Why We Love Mustangs

In a March, 2008, article in Business Week Online, Jim Henry looked at the tango that Mustang owners face daily. In the world of gas prices that approach $4 a gallon (today’s price in San Francisco is $3.65 a gallon), how much power can the average person afford in their car?

Henry notes that there are some lower cost deals a person can look at that helps with the dance between power and gas prices. But the bottom line for enthusiasts still is performance. The article quotes a San Diego market research firm that found that almost two out of three 278 Mustang buyers preferred a vehicle with “the capability to outperform most others on the road.” This is an unusually high vote of preference for power over price.

The powerful hold that the automobile has on North American society has long been admitted. It’s part of our popular culture. People are willing to pay for what they love.

In 1996, Rudy Volti reported in the journal, Technology and Culture, that for a century, the automobile reflected the values of American life and that United States is an automobile-based culture.  At the time he wrote this article, he was not sure what the future would hold and said that “it is not yet evident that a car-based culture, American-style, will prevail” adding that  “As it unfolds, the process will be the source of many fresh insights regarding the interaction of technology with established social, cultural, and political patterns.”

Putting this into non-academic terms, what Volti means is that our culture is defined by our choices in what we consider worthwhile in our lives. For Mustang lovers, this means that without our passion, we lose some of what and who we are.

In terms of the price of power and performance, this means that gas prices will not really impact society’s needs for the cultural icons that make us what we are. The Ford Mustang is one of this icons.

See also:

Teens Now Prefer Ford Mustangs.