Tuesday 23rd May 2017

Ford Mustang is best-selling sports car on earth

Sports car? Argue the toss on that but it's got a big V8 driving the rear wheels and we can't seem to get enough of them

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The Ford Mustang has been an American institution for over half a century but it's only recently we've been able to officially join the fun and enjoy Pony Cars with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. Now figures released by Ford show that, by its definition, it's the biggest selling sports car on the planet, with 150,000 sold in the US, over 4,500 sold in the UK and a non-US market growth of 101 per cent in 2016.

The people have spoken

All very good. But the big question - and one we're interested in, given we love V8s and are running a 5.0 GT Mustang on the PH Fleet - is how many people are going the whole hog and how many are simply happy to have the look and a four-cylinder Ecoboost engine? Well, the good news is that here in the UK we're fully on board with the muscle car dream and 70 per cent of buyers - or 3,150 of the 4,500 so far sold - have been for the V8. Which is good news now and good news further down the line, when many of these cars will no doubt appear in the PH classifieds. Engine downsizing? Who needs it!

Ford is keen to keep this sales pace moving forward, with Roelant de Waard, VP, Marketing Sales and Services, Ford Europe quoted "From the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, the Ford Mustang has topped the sports car sales charts in markets across Europe." Long live the naturally aspirated V8 - a theme we'll be returning to in some detail in the not too distant.

[j_s14a]

Not really much of a debate, it isn't a Sports car. Great, none the less.