The Ford Mustang needs no introduction but yet surely Ford management must have been at least slightly surprised when the figures coming in show 1.1 million European orders for its latest-generation model.
And the cars don't even arrive until the summer.
Sales records for the original Mustang when it went on sale in the United States back in 1964 still stand to this day. Ford received 22,000 orders on launch day, sold 418,812 within the first 12 months, and rolled out the 1,000,000th unit off the production line in 18 months.
And this was only just for America.
50 years later, the Mustang debuts in Europe.
Ford reveals that more 20% of all orders for one in bright red. Black is second whilst 'Deep Impact Blue' comes in third.
The predominant choice was similar in China as well, with over 35% going for 'Race Red'. 'Oxford White' and 'Absolute Black' follow.
Ford is confident of the handling, dynamics, comfort and performance of the latest generation Mustang — compared to the previous one which was available for (private parallel) import but had lacked in terms of handling and interior styling — so much so it has in production both left- and right-hand drives, ready for all European markets.
