Ford preparing to lock down design for 50th anniversary Mustang

"I Won’t Screw Up the Next Mustang"

FRANKFURT -- Ford’s design chief, J Mays, says the styling for the next-generation Mustang is “being locked down.”

The redesigned car arrives for 2014 and coincides with a big historical event for Ford enthusiasts, Mustang’s 50th anniversary.

So can we expect another evolution of today’s retro look?

No way, Mays said this week during an interview at the Frankfurt auto show.

Mays points to the Mustang redesigns introduced in 2005 and 2010: “Both of those cars everybody would say, ‘they are retro vehicles.’ ”

But Mays said the next-generation Mustang will follow a different road.

“The challenge or the opportunity for 2014 with a 50th anniversary car is to not just look back over your shoulder, but to try to win all of the Mustang faithful yet bring the brand forward as well,” he says.

“It has to look like a Mustang. But you go down a list of things that might or might not be necessary to make the car look like a Mustang.”

The bottom line: The car arriving for 2014 will be a fresh, new interpretation to “Mustang” and a car that just might catch the eye of a new group of buyers.

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Ford Designer J Mays Shares First Impressions of Beetle

J Mays, Ford’s vice president of global design, chatted with the Wheels contributor Phil Patton on Monday night about the redesigned Volkswagen Beetle.

Mr. Mays’ opinion is particularly notable, as the Oklahoma native designed (along with fellow Ford designer Freeman Thomas) the Volkswagen Concept One — that car that became the New Beetle — in the early ’90s while working at VW’s advanced design studios in Southern California.

“I’ve only seen the pictures, but it looks pretty good,” he said. “I don’t think I would have done it very differently.”

“Of course, remember, we began thinking about the car back in 1992,” he said.

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