products but swept-back clear-covered headlamps like the Aston or a Jag-wire. The side “scallop” fits naturally into the shape and continues to the front of the car; it’s perfect when legacy styling details can enhance your design and not look plastered on.
There could be a base model, a GT, and the “T5” model that’s shown. Named after the version of the Mustang sold overseas for years (since in Germany there was already a truck that used this name), the idea of the “T5” would be to make a high-performance ‘Stang with an understated, European look (just like the version developed to be sold overseas). This would be very similar to the much-loved “LX 5.0” model of the late Fox Mustang that gave you all the performance bits without the ground effect, spoilers, stripes, and other geegaws of the GT that many didn’t want (and at a lower price).
I’m thinking of a sort-of-notchback style that could translate into a convertible easily. Like the Mustang II and Fox body, the tail will not be an exact copy of the Mustang forebearers, but it will still have the family resemblance.
Honestly, we could maybe even offer subtle “sail” panels in body color or black (possibly combined with a larger wing on performance models) to give us a fastback-like style option without having to make an all-new model (the current 2025 model doesn’t offer the versatility of the Fox’s hatchback but buyers don’t seem to mind). I hate how on the German-market car below we’d have to add plugs for the rear side markers and red fog lights to the white backup lights (that mimic the original ‘Stang), but at least I have the wide license plate cavity.
Inside, I thought the “dual cowl” dash of the SN95 was interesting but a bit forced, while the S197 was closer to earlier Mustangs yet ended up looking kind of cheap. Aston Martin did something similar but higher-end looking with their interpretation of the split-style dash:
We could apply the same thing to this Aston Mar-stang; we’d use much of the DB9’s shape but keep a subtle “double cowl” shape in front of the driver and passenger and retain OEM Ford bits and a double-DIN infotainment setup.
The only things I changed were moving the mirror control off of the front door “wing” and putting the 12-volt power socket down lower (on my S197 rentals I hated the plug dead center on the dash and cords hanging down). You can see that the storage bin on top of the dash center might be substituted for extra gauges on performance models.
In all, we’d have a next-generation Mustang that followed the trends of high-end cars from the period, yet kept enough of the pony car DNA. I’m not sure if what I’ve roughly rendered up here is exactly the answer, but something with a high-end Euro car look that I could buy for the price of a used lower-level Three Series? A reliable V8 and a warranty for the same cash? A brand-new car where you could pick the color and options? Well, even an insufferable import car snob (like me) would certainly take a hard look at that.
Rolling In My Five Point Oh
Ford’s efforts to keep the Mustang sort of trapped in the sixties seem to be paying off in terms of sales. Don’t get me wrong: it’s still a slick-looking machine and a great performance value for the money. All of us Autopians should thank their lucky stars that Ford keeps this model alive as their only “car” in a world of SUVs and crossovers (and one of the few actual American cars left in general). There’s no denying that, as hackneyed and overplayed as the whole Steve McQueen Bullitt thing is now, there’s still a timeless cool to the old-school Mustang design.
All I’m saying is: There are a few of us enthusiasts who fondly remember a time when the Mustang was a living, breathing, and changing thing that gave us a slice of contemporary, often unaffordable overseas design combined with American muscle at a price that almost any of us could buy and maintain. That was Lee Iacocca’s original mission statement for Ford’s pony car, and part of me really misses that.
How A Ford Probe-Based Ford Mustang Would Have Been The Ultimate Fox Body – The Autopian
The High Tech Ford Probe IV Concept Could Have Inspired A Futuristic “Fox” Mustang – The Autopian
“James Bond was known for his Aston Martin, but he did drive … a Mustang-based Cougar convertible for good measure.”
Nope!
Bond never drove the ’69 Cougar XR7 in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”
That was Contessa Theresa di Vicenzo’s car – She drove it the entire time. She actually drove his AM DBS for a very short time at the beginning of the film too – Tracy did far more driving in that film than he did!
Meanwhile, the basis of the Mustang was taking the least expensive sedan and draping a stylish coupe body on it. That worked for decades – until Ford stopped building sedans.
To continue that theme – Ford should have used the Fusion or the Focus as the basis of the Mustang – but due to the supposed backlash against the idea of a FWD Mustang, that didn’t happen, we got the Probe instead, which would have been a great modern Mustang. Probe was itself a good-selling car that probably could have sold more had the Mustang not continued it’s old ways, and using a unified platform would have justified keeping the midsize sedan around.
So now we have no Ford sedan, and a big, expensive, overwrought and ugly juggernaught of a Mustang – which incidentally, isn’t selling all that well.
Gee – I wonder why?
The fact that The Bishop can make a living creating, of all things, alternate-reality car renders gives me hope for our society.
Not to burst your bubble, but I actually have a Real Job where I make money, but I am very thankful for your kind words! It also mentally helps to keep me going with this side gig.
I disagree with the idea that the S197 broke the pattern of the Mustang being a more accessible version of a given era’s aspirational cars. While traditionally the Mustang aped Euro design trends, the early 2000s was rife with nostalgia for classic designs. The S197 fulfilled this trend well by shifting the aspirational design to the older Mustangs people wanted but might not have been able to afford or maintain.
That said, I do agree that Ford needs to move on from it now, especially since they’ve moved so far from being a pony car by focusing too much on direct competition with aspirational cars rather than being the accessible alternative.
“Well, for much of its life, the Mustang was a semi-cutting-edge car.”
I’m glad you probed this point.
FWIW – I always thought the Fusion schnoz was better looking than the DB9’s. Fight me.
I “Probed” it a lot in some earlier posts, too.
I’m not gonna fight you. That was a great era of Fords.
I was excited when the S197 Mustangs came out, the retro look added some of the original key features that made it a Mustang. I ended getting an 09 GT/CS when they had the giant rebates. Still have and love the car. It was still several years before the Coyote motor which I would have preferred, but for general all around driving the 300 hp 4.6 3V is plenty adequate.
It looks more like a maserati quattroporte coupe
I see that too now!
It’s funny that we give the SN95 so much credit, when in reality it was a forced product by Mustang fans since the Probe was supposed to replace it. Considering the 1st Gen Probe is such a completely different car, imagine the SN95 looking like that. We’d be begging Ford for the S197 retro styled car and would damn the curves we present here.
The funny thing about the Mustang is that nostalgia is what keeps it alive. The days of people wanting to drive a Mustang as their only car are slowly going away, as SUV’s and CUV’s take over the road (MachE outselling the regular Mustang anyone?). To keep people buying your product, you have to give them what they want. If that’s a cool, retroish, hard edged Mustang that still has tones of the S197 in its basic profile? Then so be it. Having a RWD, 6 speed manual, 5.0 V8 with a loud exhaust only gets you so far, the styling has to work. It’s why the Challenger sold and arguably the Camaro didn’t (I loved the Camaro styling, but it was impossible to see out of) based on looks alone.
If anything, taking cues from Aston Martin would be the opposite of what Aston Martin did with the V8 Volante. There was a car that looks and feels more like a classic Mustang than the current interpretations.