Before The Mustang Mach-E, Ford Thought About Building This 4-Door Pony Car – SlashGear

The concept car looked about how you would imagine — that is, a Mustang coupe riding on a longer wheelbase with an extra pair of doors tacked on. The only significant departure from the coupe’s styling was a stretched C-pillar, presumably to give rear-seat passengers more space. Fun fact: a “Cougar” emblem can be seen on the front fender, a model name that Ford’s Mercury brand later used for a luxury version of the Mustang that was introduced in 1967.

Ford

Some sources report that the concept (pictured) was only a full-size clay model and not an actual functioning vehicle, although it looks remarkably realistic to our eyes. In any case, the project was never advanced toward serious production consideration. For the originator of the pony car genre, the need to pivot never occurred. By the end of the 1965 model year, over 680,000 Mustangs were sold and at the close of the decade, that number ballooned to more than 2 million. As for Ford’s compact sedan, a redesigned Falcon emerged in 1966 on a shortened version of the Fairlane’s frame.

Nowadays, Ford only sells about 47,500 non-Mach-E Mustangs per year and quite frankly, the automotive world breathed a collective sigh of relief when the latest-generation S650 was announced. It would have been easy for Ford to justify axing its pony car altogether, following the lead of Chevy with the Camaro and Dodge with the Challenger. We’re just grateful that the old-school Mustang has at least a few more years of life remaining, even if it does mean sharing the badge with an electric SUV.