You used to be able to easily tell a Ford from a Chevy from a BMW from a Subaru. Now it’s becoming hard to know whether what you’re talking about has two or four doors. Is – or isn’t – the thing you used to know it was.
What is a “Mustang”?
Until about a year ago – and since 1964 – it meant a very specific thing, unlike any other thing. The first thing of its kind, in fact.
A pony car.
Compact coupe/convertible, with two-doors/four seats and an entirely new look. That first Mustang – like it or hate it – did not look like anything else.
It offered a variety of engine options, too -ranging from grocery-getter six to lusty dragstrip terror V8s. All versions came standard with rear-wheel-drive and without the option to add all-wheel-drive, anathema to the idea.
Youthful, affordable, fun.
But what defined it was that it was something all its own and not like some other thing.
The first Mustang became the archetype of this type of car. A category of car it invented.
Others – like Camaro in ’67 and Challenger in ’70 – emulated. They, too, were pony cars. Similar in type. But not the same things and certainly not Mustangs. To slap the Mustang badge on a Camaro or Challenger would have been regarded as both confusing – and unimaginative. 
Why not find a different name, for a different thing?
Like, say, Camaro?
That used to be the way of things. They had better ad men in those days. More confidence, in those days.
Don Draper, phone home… .
It would have been even more confusing – and also something else – to call a car that wasn’t even a pony car a “Mustang.” Like, say, a Country Squire station wagon. Or, the reverse – calling the Country Squire – a wagon – a Mustang.
That would be like calling a circle a square and expecting people to accept the equivalence.
Or maybe, to get them to accept something else.
Like the “Mustang”Mach-E.
Something that isn’t. Using the memories associated with something else.
It is a Mustang in the etymological sense in the same way that a grass-thatched hut with a dirt floor is a “building.” Both are of course structures, but they are very different types of structures. It is sloppy at the least – in terms of facilitating simple communication – to refer to something that isn’t a building as the thing everyone understands the word to mean.
What does Ford mean by calling a five-door crossover SUV without an engine a “Mustang”? Can a mammal be a reptile if we swap words?
Is an alligator a rabbit if we say it is?
Hey, honey – would you hand me the pliers? When she hands you a screwdriver instead will it do what you wanted the pliers for because she calls it that?
The “Mustang” Mach-E may turn out to be a decent car. Whether it is or isn’t a subject for another rant. But it is incoherent to call it what it isn’t – an affront against communication – even if Ford has every legal right to call anything it likes a “Mustang.” Just as the owner of a magnificent work of art has every legal right to deface it, if he wishes to do so.
Whether he ought to do so is another question; the same question I direct at Ford.
If the this electric five-door crossover SUV is – as Ford says – a new type of car, why give it an old name?
Back in 1964, when the Mustang was a new type of car, Ford didn’t call it “Thunderbird.”
Why not?
“Thunderbird” was then – as “Mustang” subsequently became – an iconic name. It meant a very specific thing and thus, applying it to a very different thing would have been taken as a sign of laziness as well as an indication of insecurity about the new thing. An obvious – and sad- effort to bask in the reflected glory.
The ’64 Mustang did not need an old name – because it was a new thing. Its own thing. A different thing. It was not a Thunderbird – and the ‘Bird was not a pony or a Mustang, either. There was no mish-mashing or coat-tail riding. The T-Bird stood on its merits and the Mustang did the same, once they were established.
Why can’t the “Mustang” Mach-E?
Is Ford afraid it won’t?
One almost feels bad for this thing. It hasn’t even been given the chance to establish its own identity – as the Mustang was given. Even if it succeeds, it will never stand on its own. Instead, it will be subsumed under the name – and history – of a different type of car, muddying the meaning and history of both.
It is like giving up your surname and family heritage and going by someone else’s name – and glomming on to that family’s heritage.
Either you’re ashamed of your own heritage – or you’re afraid you can’t make a name for yourself.
I wonder which it is, as regards the “Mustang” Mach-E?
. . .
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FWIW, Cyprus is the first to have LEOs enforce the mandatory stab passport for those that want to shop, worship, or even interact with the parasites in goomint. Interaction might be something that the goo might want to avoid.
As I have said before I have a most thankful awakening in the morn when I hear the birds Other times I wake up with malice toward the goo.
I have been referred for psychiatric drugs for a sunrise with birds versus my guttural hate for the polis of now.
What am I to do?
