2005 Mustang is Galvanizing Ford Dealerships

DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 22, 2004 -- Like a massive automotive supernova, the 2005 Mustang is lighting up Ford dealerships across North America.

Checkbooks in hand, customers are often waiting outside dealerships before the new Mustangs are even unloaded from their carriers. Others are snapping them up as soon as the vehicles hit the showroom floor.

Dec 24, 2004
By: Gary Hoffman | Ford Communications Network

Like a massive automotive supernova, the 2005 Mustang is lighting up Ford dealerships across North America.

Checkbooks in hand, customers are often waiting outside dealerships before the new Mustangs are even unloaded from their carriers. Others are snapping them up as soon as the vehicles hit the showroom floor.

Some are traveling hundreds of miles to buy them, and, on one occasion, customers have trailed vehicle carriers loaded with Mustangs to a local dealership. According to a Kentucky dealership, police have even pulled new Mustang models over to take a closer look at them.

"There's no question the Mustang is a smash hit. It's doing extremely well in the marketplace," said Ford Division President Steve Lyons. "We're just trying to keep up with demand."

George Pipas, Ford Motor Company sales analysis manager, said he has never seen anything like it.

"In my 28 years at Ford, I have never seen a product go in and out of the showroom as quickly as Mustang," said Pipas.

Mustang sales were up 12 percent in November from a year earlier. But even more importantly, sales to retail customers were up by 50 percent, according to Mustang Launch Marketing Manager Killol Bhuta.

"We're seeing sales levels exceeding our own objectives," said Bhuta.

The 2005 Mustangs that actually make it to the showroom floor have drawn throngs of onlookers -- some content just to crowd around and admire it -- frequently spurring warm recollections about the Mustangs they have owned or driven.

In recent years, warm receptions have greeted a number of retro-styled vehicles built by other manufacturers, such as the Volkswagen Beetle in 1999 and the Chrysler PT Cruiser in 2000. But the Mustang splash seems bigger than anything else in memory, according to Ford dealer John Nakamura at Albany (Calif.) Ford.

"I have never, ever seen so much emotion from the public as with the Mustang," said Nakamura.

Tim McKee, sales manager at Friendly Ford, in Springfield, Mo., agrees.

"I have been in the car business for many, many years and I have never seen anything like the traffic this new Mustang has driven to our dealership," said McKee. "People stop by and just stand and look at the car. I have kept the showroom open later than normal every night since its arrival just to satisfy customers' thirst for this new car."

While some people aren't exactly shopping, they are content just to look, treating the 2005 Mustang as though it were on exhibit. McKee said that a fire truck recently stopped outside Friendly Ford and five firemen jumped out to spend about 15 minutes looking the Mustang over.

Auto writers seem to like the car, too. In its January, 2005 issue, Car and Driver named the Mustang a 10Best car by writing: "The first truly new Mustang in 26 years is on the street and it goes good, looks bitchin', and the GT version is an unbeatable performance buy: 300 horsepower for 25,000 bucks?The key to its eye appeal is obvious ? an inspired revival of the late '60s Mustangs, arguably some of the best of the breed. Stir in bargain pricing, plus the absence of direct competition, and you have a formula that adds up to can't lose."

Columnist David Thomas from Autoblog Garage wrote: "I know I?ve only been driving it a day and most of that has been stop and go city traffic. But I?ve never been in a Mustang that is so stellar. On a personal note I?m not a Ford or GM guy, or even a Mopar freak. I?ve never understood the rivalry. I just like to drive good cars. Deliver me a Kia that rocks and I?ll write about it. I say all this because I?m in love with the new Ford Mustang."

During his test drive, auto writer Robert Bowden wrote in an online review that the '05 Mustang "turns so many heads, you will wish you were a chiropractor."

Aside from craning a few necks, the vehicle is opening wallets too. At Steve Coury Ford in Cottonwood, Ariz., a woman in a 2000 Mustang happened to see a 2005 model sitting on a carrier as she was driving by. She pulled into the dealership and bought it on the spot. "My first Mustang sold in five minutes," said sales representative Steve Coury.

At Wickstrom Ford in Barrington, Illinois, the staff sold three Mustangs off a carrier trailer in one day and wrote up five more orders as they were delivering those same three cars to customers. In Manteo, N.C., a red Mustang GT hit the Sawyer Motor Co.'s showroom on a Thursday afternoon and was gone by Saturday.

"Our dealers are telling us that customer reaction to the new Mustang has been nothing short of spectacular," said Brant Noltie, director, Field Operations, Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited. "Mustang and our other 'Next Generation of Ford' all-new vehicles -- Five Hundred, Freestyle, Escape Hybrid and Super Duty -- are creating quite a buzz in the marketplace."

In Dearborn, Mich., Bob Wheat, general manager at Village Ford, had to reserve a new Mustang from the dealership's for-sale stock so that the showroom would have one for customers to see.

"The reaction to this car is the best we have seen in 20 years," Wheat said. "Anytime you have sold out your inventory for the next two months, I consider that a hit."