Ford's Sleeker Mustang With Smaller Engine Targets Global Sales - Businessweek ~ Electronic Gadgets

Ford Motor Co. (F:US), taking its 50-year old Mustang global for the first time, today unveiled a revamped muscle car boasting a sleeker look and optional smaller engine that will target the widest set of buyers ever.

Featuring a lowered roof height and widened track, the sixth-generation Mustang will debut on four continents. The car's first four-cylinder engine since 1986 will outperform the new and outgoing base model in power and better fuel economy, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker said in a statement.

Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally is selling Mustangs outside North America for the first time since its 1964 debut as it takes on larger rival General Motors Co. (GM:US)'s more futuristic Chevrolet Camaro that's drawing more U.S. buyers. Ford, the No. 2 U.S. automaker, is betting the slimmed-down and more efficient rendition of its car will lift its appeal abroad.

"This was America's car, and now this is going to be the world's car," Beau Boeckmann, who sits on Ford's dealer product-advisory committee that saw the Mustang through its development process, said by telephone.

The Mustang's available 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine will generate more than 305 horsepower, the output of the current base model, while the updated standard V-6 powertrain will achieve output of at least 300, Ford said in the statement.

'Shark Bite'

Engineers also upgraded Ford's high-end powered 5.0-liter V8 to improve on its 420 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque. The company plans to release pricing, final engine specifications and fuel economy data closer to when the car goes on sale next year.

Ford kept in place longtime Mustang design elements including its long sculpted hood and short rear deck as well as three-bar tail lights that light up sequentially when signaling turns. While the company retained what it calls Mustang's "shark-bite" front fascia, it added a trapezoidal grille used across its lineup on cars including the Focus compact and Fusion sedan.

A stiffer, lighter suspension system will improve handling, steering and ride and new struts make room for bigger and more powerful brakes, Ford said.

U.S. sales of Mustangs dropped 7.7 percent to 71,459 in the year through November while GM's Camaro slipped 3.8 percent to 75,552, according to research Autodata Corp.

Younger Buyers

Detroit-based GM succeeded in drawing younger buyers with the redesigned version of the Camaro in 2009. Ahead of the model's debut, GM won a cameo for the car in the 2007 film "Transformers," about alien robots that change into machines, and the Camaro featured prominently in the two subsequent movies that followed, helping raise its profile.

In the films, the car was featured as the character Bumblebee, the ride of lead actor Shia LaBeouf. The 2007, 2009 and 2011 movies grossed a combined $2.67 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, a researcher.

"The Camaro did a very good job of not being just another retro car," said Boeckmann, who is vice president of Galpin Motors, a Los Angeles-area dealership that is Ford's top seller in the U.S. "Camaro hadn't been around for a few years. They could do something that was bold and got people's attention."

The Mustang buyer skews older than GM's Camaro or Chrysler Group LLC (CGC:US)'s Dodge Challenger, with 38 percent of sales going to customers who are at least 55, said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst for Edmunds.com. That's up 12 percentage points from five years ago, according to the Santa Monica, California-based website.

'Halo Car'

The Mustang has long been a "halo car" that has helped Ford woo buyers to its broader lineup. The version that is being retired, with a blunt-nosed and slab-sided design, was introduced in 2004. Evoking the models of the 1960s, it juiced interest in the carmaker for almost a decade and presaged a Detroit design revival.

More recently, the model has lost ground within Ford's own lineup, with the Fiesta small car making a run at knocking it from among the automaker's three best-selling passenger cars.

The Mustang scored its best sales figures in the 1960s, when Ford built more than 600,000 in a year and the model appeared in the 1968 movie "Bullitt," with Steve McQueen.

Ford's second-generation model added weight from new safety and emissions equipment even as its dimensions shrank and performance was diluted by weaker engines, and its sales dipped. The fifth generation that exits next year was developed under Hau Thai-Tang, who now heads purchasing at Ford, and initially was credited with recapturing the Mustang's mojo.

Ford hosts events today in Barcelona, Shanghai and Sydney, as well as in New York, Los Angeles and Dearborn after a 15-day countdown to the unveiling that called on users to share their Mustang stories on Facebook and Instagram.

To contact the reporter on this story: Craig Trudell in Southfield, Michigan at ctrudell1@bloomberg.net

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