Ford recently announced it had reached a milestone in American automobile production. A few days ago, it rolled the 9 millionth Mustang off its Detroit assembly line. Ford said that this achievment proves without a doubt that the Ford Mustang is an American icon. In fact, Ford claims one out of every two sports cars sold in the U.S. is a Mustang.
The early Mustangs were advertised as a fun, affordable, "young people’s car". A 1964 Readers Digest ad for the Mustang went a bit too far and proclaimed: "Two weeks ago, this man was a bashful schoolteacher in a small Midwestern city. Add Mustang. Now he has three steady girls, is on first-name terms with the best head waiter in town, is society’s darling. All of the above came with his Mustang. So did bucket seats, full wheel covers, wall-to-wall carpeting, padded dash, vinyl upholstery and more."
Gee-whiz mister! I can get all that from just driving a car? Sounds good to me! Mustang number 9 million is a GT convertible headed for a dealer in Iowa. The unexpected owner might not know that he or she is driving away in a piece of history.
Nine million cars later, it’s still a classic piece of Americana.
