The pony car wars are about one-upsmanship if nothing else. The Ford Mustang held court for years while Chevrolet and Dodge had their horses on hiatus, but times have changed. The new Camaro has been whaling on the Mustang ever since its return, beating the Ford in sales for nine months straight and offering a range engines that are at once more powerful and efficient than the Blue Oval's aging mills. Advantage: Camaro.
The Mustang, however, received a nicely executed redesign for its 2010 model year and, as is Ford's way, the automaker waited another model year to introduce its new range of engines. You already know all about the return of the storied 5.0 moniker on this year's new Mustang GT. You also know that the V6 model is replacing its Civil War era 4.0-liter engine with a more powerful and efficient 3.7-liter. Powerful as in 305 horsepower, but how efficient? We didn't know before but we do now. The 2011 Ford Mustang V6 will achieve 19 miles per gallon in the city and, more noteworthy, 31 mpg on the highway.
Ford has announced that the automaker has received almost 11,000 orders for the new 2011 Mustang in the first month that orders were taken, which is triple the orders for the 2010 Mustang during the same time period.
Of all the orders, 50 percent are for the V6 models, which are now powered by a new 305-hp 3.7L DOHC V6. The engine gets an estimated 30 mpg on the highway, which is a 25 percent improvement over the 2010 model.
"The new engine transforms Mustang," Ling said. "Everything people love about the car lives on, and now under the hood is a V-6 engine that uses premium technology to deliver the power, the feel, the fuel efficiency, even the sound of the best sports cars in the world."
The 2011 Mustang GT is now powered by a 5.0-liter four-valve, Ti-VCT V-8 engine that puts out 412 horsepower and 390 lb-ft. of torque, while getting 25 mpg on the highway.
Nine percent of the orders are for the Shelby GT500 models, which are powered by an all-new aluminum-block 550-hp 5.4-liter supercharged V-8 engine.
The Detroit News is reporting that Ford will be cutting 900 workers at the Flat Rock plant where the Ford Mustang is assembled this coming July.
While that sounds like bad news for Mustang, the reality is that Ford actually plans to increase production of the pony car later this year. The production line is shared with Mazda which builds mid-size Mazda 6 right along-side the Mustang. Sales of the Mazda 6 model were down some 34% in the past year.
In the past year slow sales of both cars with two shifts has caused sporadic stoppages to manage inventory and the line has been running slower than full capacity. The shared line will be sped up by about 35% so both cars can be built in one work shift, creating more stability for the remaining workers future as well as adding more efficiency to the operation. Ford will be looking to transfer some of the 900 furloughed employees to other plants to keep from losing jobs. The plant currently employs about 2280 at this time
