In 1985 Coca Cola released new Coke. In a move that became the poster child for
one of the largest catastrophes in marketing history, they ended production of the Coke
taste people loved and replaced it with something they didn’t want. Just two years later Ford nearly followed
Coke with a Japanese engineered, front wheel drive Mustang that didn’t even have an all-American
V8. Thankfully wiser heads prevailed, although
in a rush to find a new name for the car Ford did use a pre-approved name that sounded more
like some sort of medical device. So, why did Ford approve a Mustang replacement
customers revolted over, and what did they think of it when it was launched? This is the Ford Probe Story. (music) In the 1970s high fuel prices had sent shock waves through the car industry. Fuel economy was in vogue, and with interest
rising in low drag cars Ford charged in-house stylist Don Kopka to produce a concept. A WW2 veteran, Don had done the first Mustang
restyle in 1967 but had made a name for himself in the 1970s reducing the drag of existing
cars, improving their fuel economy for minimal cost. The result was the Probe I concept that used
the chassis from the 1979 Ford Mustang and a turbocharged 2.3L engine. Ford’s design house Ghia would help with
the styling, producing a sleek body with a drag coefficient of just 0.25. Inside the car was luxuriously bedecked in
tan and fire engine red, and for some reason had a comically large automatic gear shifter. Ford must have been happy with Don Kopka’s
creation, as they promoted him to vice president in 1980. They also ordered a second Probe concept,
this time a 5-door hatchback that looked much closer to something that would be seen on
the road. But Ford pitched this car not as a hypermiling
wonder, but as a car steeped with safety features. The next Probe concept wouldn’t come from
Detroit, but from Ford of Europe. If you think the car looks familiar, it’s
because it was a warm-up act for the 1982 Ford Sierra and signalled the dramatic styling
shift Ford was about to make. The motoring press greeted it with warm praise
when it was launched at the 1981 Frankfurt Motor Show, and Ford must have taken that
as a good sign for the Sierra. How wrong they would be! The new concept was quite a feat. Ford had created a spacious 5-door hatchback
with the same low drag as the low-slung Probe I. It achieved this by filling in every nook
and cranny to make the car as smooth as possible. The interior was no less radical, both on
the drawing board and in reality. The shape of the Probe III would not only
impact the Sierra, but the upcoming Ford Granada/Scorpio restyle and to a lesser extent the North American
Ford Taurus. It was with this backdrop that Ford started
planning its Mustang replacement. Work started in 1982 and it was quickly decided
to make the new car front wheel drive. Many cars were starting to power the front
wheels, including GM’s next Pontiac Firebird and Chevrolet Camaro, and there were cost
and weight savings by going this direction rather than the Mustang’s traditional rear
wheel drive setup. But Ford’s work was halted in 1983 when
it was decided the new Mustang would be part of a joint development with Mazda. After Mazda needed bailing out in the early
1970s, Ford had bought a minority stake, and by 1983 it had risen to 25%, so there was
interest from Ford in reducing costs by working more closely with its new partner. Mazda were producing an update to the 626
and had plans to produce a 2-door coupé using the same chassis that would be called the
MX-6. Sharing platforms between cars of course made
economic sense. The 1979 Mustang had used a chassis used by
several other cars, and so basing a new Mustang on Mazda’s 626 platform made sense. And with Mustang sales falling, wouldn’t
shaking the formula up a bit make sense? By the early 1980s American made cars were
seen as unreliable, with Japanese cars seen as solid and dependable. It would also allow Ford to compete with Japanese
upstarts such as the Toyota Celica, Honda Prelude and Nissan Z cars. In a first, the Mazda 626, MX-6 and the new
Mustang would all be built in Ford’s backyard. Japanese technology and know-how would all
be coming to America’s automotive heartland. The Mustang was known for its V8, but with
the advent of fuel injection and with fuel economy concerns, plus having a smaller engine
bay, they decided to go with Mazda’s 2.2L 4-cylinder and Ford’s own 3.0L V6 that would
soon feature on the Taurus and Aerostar minivan. This would give the car similar acceleration
and top speed to the existing Mustang, but despite smaller engines and fuel injection
