In the late 1950s, early 1960s cars were typically wide and long. The cars during this time were very slow and difficult to drive. The Ford Motor Company change one of its vehicles and launches the four door Thunderbird as a replacement of the two seater model from the early 1950s but the two seater Thunderbird was so popular that Ford Motor Company was looking for new ways to create something similar to the Thunderbird. After much trail and error Ford released its first mustang concept car in 1962 named "Mustang I" named after the P-51Mustang Fighter planes from World War II.
In April 16, 1964 the Ford Mustang was aired on television commercials every where from 9:30 to 10:00. The very next day Ford Motor Company introduced the Mustang to the world for the first time at the New York World's Fair. That day 22,000 orders were placed on the Ford Mustang, something absolutely incredible at the time but so was the Mustang. The Mustang was the first ever "Pony Car" or a sporty, compact, affordable car. This one car was in a class of its own, revolutionizing the car industry to what it is today.Throughout 1964 to mid 1965 ,the Ford Mustang had no competitors but in 1966-1967 the Mustangs competitors (Plymouth Barracuda, Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Charger, Pontiac GTO etc.) quickly responded putting bigger, better engines into their vehicles and the era of the large, big block luxury car was not more. What if Ford never decided to release the mustang and didn't care about what the consumers wanted and didn't want to invest/risk their money on something like the mustang ? Do you think you'd be seeing the cars you see today ? I think that we would still be driving modern versions of mammoth style cars.
Citations:
Book: Campisano, Jim. (1997). Mustang. New York, NY: Michael Friedman Publishing Group, Inc.
I absolutely doubt that if Ford didn't create the mustang at that time, then we wouldn't be seeing those cars on the road. Cars wouldn't be as advanced. Interesting topic.
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