Hopefully Dodge doesn’t re-brand the Challenger or Charger into some plug-in-hybrid-lesbian-wagon trying to show up Subaru or whatever.
Those two cars have at least remained somewhat recognizable to their original makes. For how much longer?
Well, they pasted those names on some pretty crappy stuff back in the 1980’s, so it’s likely there will be electric versions some day. I say enjoy the time they got left.
Man… You’re right about that.
I remember some abortion of a hatchback two door, four banger with a turbo that had the (Daytona) badge on it. You know, like grandpa’s K car but with punch!
Hi Sicilian,
Dodge brand honcho Steve Kuniskis has already said that these cars are probably not going to remain un-electrified. An attempt will be made to “Tesla” them – meaning, make them “ludicrously” fast using motors and batteries. But then they will be “Teslas” with different shapes as opposed to something other than a Tesla.
I weep for tomorrow.
“Tesla them” While making them (ludicrously fast) they’ll become ludicrously expensive novelty cars that likely can’t stand on their own without big-daddy Gov subsidies.
I’ve said this before, but I hope you are wrong. My take is they are and have been printing money with these cars (Challenger/Charger/300), as they have not changed much in over 10 years. The kicker will be how much Big Gov penalizes them more than they do now moving forward. That’s when the new owners will make the call, or not. They will not make money on new version of these cars for a while (if ever) if they do so.
I thoroughly enjoyed my 300S V8, as the best sedan I’ve ever owned, but then I drove a Ram and traded the 300 for an even bigger sedan, haha….
New York bill to mandate all cars be electric by 2035 heads to Cuomo’s desk
https://www.localsyr.com/news/state-news/new-bill-requires-all-vehicles-sold-in-nys-to-be-electric-by-2035/amp/
The last paragraph is particularly absurd
I’ll be surprised if NYC even has running water or utilities by 2035, let alone the ability to have all electric cars. These leftist hell holes are in some kind of downward spiral race with Detroit it seems.
“if NYC even has running water or utilities by 2035”
Hope springs eternal.
I often watch both versions of Failsafe back to back. It makes me smile.
https://youtu.be/dd-ypHYcHwM
NYC has a very good water supply system created over 100 years. It’s all gravity flow from upstate NY reservoirs. So as long as the reservoirs have water (there are lots of them) and the tunnels are open, the city will have water, even without power. Now the high-rises are a different story, which require pumps to reach the higher floors.
They are equating air pollution produced by IC vehicles with the increase in covid 19 cases among minority populations ?? Does polluted air concentrate in low income areas? Although covid19 is a respiratory disease,it is caused by a virus, no polluted air. I have yet to see a study demonstrating auto emissions aggregating the spread of or the worsening of symptoms of this disease, nor an increased affect on black populations. It looks like politicians are using the race card to justify an unpopular law.
Eric,,,FYI,,, for some reason Firefox is reporting your site as not secure. No images are available….
Yeah, but if you call it what it is (the Gay Mare? The Gelding? the Hackney? The Nag?) it might not sell too well.
Eric, automotive “sameness” may be a result of the societal shift to an amorphous populace, where everyone is the same, regardless of race, color or gender.
Your site is so “un-woke”…. keeps me coming back.
Why thank you, WestVa!
That made my morning!
eric, I saw a Tesla/Mustang Mach E AWD comparo yesterday. The ‘stang(ha ha)eeked out to 150 before being non-mobile. It was light years in charging ease and gauges you need behind the Tesla.
I ordered a couple Tesla’s right after that. They did me just like ebay, gave my money back cause I asked if those trucks would pull a triple axle gooseneck and they were mortally wounded I would bring that up.
Yep, here I am, still looking for a pre-95 GM 3500.
Aw nuts, that made me laugh like a good bedtime story.
BTW, where were all of these car and truck buyers in late 2008?
Oh yeah, I forgot that they have no cash as was then. I bought a cevvy 2500 4WD with the single cab, but it is still a lot more comfortable than the car. That was 23k then and the diesel tug was 30k with the same rather high level comfort. I couldn’t subject the diesel to gasoline safety. The 2500 gets fully warmed up on the way to the plater, and then stays sort of clean on the way back, thus the low miles. A diesel could not take that unless fully warmed up in the winter.
I wonder how much a 2008 super clean and documented maintained with 32000 miles would go for now.
I taught the users how to smell the dipstick for oil dilution, but they do not care if it is not their own, and likely not their payment machine.
One thing that i did learn is that cash is trash. After the deal was sealed I found out that it would have been substantially less if I had financed and paid it all on the first payment.
