How Ford Turned the 1999 SVT Cobra Crisis into a Win that Saved the Mustang
In the summer of 1999, Ford had a problem — and it was a big one. The signs that something had gone wrong with the launch of the New Edge-generation Ford Mustang SVT Cobra were subtle at first, but began almost immediately after the top-tier pony car went on sale.
It started with a trickle of owners complaining to dealers (and to each other), that they’d been walked in street races and at the drag strip, usually by rival vehicles that on paper, at least, shouldn’t have had a chance in a straight line contest. That trickle grew into a torrent when a couple of disgruntled Cobra customers took their cars to the dyno and discovered that the numbers being produced by their brand-new engines weren’t matching the 320 ponies Ford had advertised.
What happened next provides a clear-cut blueprint of exactly how a car company in crisis should act. Not only did Ford and SVT quickly step in with a plan to directly address Cobra concerns, but the steps taken during 1999 played no small role in setting up the Mustang’s future at the company …
(photo credit: Ford)
