10,000,000TH FORD MUSTANG BUILT, WITH NO SIGN OF SLOWING DOWN

Ten million cars is a lot of cars. Only about 25 nameplates have ever crossed that mega-threshold and now, Ford adds its Mustang to that list. The Blue Oval invited owners of all 54 years out to its Dearborn, Michigan, headquarters and then to the Flat Rock Plant, where the Mustang has been built since the fifth generation began production in 2004.

For me, it was a 1993 GT. It was owned by my sister’s boyfriend, I was 12 or 13 years old, and it became my new favorite car. I remember him flying around the neighborhood, using the five-speed shifter, and me watching the tach just go up and down. One of those was there, as was a ’68 GT500KR, and a Cobra R, a Steeda, Roush and Boss 302 and basically any other version of Mustang you could imagine. A couple hundred like-minded owners, gathered together under one pony banner.

The 10,000,000th to roll off the production line was a lot like the first: a Wimbledon white convertible GT. This 2019 model comes with a 5.0-liter V8 making 460 hp while the original, with its three-speed manual, put down 164 horses.

“Mustang is the heart and soul of this company and a favorite around the world,” said Jim Farley, president of global markets, Ford Motor Company. “I get the same thrill seeing a Mustang roll down a street in Detroit, London or Beijing that I felt when I bought my first car, a 1966 Mustang coupe that I drove across the country as a teenager. Mustang is a smile-maker in any language.”

At Flat Rock, hundreds of line workers came out to the parking lot to celebrate, while Ford was stationing each year to complete the figure “10,000,000” including commas, using Mustang sheetmetal. Those comma spots were occupied by Mustang 001 and number 10,000,000. Ford brought out the drones to get the photo and employed a few flyboys to pass over with three P-51 Mustang fighter planes.

Both Wimbledon white convertibles.

Can Ford do 10,000,000 more? Why not? The most-powerful road-going Mustang is coming next year as the new GT500, and some sort of electrified version will be here shortly after. Even if autonomous driving takes over, there’s no reason one of those future pods can’t have a pony on the hood.

Plus, it has a ways to go to catch Ford’s best-selling vehicle of all time: The F-150 has sold more than 40 million examples.

Source: Autoweek