What is the irony of naming this thing Mustang? A vehicle, if the uncles of the world weren’t pushing electric down our throats, would have probably never bothered to even build to begin with. There is no real market for this thing.
There is no way ANY car company would have bothered with electric had it not been for the government. There have been no advances that have made them compelling.
Hi Eric,
Most of today’s cars SUCK ASS. Fugly. Unimaginative. Lame. Soyesque.
Are there any other options to buy to get around all the shitgov regs? I heard once you could buy a kit car, and it would look cool, but are those worth the money? Will they fill apart on the road lol? I see Model T looking cars, or ones which either are or look like they’re from the 1930s and 40s. And with some modern conveniences would look and feel so cool to drive. Plus, an extra fuck you to the Harrison Bergeron bland borg NPC collective.
In your expert opinion (and the EP commenters’), what are other options than the faggy HR-lady Fords, electric sell-out Jaguars, and other junk sold these days? (Besides buying a truly old one and fixing it up).
“ Are there any other options to buy to get around all the shitgov regs?”
https://revologycars.com/
Starting in the low $200,000’s.
Happy motoring.
Hi Michael,
The only realistic end run is to buy a car made before Soy became the national drink.
So – in general terms – a car made before the early-mid 1980s. You can find a “driver” – an example in good operational condition – and either just continue to drive it or fix it up/modify it yourself. Or you could buy a restored/resto-modded example or buy a car and have it restored/modded as you prefer. You could also buy a kit car, such as the remake of the AC Cobra or Lotus 7. There are also a few companies that are building “brand new” classics such as early Mustangs – but the price is stupendous.
The good news is that – provided you avoid the high-dollar collectibles – it’s relatively easy to find a solid (rust-free body) car from the ’60s or ’70s for about $5,000 or so that can be resurrected to everyday driver status for about half the cost of a new Camry or even less, if you can do most of the work yourself.
And then you can flip the bird to the Nation of Soy!
Thanks Eric. Very helpful and downloaded into the brain.
My pleasure, Michael!
“An obvious – and sad- effort to bask in the reflected glory”
Eric – sadly, think this is basically symbolic of so many things in the western world today… I suspect the Mustang Mach E will be one of those moments it becomes even more obvious…
Morning, Nasir!
Back in the ’90s, Ford almost replaced the rear-drive/V8 Fox body Mustang with the FWD/four cylinder (and V6) powered Probe. Word got out before that happened and the outcry was so vociferous that Ford scotched the plan and continued to build the Fox body – and the Probe, as a separate model. The Probe with the V6 was not a bad car, by the way. I raced a then-new Mustang in brand-new press car Probe on I-95, headed to Richmond. We topped out around 135-ish, with the GT Mustang just barely faster… even so, the Probe was no Mustang.
Thats what I never got about the Mach – E. It may be a good car. There may be some market for it. but why not make it is own ?? Whatever you think of Musk – he did it with Tesla and his various models, and even people who aren’t car people ow know about them. Just goes to show how little ambition or any interest in cars the guys at the top in the car companies have !! I suspect most of them have never even been in a mustang !!
I remember the Probe. It wasn’t a bad car, but yeah, it was no Mustang. Had they marketed it as such it would have become another Mustang Two and become a joke. If I remember the Probe did sell ok, (to a different customer base than Mustang buyers), though not enough to bother with a second generation. Automakers should never use an old name for a new model that won’t measure up to what came before. That’s why the Mach-E is so dumb. They should know better and they don’t.
I am surprised GM hasn’t made this mistake with the Corvette (yet). Though I could see two models of Corvette if they wanted to make a front engine one again in addition to the mid engine.
Some models have surpassed their nameplates. It’s the case with Corvette for sure. Up to now the Mustang too. The Charger, 300 and Challenger are too. So much so with RAM they made it the nameplate.
Hi Rich,
I almost hope GM decides to call the next electric crossover it rolls out a “Sting Ray.”
A lot about selling a car depends on the name.
And, yes, I would drive around in a “Sting Ray” or Trans Am, but surely not a “Probe” (that belongs in a doctor’s office). The latter name was an utter failure.
Can’t say that Elon is very creative with his car names either (number, letter of alphabet, type of car). Lack of marketing creativity and sheer utter laziness might just go hand in hand with the electric car industry…
Agreed, LJ –
But would you drive a car that looked like, say, a Malibu that was called “sting ray”? Howe about a crossover called “Trans Am”?
