The Pony Cars
In April 17, 1964 Ford Motor Company, then under Lee Iacocca, launched the Ford Mustang. It was an instant success and it created a new class of automobiles, which was later to be known as the pony cars. The term was coined the then editor of Car Life magazine, Dennis Shattuck, obviously in reference to the first car of the new car class.
The seeds of the pony cars can be traced to the late 1950s with the transformation of the Ford Thunderbird from a two-seater to a larger personal luxury car with four seats. Both buyers and dealers, however, missed the original Thunderbird which prompted Ford to revive the car.
In addition to this, sportier cars with bucket seats in sizes ranging from compacts to full-size were becoming popular. Some of the cars that were attracting attention were Chevrolet Corvair Monza, Plymouth Valiant Signet, Dodge Dart GT, and Rambler American’s Rogue. Ford, for its part, offered the Falcon Futura and Futura Sprint.
Iacocca, however, believed that there was a growing number of young car buyers who were looking for sporty and fast cars with an image that breaks from the past, but with an affordable price. Instead of reviving the Thunderbird to meet this demand, Ford came up with the Mustang.
The distinguishing features of the Mustang and all subsequent pony cars are their “long hoods, short decks, and open mouths”, the now classic description of cars belonging to this genre. They were affordable, or at least their base models were. When first introduced, their prices were under $2,500 (1965 dollar value). With all the options available, however, this could get considerably higher. To help keep prices down, the cars were assembled from mass-produced “off-the-shelf” components.
After the Mustang, other car manufacturers scrambled to grab their share of the market. The Plymouth Barracuda, although introduced 16 days earlier, was marketed as a pony car. While GM initially attempted to restyle the Corvair as a pony car, it eventually gave up and instead brought in the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird in 1967. Ford’s Mercury Division also introduced the Cougar while AMC joined the fray with its Javelin, also in 1967. In 1970, the Dodge Challenger was also launched.
The Challenger was the last of the pony cars launched during the era. This was because their redesigns made them bigger, heavier, and more expensive which defeated the very purpose for which they were launched. The oil crises of the early 70s did nothing to help either. Most buyers began to move to smaller and more compact cars, while those who had the money shifted to more luxurious models.
A revival of the pony cars began when a redesigned Mustang was unveiled in 2005. Like its predecessor 40 years earlier, the new Mustang was also a success. This prompted Chrysler to revive the Challenger in 2008 and GM to reintroduce the Camaro in 2010.