the fuel economy was surprisingly not vastly improved. With Mazda working on the mechanicals, Ford
turned its attention to the body. This would be designed by Toshi Saito from
Ford’s North American Design Center, but his first design was rejected by Ford’s
management as something that would date too quickly. His new design had a low front that Mazda’s
engineers weren’t keen on as it would involve lots of chassis rework, but Ford pushed the
design changes through. While work started on the Mustang’s new
look, Don Kopke’s team was working to create new Probe concepts. The 1983 Prove IV, again created with the
help of Ghia in Turin, would be Ford’s first car developed on computer. The concept once again used wheel covers and
a low-slung design to give a stunning 0.15 drag coefficient and to get the most out of
the Ford Escort derived 1.6L engine. And to give the car such a low front end the
engine was rotated 70°. Active suspension would raise the rear and
lower the front at highway speeds, and a moveable front spoiler would help fuel economy. But it wasn’t a realistic vehicle. The windows wouldn’t roll down, the 70°
tipped engine needed a special casting to make it work, the front suspension had to
be cut down which would likely impact the travel, and the car used skinny tyres to reduce
rolling resistance but reduced the all-important contact patch in case of emergency avoidance
manoeuvres. Don and his team challenged themselves to
find even more drag efficiency and the result was the 1984 Probe V concept. The new design had a mid-engined layout and
innovative doors that opened out, then back as if a futuristic minivan had been caught
in a crusher accident. It had back seats, although they didn’t
look all that spacious, and with it being a concept they couldn’t just sit there and
just be seats. These apparently rolled up like a set of blinds
when not needed. But the team managed to beat the Probe IV,
with a drag coefficient of less than 0.14. With this background of dramatic low drag
styling, Toshi Saito set out to create a fitting next-generation Mustang. With more cars featuring a more practical
hatchback design, it was decided to make it a 3-door hatch, with a small bustle like the
1980 Ford Escort as a nod to those who liked the sedan or saloon car aesthetic. US legislation required that a car with such
a low front use pop-up headlights, and these would be borrowed from Mazda’s RX-7. Through clever use of black minimalist pillars,
the roof would seem to float above the cockpit, giving a wall of glass. This was a world apart from cars like the
pedestrian Ford Tempo, or even Ford’s new big seller, the Ford Taurus. The sleek, lower roofline meant rear passengers
had very little headroom, but then the existing Mustang didn’t exactly give acres of space
in the back. This was an amazing design, reminiscent of
the Probe concepts, and had a low drag coefficient of just 0.31. But it was a dramatic departure from the existing
Mustang. After the “New Coke” backlash, the old
formula had been marketed as “Coke Classic”, and Ford intended to assuage existing customers
by selling the existing Mustang as the “Mustang Classic” with the new car being the new
Mustang. But AutoWeek broke the news of the new car
in April 1987 that caused outrage in the loyal Mustang community. The Mustang was an all-American V8 icon, and
Ford was trying to palm its customers off with a front wheel drive Japanese V6 re-heat
with styling that didn’t remind anyone of Mustang’s of old. It even had a fuel economy meter! A furious letter-writing campaign ensued and
caused a spike in sales of the existing Mustang as customers worried this was their last chance
to buy a “true” Mustang. Dealers also revolted as they saw this as
a car that just wouldn’t sell. Ford was in a bind. They had a new car that they had ready to
go, but releasing it was obviously a non-starter. They already had enough two-door coupés,
so didn’t need another. The answer, of course, because you know the
name of this video, was to rename the car as the Ford Probe, after the series of design
concepts and the fact that this was one of Ford’s pre-cleared names for worldwide use. The existing Mustang would stay on dealer’s
forecourts. The car that lost out in this game of musical
coupés was Ford’s low-selling Escort EXP that was axed in favour of the Probe. (upbeat music) Just 4 months after the AutoWeek crisis,
the new Ford Probe was shown to dealers, and it was launched to customers at the Chicago
Auto Show in May the following year. It not only looked much more modern than its
sibling, the Mazda MX-6, but it was cheaper too. Customers loved it, and soon Ford had received
