Mustang factory temporarily closed

Flat Rock shut down as sales decline

With the Ford Mustang now available in right-hand drive (just in case you hadn't heard), the reasonable assumption would be that supply would struggle to keep up with the queue of customers wanting to buy one. However, despite strong initial popularity in Europe, Ford has shut the Flat Rock factory for a week "to match production capacity with demand".

Have you seen many?

The facility was shut down yesterday, with its reopening scheduled for October 17. It follows a 32 per cent decline in sales of the Mustang in America last month, where it was in fact outsold by the Camaro for the first time in nearly two years. This was no doubt helped by additional discounts on the Chevy at the moment (as it's about to be replaced), but that's still a big drop.

It's said to be indicative of a general slowdown in the American car market rather than an issue specific to Ford. That being said, Ford is said to have an 89-day supply of Mustangs (where 60 would be a typical figure), implying that demand has been slowing for a while. For this year to date, US Mustang sales figures are down 9.3 per cent, at 87,258.

It's unknown yet how this will affect UK Mustangs but, with so many already said to be in supply, getting hold of one shouldn't be an issue. There may well be delays for cars with a unique spec though. It will be interesting as well to monitor Mustang success in the UK; with the aficionados having secured one immediately, how many more prospective Mustang buyers are there? Over to you...

[Sources: Autocar, AutoNewsEurope]

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ukaskew

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