Right-Hand Drive Ford Mustang Production Starts
The Ford Mustang has always been the muscle car poster child, not only because it offers the divine combination of a big V8, manual gearbox and rear-wheel drive, but also because it was only offered in North America. For the rest of the world, it became almost exotic, because it was so hard to obtain.
With the latest version however, Dearborn decided to globalize its Mustang and offer it all over the world. Not only does the manufacturer offer a turbocharged four-cylinder engine (useful in markets where people are taxed based on the displacement of their powerplant), but Ford also added a right-hand drive configuration so that it can offer the car in the United Kingdom and Japan.
The manufacturer just announced that production of this RHD Mustang (which is still built at the Flat Rock, Michigan assembly plant) has started; we also learned some information about these international orders.
First of all, 80% of all RHD Mustang owners selected a coupe instead of a convertible. 70% of all orders specified the V8 engine instead of the EcoBoost mill, which is surprising, because fuel prices in the RHD markets are significantly higher than they are here.
More than half of European Mustangs are fully-equipped models, with navigation and the 12-speaker Shaker sound system. We can assume that the 2,000 buyers who ordered these first pony cars are long-time fans who didn’t look too closely at the final price.
It will be interesting to look back at these numbers in a few months to see if the Mustang is a success-story, and whether or not the EcoBoost engine gains popularity.