The first buyer drove home in a Ford Mustang on April 14, 1964. America’s dreams haven’t been the same since. (Though, funny enough, that first one was sold in Canada).
What started as an effort to attract younger buyers to the Ford brand wound up attracting millions of buyers over the course of 60 years – so far.
Last One Standing
Everyone else is rethinking the pony car. Dodge shut down Challenger production and is easing fans into the electric era with a 2025 Charger available with six cylinders or, if you want more speed, electric power. Chevy has retired the Camaro (likely to unretire it in a few years as an electric vehicle).
But the Mustang is going nowhere. In its seventh generation, it’s available with anywhere from 315 to 500 horsepower (or 800, if you consider the barely-road-legal GTD a Mustang, though most buyers just tow that one to the race track). It has touchscreens and a drift stick that would make the buyer of that first Mustang marvel. But the formula remains – lots of power, rear-wheel drive (RWD), and looks that combine curves and straight lines to suggest muscle.
You can still get it in a convertible. You can still get it with a stick.
Ford says the Mustang marks its birthday “as America’s best-selling sports car based on 2023 U.S. registrations – and as the best-selling sports car globally for more than ten years.” The company has “sold more Mustangs in our history than the population of major cities like Chicago, London, or Seoul,” notes Ford’s Jeff Marentic, General Manager, North America/Global Truck, Family, and Enthusiast Vehicles.
Birthday Celebration in Charlotte
Ford will celebrate the Mustang’s 60th with an event almost 60 years to the day from that first sale. On April 17, the faithful can gather at Charlotte Motor Speedway to honor the last true muscle car. Ford says fans will “meet Ford Performance racing drivers, get up close and personal with monster Mustangs, including the Mustang Mach-E 1400, and see the entire array of racing Mustangs in one place. Ride-alongs in Mustangs on a drift track and around Charlotte’s famed Roval will give a first-hand taste of not just Mustang performance, but some of the skills they can learn through Mustang’s new ownership experiences.”
They’ll also get an up-close look at a 60th Anniversary Appearance Package created to mark the year. We know it will wear “a special Vermillion Red and Ebony Black logo, inspired by the badging and wheel center caps on the Mustang that debuted at the 1964 World’s Fair, at the New York Auto Show.” The rest is a mystery for now.
If you can’t make it, Ford will livestream it.
And some Mustang owners will get a birthday gift from Ford. The company explains, “Seventh-generation Mustang owners,” those who own a car from model year 2024, “can celebrate the 60th anniversary with an exclusive new feature coming to their cars around April 17. Owners will need to turn on ‘Automatic Software Updates’ in the ‘Settings’ menu through their vehicle’s SYNC 4 touchscreen to receive this special feature.”