Nicht Ich!
Nope, the name should fit the car, which might explain “probe” and “aztec”. It’s also why the current monstrosity with the horse badge is unbecoming.
I drive a 20 year old Chev Impala V6. Thing still makes 33-35 on the highway with an incredibly smooth ride. Lives up to it’s name.
The Malibu should be a 2 door RWD ragtop that you go cruising the beach in, with your girlfriend, when you’re broke in college. The entire naming concept has been bastardized.
Hi LJ,
Yup, indeed. It’s of a piece with the recycling of classic TV shows and movies; too lazy – or too empty of new ideas – so they rehash old ones. I knew some of the old-time car marketing guys; Marty Schorr, for instance. They had ideas – and talent – as well as self-respect. I miss them.
From a business standpoint, it makes perfect sense to sub-brand/prostitute iconic, high equity nameplates. Stupid people always fall for The Name. Look how many people buy those shitty entry-level Benzes and BMWs.
The “Mustang” Mach-E? Somehow, I can’t see Lee Iacocca standing for a photo-op next to this oversize flashlight battery on wheels.
Semper fidelis,
Not bad!
How many minutes?
Ooooorrraaah T:
10 fingers and 3 toes….
Won’t be long until you’re Commandant.
Lido Anthony is at this moment rotating at escape velocity in his grave. If he ever gets out, Heaven help the Ford goombahs who raped his Mustang and left it in the electric substation for dead. Then the ghost of Iacocca will open a can of whupass on Stellantis. Ditto John Z and GM. DeLorean will find those who killed off Pontiac first, and go all Chesty Puller from there.
Crusty,
“Chesty Puller”
Didn’t he set up Haiti for Poppa Doc?
I can’t remember. That would be Semper Fidelis’s territory anyway.
But I do think Detroit needs a new Doc to run the show.
And this is far from the first time this sort of thing has happened…like putting a wreath and crest on a Cavalier and calling it a Cadillac…or calling an oversized K-car an Imperial.
When will they ever learn?
“wreath and crest on a Cavalier and calling it a Cadillac”
Is that the cinnamon caddy?
That made the skeletal remains of Harley J Earl gab for where his balls were.
I know a guy who ordered one of those from Dreisbach & Sons. 😂
Ordered and waited. Gold trim and everything.
We were all excited for him.
Until we saw the “Cadillac”.
Hi T,
The Cimarron was notably egregious, a real fork in the road for what had been a respectable brand. GM had previously used shared platforms to build Cadillacs from Chevys but a Seville wasn’t just a rebadged Nova with a vinyl roof and some stick-on fake wood paneling. I think Cadillac began to die when it began to downsize. Though I don’t personally like the Escalade, it’s arguably the last true Cadillac in that at least it is big and brash and has a huge V8.
A turbo-four/V6-powered “luxury-sport” car is just another car.
I’ll have to disagree with you Eric about current Caddy. Their sedans are very good. And have been for a while. Are they better than their competition? Depends, but probably not. The CT6 gave me hope that they were going in the right direction, then they killed it, arghhhhh……
I just re-read your post and it’s interesting how one can get interpret things, maybe just me. Now I see what you mean about downsizing……and the last caddy, yes you are right, even their good sedans got small and smaller. I though you meant the company downsized. And why the CT6 gave me hope.
I do like the latest Escalade/Suburban models. I think they went through a way-to-blingy period, but I think they look pretty good today.
Hi Chris,
I agree; the CT6 is (was) a good car. But it was a luxury-sport car. Cadillac used to make luxury cars; the idea of a “sporty” Cadillac strikes me as both contradictory and foolish in that everyone makes “sporty” cars now. True luxury cars are very hard to find, on the other hand. Of course, the current crop reflects the current culture – all “tough” and “posy” about how “tough” it is.
Yeah, your right. A big ass luxury sedan caddy would sell. Their Elmiraj concept was a stunner (to me). I don’t understand why they don’t get it? CAFE? GM certainly bows to this craziness worse than most. Got in bed with big gov? for sure.
I just saw a Genesis G90 and it caught my eye. It looked just like a S-class. How does Genesis get away with this?
Eric,
You speak of the cinnamon Cadillac.
“notably egregious”
As our geographically challenged amigo Jeremy says we should strive to use the bestest words.
Goat fuck were the words you were looking for when you wrote notably egregious.
Not that notably egregious is off the table when writing about that particular vehicle, but…
If you had ever witnessed goats in the act of coitus, looked away in horror, then saw the aforementioned vehicle, you would immediately look back at the amorous animals.
