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https://www.automobilemag.com/news/chevy-camaro-ford-mustang-dodge-challenger-future/
Pretty good read. Bottom line - Mustang and Challenger have a future, Camaro not so much.
Ford Mustang
The new rear-wheel-drive platform that underpins the 2020 Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator was designed to put volume, and thus cost-effectiveness, into the next-generation Ford Mustang, which is the automaker's single remaining non-truck/non-SUV sold in North America. But when we were attended the '20 Explorer first-drive program, engineers said the longitudinal-engine architecture was designed to be a sport-utility platform from the start.
A hybrid Mustang is expected next year as a 2021 model, and this car always was planned for the existing architecture. This suggests the Explorer/Aviator-based Mustang would come in time for perhaps the 2023 model year, with the hybrid powertrain carrying over.
The "Mustang-inspired" all-electric four-door crossover will not be mechanically or architecturally related to any of these models.
Now it looks like the current Ford Mustang will roll on at least through the 2025 model year, if not later. The Explorer/Aviator architecture isn't quite as flexible as Ford first thought, so if the Mustang does eventually migrate to their bones, it will grow to be closer in size to the Dodge Challenger.
The current Mustang is 188.5 inches long overall and 54.3 inches high, on a 107.1-inch wheelbase. In comparison, the Challenger is 197.9 inches long and 57.5 inches tall, and has a 116.2-inch wheelbase, a result of sharing a tall firewall with the Charger and Chrysler 300. The Camaro is close to the Mustang in size, at 188.3 inches long and 53.1 inches tall, and with a 110.7-inch wheelbase.
A Challenger-size Mustang would make it a tough sell in the European Union, where Ford says the car has become the region's bestselling sports car. But it might be the future for what most likely will be a two-car segment, consisting of Mustang and Challenger. Think of this next-generation Mustang as being a kind of retro nod to its 1971 ancestor, which left its Falcon compact platform for the one under the midsize Torino. Of course, that 1971-73 model was succeeded by the Pinto-based '74 Mustang II.
If the Ford Mustang does not migrate to the Explorer/Aviator platform by the 2026 model year, we'd bet on Ford skipping the move in favor of constant updates to keep the current architecture fresh. Those SUVs will be getting old after '26, and their underpinnings are scheduled to next be replaced in model year '29, according to one source.
Pretty good read. Bottom line - Mustang and Challenger have a future, Camaro not so much.
Ford Mustang
The new rear-wheel-drive platform that underpins the 2020 Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator was designed to put volume, and thus cost-effectiveness, into the next-generation Ford Mustang, which is the automaker's single remaining non-truck/non-SUV sold in North America. But when we were attended the '20 Explorer first-drive program, engineers said the longitudinal-engine architecture was designed to be a sport-utility platform from the start.
A hybrid Mustang is expected next year as a 2021 model, and this car always was planned for the existing architecture. This suggests the Explorer/Aviator-based Mustang would come in time for perhaps the 2023 model year, with the hybrid powertrain carrying over.
The "Mustang-inspired" all-electric four-door crossover will not be mechanically or architecturally related to any of these models.
Now it looks like the current Ford Mustang will roll on at least through the 2025 model year, if not later. The Explorer/Aviator architecture isn't quite as flexible as Ford first thought, so if the Mustang does eventually migrate to their bones, it will grow to be closer in size to the Dodge Challenger.
The current Mustang is 188.5 inches long overall and 54.3 inches high, on a 107.1-inch wheelbase. In comparison, the Challenger is 197.9 inches long and 57.5 inches tall, and has a 116.2-inch wheelbase, a result of sharing a tall firewall with the Charger and Chrysler 300. The Camaro is close to the Mustang in size, at 188.3 inches long and 53.1 inches tall, and with a 110.7-inch wheelbase.
A Challenger-size Mustang would make it a tough sell in the European Union, where Ford says the car has become the region's bestselling sports car. But it might be the future for what most likely will be a two-car segment, consisting of Mustang and Challenger. Think of this next-generation Mustang as being a kind of retro nod to its 1971 ancestor, which left its Falcon compact platform for the one under the midsize Torino. Of course, that 1971-73 model was succeeded by the Pinto-based '74 Mustang II.
If the Ford Mustang does not migrate to the Explorer/Aviator platform by the 2026 model year, we'd bet on Ford skipping the move in favor of constant updates to keep the current architecture fresh. Those SUVs will be getting old after '26, and their underpinnings are scheduled to next be replaced in model year '29, according to one source.
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