Last week Ford celebrated the 49th anniversary of the Ford Mustang’s debut [1], an important milestone at a time when many famous brands and cars have fallen by the wayside. With the 50th anniversary of the Mustang just a year away, 2013 should be a year of many milestones for the Blue Oval and its famous performance car.
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One of those milestones was met last Monday, when the one-millionth Ford Mustang rolled out of the Flat Rock Assembly Plant since production began there in 2004. How long before another million Mustangs hit the road?
The Flat Rock Assembly Plant was originally built and operated by Mazda until Ford bought a 50-percent share in 1992. Among the cars built there were the Mazda 626, the Mercury Cougar, and later the Mazda6. Eventually Mustang production was moved from it’s long time home in Dearborn, Michigan to the Flat Rock plant. Mazda pulled out of the plant in the summer of 2012, leaving the Mustang as the sole vehicle built there. Ford Fusion production will soon move into the plant to keep the Mustang company.
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Though over 25-years old, Ford recently invested more than 550-million-dollars into the plant to retool and update it, making it one of the company’s most advanced assembly plants to date. Ford is also looking to add 1,400 jobs to keep Fusion production moving, though we hope they need to add even more workers if the next-gen Mustang is as well received as Ford anticipates. Here’s to another million Mustangs!