And upon doing so would quickly determine the bestest words to describe what you had witnessed in both cases was not notably egregious.
When your Braille keyboard arrived shortly after…
I was a paperboy when those Cimmaroids came out. ’75 I think. Even as a kid I was offended by the 20+ wreaths and logos all over the POS Chevy all dressed up for Halloween. I don’t recall the Driesbach Cadillac dealer label on the trunk though. Maybe it was Massey. In reality it should have been a Merollis Chevrolet badge.
I drive a 71 Eldo now. Open checkbook maintenance and man do I love that yacht! No ABS, no OnScar, no EGR, no cats, no 134a refrigerant, no impossible to reach parts under the hood, no electronic system disabling my entire vehicle if a window switch fails. Tons of looks from the ladies and some ask for rides too! I’m in my late 50s so I can still pretend I look good to the lasses. 🙂
Buy a classic 70s car and maintain it. That’s my middle finger to the man.
Oh, the K-body Impy was not the worst, really. It was gussying up the rusty F-body (Aspen/Volare) and calling it a J-Body (Rich Corinthian Cordoba), then slapping the Imperial name on that sad pile of sheet metal. No more 413’s or 440’s, no more luxury, just a 318 with unreliable early MoPar EFI.
Ugh, I finally looked at the picture in the article. What an ugly lump of dookie! I’m not a huge ‘Stang fan, but they were always quite well styled and even pretty. Until now.
To misquote Obi-Wan, “That’s no Mustang, that’s a Kitchen Aid!”
They call that thing a “Mustang?”
Looks more like an Edsel to me. Hopefully, it will enjoy every bit as much success as the Edsel did.
Cars are designed by HR departments with soviet design bureaus. Might as well name it *it’s preferred identity pronoun* Hir-ZE-ZE-Zir*
OK, to correct the introduction dates (again)…
Plymouth Barracuda, April 1, 1964
Ford Mustang, April 17, 1964
The A-Body Barracuda was the first “pony car”!
🙂
Crusty!
Cuda was a fish car.
Chevy had the Stingray.
AMC had the Marlin.
Fish swim in the ocean Crusty. You won’t find them by Nunzio’s at Churchill Downs unless they are mounted on the wall.
You’ve never been near a naval base?
Here is the most popular one in the Commonwealth of KY Jelly.
https://youtu.be/9SPyTVo_jhs
Tuan,
I was going to go in that direction, but opted not to bring the heat of the fish and pony show down upon myself. Glad to see you’ve no such qualms.
Also, thanks for the flashback to those 90s era, nightmare-generating wall monstrosities. They always reminded me of something from Evil Dead 2.
BaD,
As our most gracious host sometimes tells us, words have meaning.
Besides, a Pinto is more a pony car than a Barracuda.
Bob Segar, a gentleman even more geographically challenged than Jeremy, is from Ann Arbor (yes she is still a whore), so I question the veracity of his claims of pony cars cruising Woodward Avenue.
https://youtu.be/JbmxmGMuVQo
I know he lied in the past. There is no intersection of John R and Brush.
https://youtu.be/_AG9UgzGM9Q
On top of everything else, wouldn’t you rather do the horizontal bop with these two?
https://youtu.be/Wy3Uny8eeFU
Damn Tuan,
“Bob Segar, a gentleman even more geographically challenged than Jeremy”.
I spit out a 1/2 ounce of whiskey when I read that.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy,
Sorry about that.
1/2oz?
That the new and improved shot size?
Hey Tuan,
I only spit out half of it.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Jeremy,
Try switching to this.
https://blog.cmog.org/2019/12/10/a-shot-at-the-moon/
You have to do the whole shot, but you can quickly flip it to recapture any high pressure releases.
Works well for me when perusing these articles.
OK, I’ll bite Tuanorea (groaning at the pun even now).
Plymouth had a Barracuda (yeah it’s a fish)
Chevy (eventually) had a Camaro (what’s that?)
Pontiac (eventually) had the GTO (hey, now a Goat is REAL Navy! Does that mean a couple GTOs in a garage makes a Goat Locker?)
Stingray is not a pony car, but a wannabe Jaguar (both very nice BTW)
AMC had the Marlin (another fish, and a really nice pony car)
Ford…Mustang (another name for it, Pony, as in My Little)
So, if it’s a Mustang, what rank was it busted back to before it went to OCS?
🙂
You may now return to your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress!
