Here is what Autoweek quoted the source as saying:
“It’s a case of reaching out to the men or women who keenly identify with the Mustang, but for various reasons – whether it be family, recreational or other – need a more versatile car than a coupe.”
You gotta be kidding me. I drive a Mazda-6. I’m obviously not the target audience for a Mustang. But even I know that this would be a disastrous brand extension for Ford. Did a Ford brand manager find one of GM’s “Extend the hell out of everything we have” playbook and decide that this would be a good idea?
Ford’s move to introduce a retro Mustang line was brilliant. But to take the muscle car brand equity built up over many decades and try to extend it to the soccer mom crowd is just downright ridiculous. Not quite the equivalent of Coke introducing New Coke – more like Coke changing its brand color from red to mauve.
Hopefully this is just a horrible rumor designed to chip away at Mustang’s beefy image. This would certainly be the right kind of rumor to do it.