100,000 pre-orders from dealers. The 120hp (90 kW) 2.2L engine was available
at launch, and the 3.0L V6 arrived the following year, but the fastest was the GT model which
turbocharged the smaller engine. This mirrored the Mustang that had offered
a 2.3L turbocharged engine delivering similar performance. But the Mustang’s 5.0L V8 could still best
the Probe in a drag race. The Probe also came with the MX-6’s adaptive
air suspension or AAS. It was a clever system that changed the ride
between three softer or harder settings and it was a forerunner of today’s more sophisticated
Adaptive Suspension. Sales of the Probe were respectable, and sales
of the older Mustang took a dip, but after the first couple of years Probe sales started
to drop off. The 1993 Probe update would be headed by Mimi
Vandermolen. She’d worked on the 1974 Mustang II as a
trainee but thanks to her pioneering ergonomic work on the interior of the Ford Taurus, she’d
become the first female automotive design executive. The new Probe would take advantage of the
updated 626 and MX-6 chassis, producing a car that was longer and wider, but surprisingly
a little lighter. If it was possible, it also became even curvier
with smooth wrap-around rear taillights. The 3.0L Ford V6 was swapped out for Mazda’s
2.5L fuel injected V6 giving a 0-60 time of 7 seconds. The 2.2L 4-cylinder was swapped out for a
smaller 2.0L engine that got to 60 in around 10 seconds but had much better fuel economy
than the previous engine. The Probe’s Japanese competition intensified,
and new competitors such as the Volkswagen Corrado arrived. To make matters worse for the Probe, Ford
released an update to the Mustang the following year. The Probe wasn’t the new cool kid in town
anymore, and despite the new model, demand wasn’t great. Sales of affordable sports cars in the UK
had taken a nosedive in the 1980s with the rise of hot hatches, and this had led to the
demise of Ford’s Capri. There had been a small resurgence in the early
1990s with cars such as the Vauxhall Calibra, and this gave Ford confidence that the Probe
might do well in Europe. So, in a move to boost sales, Ford started
exporting the Probe, first to Europe, and eventually to Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But despite Ford UK hoping to sell 20,000
cars a year, they only sold 15,000 in the first 3 years, and imports ended in 1997. It seems that despite the nostalgia for a
new Capri, the Probe wasn’t the car customers wanted. Ironically, if Ford had named the car the
Capri there might have been more demand. And sales weren’t fairing much better in
the US, despite special editions like the Probe SE. The last Probe rolled off the production line
in 1997. Unlike the outcry for the Mustang 10 years
earlier, there wasn’t a tear shed for the Probe. Like the Capri before it, sales had started
out well, but dropped off quickly as this fashionable car was discarded like last year’s
haute couture. That same year production also ended for the
Thunderbird and Cougar. Both of these cars would get a rebirth, and
the 1998 Mercury Cougar in America and Ford Cougar in Europe would be a replacement of
sorts for the Probe, along with the 1998 Ford Escort ZX2, also based on a Mazda chassis. The Probe was a classic case of thinking of
a problem backwards. Ford had a relationship with Mazda, Mazda
had a car in the works that was a Mustang-sized sports car, putting a new body on an MX-6
would be a cheap way to get a new car. They didn’t think about what the Mustang
meant to the faithful who’d bought them. When creating an update to a car you need
to start with a list of features that the car needs to have to sell, and it’s clear
that “V8”, “Real wheel drive” and “All-American” should have been top of
the list for the Mustang. With such a futuristic design, it was perhaps
not surprising that the Probe appeared in futuristic films like “Back to the Future
2”, set in 2015. It’s perhaps ironic that by 2015 most Probes
had been sent to the crusher, but there were plenty of retro-styled Mustangs to be found
on the road. The Mustang refused to die, and although the
mid-90’s replacement wasn’t the all-conquering car customers hoped it would be, it would
improve into the 2000s and keep the Mustang name alive. New versions wouldn’t focus on dramatic
new styles like the Probe, but on design elements that harkened back to the original Mustang. Nostalgia sells. Even the new electric Mustang Mach-E, a car
that’s definitely not replacing the V8 Mustang but augmenting it, has Mustang design elements
to help it sell. Ford, like Coke, has learnt its lesson.
