Ford Mustang

Ford Motor Company has sold well over 10 million Mustangs in the past 46 years and created 100 million more memories of youthful indulgence, magical first dates and unforgettable Friday night cruises. Now, as the fifth-generation 2011 Mustang rolls off the assembly line and into Ford dealership showrooms across the country, many who have experienced and reveled in the Mustang mystique think back to how it all started.

The first Ford Mustang rolled off the assembly line in Dearborn, Michigan, on March 9th 1964. A month later, on April 17th 1964, Mustang made its worldwide debut. But, the journey from drawing board, to assembly line and to driveways all across the American landscape actually began many years before, in the fertile imagination of a young man named Lee Iacocca.

Iacocca joined the Ford organization in 1946. Although trained as an engineer, he soon realized his personal passion and future was in sales. Iacocca spent years as a field manager helping dealers promote and sell some of Ford's most undesirable products.

In 1956, his "56 for $56" campaign, advertising that buyers could purchase a new 1956 Ford for only $56 per month, caught the attention of senior management. Robert McNamara, then vice president of Ford Division, summoned him to Detroit. Once there, Iacocca's sales savvy soon helped him lap everyone else on the executive fast track. In 1960, Ford chairman Henry Ford II promoted him to Vice President and General Manager of the Ford Division.