Crusty,
“Chevy (eventually) had a Camaro (what’s that?)”
A car with a leaky windshield. Even when not submerged.
“Stingray is not a pony car, but a wannabe Jaguar (both very nice BTW)”
It’s not a cat Crusty! It’s a got-damn cartilaginous fish. Just ask Steve Irwin.
Crusty,
I don’t remember Frank Zappa singing, “Me and the mustang pony over by the dental floss bush.”
So grab your zircon encrusted tweezers from your TV repair bag and head on out to Montana. 🤓
its a Trans-car
Ford should make a model called Maverick. lol
Put your golf clubs in the electric Mustang and drive it around on the course. Don’t really want a Mustang with no engine. Kind of defeats the purpose.
When I was eighteen I wanted to buy a Mustang, it was priced on a Chrysler car lot for 800 dollars.
Back then the dealer would let you test drive it for a couple of days. Couldn’t buy it, my dad thought I would kill myself and wreck it. The reason, anyhow.
Also test drove a Barracuda on another day, got to drive it for a few days, had 55,000 miles on it.
The Barracuda was a better built machine, the Mustang was kind of a crate. Drove much better.
Last day I drove it, I looked at an oil change tag, the folded small type, the odometer reading was 75,000 plus miles. Made a point to expose the fraud to the salesman, should have just bought it anyway, the price was right. Things like that make you skeptical.
Ended up with a Biscayne, not a great car, terrible gas mileage, but you got around.
Today is National Mocco Cake Day.
In a way, you already answered your own question. Nostalgia for the past, being used by Donna Draper (don’t you dare call zir a dude in a dress!) to evoke an emotional response in order to take a shortcut to selling you about a product. Pretty much the inevitable outcome of hidebound crony capitalist industries like Detroit. Don’t dare do anything to sully the brand, because its veneer is the only thing left of the company that has any value. Oh sure, the abominable product that they branded with a hot iron isn’t going to live up to the name, but that’s not what Donna does. Zie doesn’t make the stew, zie just puts it on a plate.
They want to try to replicate Mustang love but that’s not going to happen. I’ve had Mustangs I’ve absolutely loved. This is an appliance. I could could not love it anymore than I could love my cellphone or my refrigerator. It’s not a work of art I’d be proud to own. It’s a convenience, existing only to serve a specific purpose and ignored the rest of the time, like getting a rental car. My complaint is not just the appropriation and trashing of the name and logo, but also what they’ve done to the real Mustangs.
I was interviewing a Vietnam vet for a magazine I do and learned he worked all his life at Ford. I pointed out the window at my car and said he’d like that, then. He looked and replied he didn’t know it was a Mustang, that they all look alike now. After that, I liked the car a little less, with its backup camera, multiple airbags, stability control, anti skid program, push button start and huge rear end.
An American icon is now in the charge of a cadre of clueless morons and they’ve been very poor stewards. That’s a metaphor for the whole country, I guess.
‘This is an appliance. I could not love it anymore than I could love my cellphone or my refrigerator.’ — Amy
Able as a kid to identify the distinct ‘faces’ of every year model going back to before my birth, I’m mortified to realize how useless I’d be now if questioned after witnessing a hit-and-run accident.
[Cop] ‘Please describe the vehicle, sir.’
‘Ehhh … kinda rounded thing, crossover most likely, not a Subaru, maybe ten or twelve years old, silver colored … sorry.’
[cop to his partner] ‘Gibbering old codger … probably half blinded by cataracts … ought to yank his license and make him walk.’
As for the so-called Mustang, I have only ever seen it painted red in photos, apparently pitched to aging males entering their fraught ‘red sports car, reprise of youth’ years.
Maybe you can get a Mustang in any color you want, as long as it’s red. Ol’ Henry would approve.
Folks said I grew up early and the farm couldn’t hold me then
So I stole ten bucks and a Lordstown truck and I never went back again
And it was fast cars and whiskey, long-legged girls and fun
I had everything that money could bring and I took it all with a gun
But I never picked cotton …
Johnny Cash, I Never Picked Cotton
Hi Amy,
Well-said. And – don’t beat yourself up over your late model Mustang. It is a Mustang. Looks it, too. Probably one of the last.
Thanks. Compared to 99% of the other vehicles on the road, my Mustang is a beauty, best car available IMO. I do, however, have a hard time differentiating Mustangs and Camaros from a distance, but that could just be failing eyesight. Lol, no … they look alike.
