When did Ford first produce the Mustang?
Ford Mustang (first generation)
In 1964 Mustang sales started with 22,000 orders taken on the first day at the World's Fair and around the country. In the first two years of production, three Ford Motor Company plants in Milpitas, California; Dearborn, Michigan; and Metuchen, New Jersey produced almost 1.3 million Mustangs.
The Mustang's success left General Motors unprepared. Chrysler introduced the Plymouth Barracuda a few weeks before the Mustang, and although it was later redesigned as a distinct "pony car", it was initially a modified Plymouth Valiant. However, the "fish car" did not enjoy as strong a market demand as Ford's "pony". General Motors executives thought the rear-engined Chevrolet Corvair Monza would compete against the Mustang, but it also sold poorly by comparison. The Monza performed well, but lacked a V8 engine and its reputation was tarnished by Ralph Nader in his book Unsafe At Any Speed. It took GM until the 1967 model year to counter with the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird. Lincoln-Mercury joined the competition in 1966 with the Mercury Cougar, an "upmarket Mustang" and subsequent "Motor Trend" Car of the Year. In 1967, American Motors (AMC) introduced the Javelin, an image changing "standout" four-place pony car. In 1969, the Dodge Challenger, a version of the Plymouth Barracuda platform, was last to join the pony car race. This genre of small, sporty automobiles is often referred to as the "pony car" because of the Ford Mustang that established this market segment.
Joe Oros
As Lee Iacocca's assistant general manager and chief engineer, Donald N. Frey, was the head engineer for the Mustang project — supervising the development of the Mustang in a record 18 months — while Iacocca championed the project as Ford Division general manager. The Mustang prototype had been a two-seat, mid-mounted engine roadster, later remodeled as a four-seat car styled under the direction of Project Design Chief Joe Oros and his team of L. David Ash, Gale Halderman, and John Foster in Ford's Lincoln–Mercury Division design studios, which produced the winning design in an intramural design contest instigated by Iacocca. Ash's styling exercise, originally internally named the Cougar, was the winning styling exercise.