Its clear that Ford have a hit on their hand with the Mustang and one they were not really prepared for. The company has sold more than 6,000 which is much higher than initial expectations of around 4,500 sales. The first right-hand-drive Mustang to ship from the country is certainly winning hearts and minds down under.
Australia’s love affair with Mustang is demonstrated by a number of couples purchasing ‘his and her’ Mustangs (that’s one hell of a garage). There’s also been a strong increase in customized license plates with Victoria alone seeing more than 340+ sets for Mustangs. This number of custom plates is more than have been sold for any other Ford nameplate, so not only do people love the car, they love making it uniquely their own.
The mustang doesn’t come cheap, starting at around $50k and all optioned up can roll into your garage for around $70k. This makes the high demand impressive, especially considering it may outsell cheaper nameplates from Ford. Australians aren’t the only ones who’ve fallen for the Mustang, so we now fight with the US and Europe for one that rolls off the production line.
“Our Australian R&D and product investments are paying off as we transform Ford in Australia and customers respond to our new vehicles,” says Graeme Whickman, President and CEO, Ford of Australia. “The Mustang typifies this excitement as we expand our performance vehicle line-up as part of plans to launch 20 new vehicles by 2020.”
More Australians are choosing the GT, 5.0L V8 coupe model more than any other and the most popular colour is ‘race red’. Next most popular are the ‘magnetic’ and ‘ruby red’.
In February this year, convertible sales seen a nice bump, with 40% being sold with the EcoBoost engine. Despite not being picked by the NSW Police, based on January and February sales numbers, the Mustang was the highest selling sports car in Australia.
Graeme Whickman, Ford of Australia President and CEO said,
“Mustang is one of our most iconic brands and we’re ecstatic at the attention and interest it’s getting down under.”
“Mustang also has a bigger role as a flagship for the innovations such as EcoBoost engine technology that we offer on other vehicles such as Focus and the Ford Kuga SUV to give customers a great blend of fuel economy and efficiency.”
