[myfirstcar66]

I’ve got a piece of Mopar sheet metal patched into my car somewhere. Body shop guy wouldn’t tell me where, I didn’t want to know. I at least hope it was off the Hemi Cuda or Superbird he was currently working on.

My Dad used a piece of an industrial AC unit box to make some pieces not available for an International Scout II.
I guess it's better than car tag or road sign floor boards pop-riveted together.

 

[myfirstcar66]

i can’t see how anything other than marketing made someone walk on a lot and choose this View attachment 969157

over this.


View attachment 969158

but anyways as others have said it symbolizes freedom and youth which, is what everyone wants.

Ford did a remarkable job with both cars!
They appealed to those who still wanted the more squared style of the Falcon, AND those who yearned for something different.
The inset / top-to-bottom body curve, the side sculpture, the thin bumpers that followed and accentuated the body lines rather than boxing them in, the slanted front and rear valances, while still offering four engines, three transmissions, a dozen axle ratios in locking or non, all wrapped around a tried-and-true suspension and steering system with an option list a half mile long including model-specific items and all color choices that could be had in all the other Fords...OF COURSE it was marketing! And along with adventurous youth it gave people something else GM and MOPAR didn't - the choice.
And it was no Edsel.
If it hadn't overwhelmingly been a great car, Ford still had the Falcon. But it was. It is!
Falcon or Mustang? Opinions are like belly buttons. But in America, in 1965 and in 2025, you can have BOTH.

 

[myfirstcar66]

Along with those flying SUV's over New Jersey.

John

Can you imagine being from another country or another planet, looking at video after flying over New Jersey and thinking, "I wonder if they're all like that?..."

 

[myfirstcar66]

Most of us would disagree with @cj428mach , as would most of the buying public, or we'd all be on a Falcon forum instead of a Mustang one. Don't get me all wrong, I love the Falcons too, but they were boxier, more utilitarian, as well as dated and copied by GM and Mopar in the early to mid 60s so Ford needed something to set their new car apart from -ahem- the herd.
And @Master Hack has some good points here as well, but looking at the evolution of the design of the Mustang, as with any other car, from radical "SEMA concept" or online renderings we see now, of course these people knew what they were doing, but it was a process not unlike any other that thankfully yielded results that were not like any other.
It was the right car, at the right time, at the right price - for almost anyone - from the single on the make and just starting out, the departing or returning service person, the family needing a second car, the weekend or professional racer, the accomplished businessman with new disposable income, the socialite that needed to be needed. $2500 to $4500 got you to work and back, out on the town and back, or to the track and back.
What made and still makes a Mustang timeless?
It's because it's damn near universal.
The car made to be made by you.
We all have a story to tell.
The car takes us there.