Like Jim mentioned, I used to be able to name them all. It makes me sad. Maybe that’s the perpetual condition of growing older: mourning what’s lost. And I’m not trapped in the past. I embrace the new (I grew up during the disco era. Who would want to cling to THAT?) But for innovation to win my heart, it needs to be better than the old, not just the new, cool thing. Most of what we’re seeing today is not.
Amy,
“(I grew up during the disco era. Who would want to cling to THAT?)”
Clinger here.
And my hero.
https://youtu.be/3Xsrz-6U_hc
Am I the only one that dances around in my kitchen to Bad Girls and Disco Inferno? God bless Barry Gibb for whatever octave he sings Tragedy in. That is a key no man should ever be able to sing in without a swift kick to the gonads first.
Hi RG,
I will admit, publicly, to liking Disco. The Bee Gees were good. ABBA! Dr. Hook! Sometimes, I get in the mood…
Haha… that’s funny Eric and RG. I too have a playlist called ‘disco’ and my wife and I have a blast with the songs. When one comes on with someone else in the car, I usually get a ‘look’, and I laugh “sucks to be you if you don’t like this stuff, or won’t admit it”, haha………….
Thanks for the memories RG
Hi Chris,
Do your children look at you in horror when LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” or Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” comes on? Mine do. There is usually a bit of “Daddd, tell Mom to stop singing“ or “Mom, you are hurting the dogs ears.” 😁
The Bee Gees got a really bad wrap. They are quite talented. I like most of their music including the older tunes like “Massachusetts” and “Lonely Days.”
Hi RG,
My kids laughed at me for having all the ABBA albums, then the movie/show Mama Mia became a hit and suddenly dad was hip. 😆
Hi Mike,
I still haven’t seen that movie after all of these years! I need to sit down one day and watch it. I grew up with ABBA on 8 track. I think Waterloo was one of the very first songs I remember hearing from my childhood.
I don’t know how it is with your family, but every kid in my extended family (under the age of 25) loves ABBA and Queen. Every single one of them, even the 3 year old.
God forbid if Dancing Queen or Bohemian Rhapsody comes on the radio during a family get together. I expect the disco ball to come out of the ceiling, because the party has begun!
ohhh yeah they do. Not so much anymore as they are young 20’s, but I have a funny story. When they were early teens, and I had to take them to sports stuff, etc…, if they weren’t behaving I would crank the disco tunes and get out of my truck in front of their friends and start dancing. They behaved instantly. I think I only had to do it twice.
LOL. I can picture that! There is no greater joy to a parent than having the ability to embarrass their teenager. 🙂
Especially if you dance like Elaine on Seinfeld, haha……
Eric,
And you’re still tryin’ to understand
The New York Times’ effect on man.
For 44 years.
Hi T,
I’ll be stayin’ alive as long as I can…
Eric,
Tall, fit, and stayin’ alive ain’t living son.
At least that’s what Dean Wormer use to say.
Best enjoyed on original 8 track tape! 🙂
(I have a working 8T deck in my car and quite a few tapes.)
Restored a couple Mustangs back in the day (68 fastback, 67 convertible with pony interior) did the car show thing. Then went a different direction and restored a 71 BMW 2800 CSA, only 84 imported that year. Wish I still had them all.
IMHO, the last truly distinctively styled car was the (should have been Plymouth) Chrysler PT Cruiser in 2000. Terrible underhood access, so not really a favorite, but as far as uniqueness, I don’t think I’ve seen anything since then that was not an “angry Samurai” or “leering bullfrog” type of styling. The New Beetle in 1998 was another recent truly uniquely styled car. Since then, styling-wise, appliances.
Crusty,
“(should have been Plymouth) Chrysler PT Cruiser in 2000.”
I grant you your Plymouth but subtract three years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Prowler
Amy – though the mustang has all those things you say – I find of all the modern cars out there, they nag and annoy you the least.. I mean the stability control / anti skid hardly does anything it seems…always get plenty of slip at the back, especially compared to the german cars I’ve driven. Its almost as if they put it in just to satisfy the regulators that its there and they’ve ticked the box. Though it may be because the one i got is a manual or maybe because I’m a terrible driver and not worthy of the car 😛
I was surprised to learn my mustang has a geezer alarm – a little bell rings when you’ve left your turn signal on for 20 miles or whatever. I’m not sure if it goes by time or miles. My husband triggered his on his truck. It went off on the interstate and he had no idea what the bell was ringing for. It took him a mintute looking at the dash guages and yelling “What? What is it?” before he figured out he was engaging in geezerhood driving.
