Ford Claims SUV Craze Poses No More Peril To Mustang Than Pickup Popularity

It’s a familiar refrain in the automotive industry that the rising popularity of crossovers and SUVs is putting cars at risk. Fortunately, Ford’s head of Mustang marketing, Jim Owens, says the iconic pony car is safe.

There’s good reason to to be worried. Ford, after all, will only sell one car in North America soon. The Mustang being the only car in the lineup sure makes it feel lonely and the Mach-E might lead you to wonder if its status as a capital C car is safe.

But Owens told Ford Authority recently that the popularity of other segments is nothing new.

“It’s always been this way,” he said. “Just look at the volume of the F-150 versus the Mustang. The sports car segment is still a healthy 1.2 percent of the industry and we’re continuing to be the market share leader with the best-selling sports car for several years running globally and in the United States.”

And although one of Ford’s biggest pony car competitors, the Camaro, keeps losing market share, there’s a healthy stream of reasonably-priced sports cars coming in to keep the field fresh. There’s the new GR Supra and BMW‘s Z4, Nissan will be entering the fray with a new Z car soon, and there are more besides.

As for applying the Mustang name to other vehicle types, we recently learned that that was a last minute pivot. And although it was a successful one, Ford recognizes that slapping the Mustang name on any old vehicle won’t work every time.

“I don’t think the Mustang name can be applied to any form,” Jason Castriota, Ford’s global brand director for EVs, told Road & Track in an interview recently. “I certainly wouldn’t envision a Mustang pickup, for instance. We feel that it’s definitely worth exploring the other potentials for our great brands.”

So even though the next Mustang is reportedly set to share platforms with the Explorer, its position as a sport car still looks safe.