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Aussie Mustang buyers focus on V8

Local bent-eight Pony car demand high by global standards

Aussie V8 Mustang demand strong
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The headline screams UK Mustang buyers want American V8s – yet the mother country still has nothing on its convict settlement.

Ford UK says it has attracted 2000 forward orders on the approach to the reborn muscle coupe’s November arrival, a match for the Australian forward orders list ahead of our cars arriving one month later.

Poms and Aussies will be among the few countries to snare right-hand drive production, and the waiting list 17,000km away is about the same; order now and it’ll be mid-2016 delivery for you.

A full 70 per cent of UK buyers have chosen 5.0-litre V8 over 2.0-litre Ecoboost four-cylinder. That may be enough to warrant a boastful headline overseas, but in Straya that portion stands at a mighty 88 per cent.

Ford Mustang V8 3Those from the country that loves warm beer clearly like to use their left hand for other purposes, too, with 45 per cent of buyers choosing a six-speed manual transmission. Here it is a lowly 36 per cent.

Both countries nearly match each other for preference of bodystyle – 84 per cent coupe here, 80 per cent coupe there – with the slight lead overseas very probably due to those customers needing to sun themselves more regularly and at every opportunity.

Proving emphatically how much we love a rear-drive, muscle car, our Ford Mustang sales look set to match Britain despite a total new car market that is less than half the size – 1.11 million new cars were shifted here last year, versus 2.48mil there.

The first right-hand drive Ford Mustangs are just starting to roll off the production line this week in Detroit, Michigan.

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Daniel DeGasperi

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