2010 Ford Mustang Review - 1969 Vs Today

IT’S a lot like 1969 again. The Dodge Challenger, with styling that draws heavily on a sport coupe Chrysler introduced in late 1969, made its return last year. The Chevrolet Camaro, whose shape evokes the popular 1969 model, recently went back into production. Each is a clean and lean interpretation of its ancestor from the muscle-car era.

Meanwhile, Ford’s retro-futuristic Mustang, based on a late 1960s fastback model, has been around since the 2005 model year — and is beginning to look as droopy as a Fu Manchu mustache. So for the 2010 model year, a sartorial segue to a more ripped look, to stay current with the competition, was in order.

None of the period-perfect charm of its predecessor has been lost in the newest edition of Ford’s seminal pony car. But you’d probably need to park a 2009 next to a 2010 to see how truly different they are. The redesign seems to have carved away about half the body fat; what’s left is, appropriately enough, all muscle.

“Muscle goes modern,” Mark Fields, president of Ford’s Americas division, said when he introduced the car in November at the Los Angeles auto show. “This car is a modern legend — with more than nine million of them sold in the last 45 years. We needed to make sure the legend continues to live up to expectations.”..Continued