Less Variety for Future Mustangs

Believe it or not, there are 16,000 color, option and package combinations available on the base V-6 Mustang. We were astonished to hear the news, as was new Ford CEO Alan Mulally. That many variations on a single model makes it hard for dealers to order the right mix of cars to sell to folks. A new edict from Ford calls for a tightening up of available options and packages into more-focused, all-inclusive types. The company promises buyers will still have everything available to them, just not on such a customizable level.

The upcoming 2008 Mustang will have only 200 available combinations. Most other manufacturers already have similar bundled option packages. This will save Ford some headaches and money, but will customers care?

Ford to Trim Vehicle Options (Detroit News)

Comments

"will have only 200 available combinations"

ONLY???

That's still 190 too many IMHO :)

Kinda make u think why they had 16K combo to begin with? BOLD indeed!

how does other car do when it comes to options?

Most imports have pkg, not individual options.

In 1 sense, you may feel like you are buying stuff that you don't want, and the pkg price is, obviously, more expensive than indivdual option.

OTOH, the pkg deal is almost 100% cheaper than if you buy everyone of those option! Essentially, if you are buying 70-80% of those options, you are already paying the pkg price. IOW, you get about 20-30% "freebies" (in a way) when you go for options.

Nevertheless, 16K combo is way too many, and so is 200 combo. Think of the manufacturing cost and the complexity of locating a vehicle with the options that you want (unless it's dealer installed).

When is Ford going to sell this car in Europe? I am positive they will sell some units as is an exotic model there, specially if they are not overpriced as some Euro and Japanese cars are there.

Amuro Ray: the 16K includes *colours*, and so will the 200. If you want just 10 options, then with just two models (base V6 and GT, no convertibles, no transmission option) and with 5 colours you would have no other option choices at all!

A mere 5 colours and just base V6 and GT coupe and convertibles plus auto and manual trannies, you immediately have 40 variations. Add in a Shelby or two, and a couple of sound system options and you are already in the vicinity of 100 variations. 200 is really not many!

The numbers are just for the V6 Deluxe trim no others. So it is still a lot. But yeah add the colors into the mix it's not a lot of combos.

Can't believe you bounced my comment! It /is/ a stupid practice among carmakers to bundle.

And you guys, no wonder you rate so far behind the other automotive blogs.

Fuckers.

Being highly customizable is what made the original Mustang so popular.It could be a mini luxury car,an economical car,a sporty car....with hundredes of stand-alone options.So I guess this means Ford has been wasting extra money for over 40 years now....
Cutting down on choices will put more money into the aftermarket and out of Ford's hands.Not everyone wants the same combination that the neighbors bought.

A very simple, general, but 'rough" calculation here:

Ford sold ~12000 Mustangs (total) in April. Now even with the V6 trim alone, there are 16K combo. So either I can assume that all the 12K Mustangs sold were V6, or there were, oh, I dunno, 25K combo overall for all trim? Let's also assume that each configuration is different. IOW, there were either 16K totally different V6 Mustangs or 25K totally different I4/V6 Mustangs (i.e. 1 unique configuration/Mustang). I wonder what Ford can do for the the ones that they haven't sold...

(Of 'coz, this is a very rough calculation, and Ford can stop producing the more unpopular combo, but demand from dealers and contracts with the UAW would probably meant that Ford has to produce at least one of each every month. And since Mustang isn't a "custom" vehicle, you really can't order it custom, wait a few months or years, before getting yours. Most of the buyers don't have this type of patient for such type of vehicle anyways. They will just ask the dealer to get the configuration thru' dealer trades or directly from warehouse/factory.)

So, Paul, does this "kinda" answer your question? Yes, Ford has been wasting money for many, many years. Popular is 1 thing, but Ford's out there to make money, not to make itself "popular." There are many times that it is more beneficial to leave the "modification" to the aftermarket. Look at Nissan, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes, Audi...and even for the domestics too! (Stillen, for example, is a very good one.)

BTW, that's one of the reasons why imports, esp. the Japanese, have been so successful in selling their vehicles with much fewer options/pkgs, while making money in each model (in general).

And Thor, the chance of Mustang being sold in Europe, IMHO, is close to NADA! With the internet being so common these days, and that many Europeans are working in the US, they know that the Mustang is just a "regular" vehicle with NO excitment. I mean, if you compare the handling and performance, etc. with any of the European makes like Audi, BMW, Renault, MB, the Mustang is NOTHING! With the price of Mustang so cheap in the US, it's just tough to convince Europeans that it's an exotic model. Moreover, you've to look at the engine displacement and the size of the Mustang: too large (= tax penalty for most people) and too big for most European streets (the main reason why most Europeans drive small cars!) respectively. In summary, you've a "cheap US" car, with large engine and big size, and once it lands in Europe, it suddenly becomes very expensive, and yet, it really doesn't come close to what Europeans have expected in terms of performance - especially when they can buy BMW, Audi, etc. at a much lower price than what Americans are paying in the US (taxi cabs in Europe are MB, BMW, Audi, etc. becuase they are very cheap...esp when compared to the US)

I can't believe there are 16,000 combos. I definitely don't see it on their webpage. mmmm dealers must simplify for most customers. Only customers who want to pay a premium would get a ton of options.