So we were out in the country with no one around and I left the signal on to see if the mustang has it. It’s a loud, very insistent bell, more suitable for something like a wheel about to come off or you’ve let the nuclear reactor overheat vs. just leaving the blinker on, which is stupid and annoying to those around you, but not really an emergency.
Hi Amy,
Hilarious – and, I’ll raise you.
The ’21 Kia I am test driving this week will prompt you with “car ahead is pulling away” if you don’t respond in time to forward movement of traffic.
We’re circling the drain even faster than I thought!
Those Geezer alarms you all describe reminded me of the new(er?) cars in Japan in the 1980’s.
When the driver would accelerate faster than the posted speed limit, or a pre-set limit maximum (I don’t know which) an alarm would let out a “Ding-ding-ding” sound until the driver slowed down.
A trip on the hyway was a constant wave, peak and crash, of “Ding-ding-ding”‘s as the driver speed up for awhile, then slowed down.
Back then, I found it to be a bit bizarre, and at the same time, humorous,.
Now, there ain’t nuthin’ funny ’bout any of it.
haha, that’s all good stuff. Thank you all.
I too have been very frustrated with all this stuff getting worse and worse. But I think there are manufacturers that ‘get it’ sometimes. For example, when I got my first late model 300 about 5 years ago, I was pleasantly surprised how/why the engineers ‘tuned’ this stuff, to me, way better than other manuf. I owned. I loved the car for some of those reasons. Example is my GM trucks stability thing was excessively daunting and beeped at me all the time and took-control of the truck when I normally drive my-way around. Now my new Ram doesn’t do it to me, yes!
However, Nasir, it may have saved my life on a recent trip over the Cascades. Driving way faster than I should have in the rain on the interstate, a long and deep stream of water was coming across the road around a turn and it caught me off-guard. The problem was I was passing another car to the right of me. I knew I was in doo-doo, in less than a second. I don’t know if the truck saved me, or I got lucky that I had very good new tires on it with deep tread. I will say that I don’t think it was me, just based on experience, cause the truck should have hit the other car and it could have been disastrous in those mountain passes. The truck bogged down in the water and started going right, with my foot still on the gas. The scary part is the back started coming around and I braced hitting the other car, or worse. It all was about 2-3 seconds, and I couldn’t believe she righted herself about 1/4 way in the other lane. I faintly remember a light blinking in the dash, which leads me to believe it was the engineers. Thank you FCA guys!
Chris – good to know it helped you. Personally I dont think I drive enough to really need it, and usually the roads in the UK you cant get to that much speed because they are too narrow / bendy. And where I live there are plenty of clovers, Karens, and glaucomic grandmas around to make sure I can never get that fast…. Maybe if I go further out in the country maybe….
Having said that again the Mustang doenst do the annoying cutting the engine quite aggressively the way say the VAG cars do… it makes it at least feel like its not doing anything…
The rural western-usa is huge and interstate roads are usually relatively empty. you have to (and can) go fast to get anywhere. it’s very safe relative, but not in rain in the mountains, as I learned.
Helot – your mention if geezer alarms in 80s cars – brings back a memory cruising with friends in the 90s back in Karachi. A friends dad had a corolla imported from Japan back then. He used to take the car out when we were teenagers, before he had a license, but we came to know that there was a geezer alarm when you touched 120Kmph.
Now I suspect this wasn’t the intention of the Japanese Karen in health and safety who signed off on it – but for a bunch of kids who are getting out on their own for the first time – it basically became a badge of honour to make that thing ring on various stretches of road (back then karachi roads weren’t really made to go that fast)….. with lists kept of who can get it going where and beat it…. yes sometimes I dont know how im alive today….
“yes sometimes I dont know how im alive today….”
You write a vivid enough picture, I Do get your drift and can relate.
I just remembered the Japanese car brand, it was a Bluebird.
marketing gimmick to associate this thing with something a buyer would want
OT:
This guy takes the vaccine.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/the-real-way-to-take-the-jab/
Horst,
I’d love to do just that myself, as I’m a nanoscientist. But lacking a capable lab of my own at this time, I’d be able to do very little.
It was a ballsy maneuver from this man, however. I wonder if legal trouble follows. I only worry that the contents will decompose before analysis. One easy analysis that would hold, however, would be atomic emission spectroscopy, and any undesirable elements present could be quickly found.
Should be interesting. 🙂