Narrative Script
Intro music
Reporter: Hi everyone today is April 17 1964 and my name is David Mockus, from Car and Driver magazine. Today we will be speaking with Ford Motor Company’s general manager Lee Lacocca. We are at the New York World Fair where the debut of the first ever Ford Mustang will be introduced to the public. Hi Mr. Lacocca how are you?
Lee: Hi Dave thanks for having me.
Reporter: So it must be a pretty exciting day for you today. Can you tell us about why today is such a big day for the car industry in America.
Lee: Well today is the introduction of the first ever Ford Mustang. It’s a new type of car class for us.
Reporter: What automobile class is it?
Lee: well technically it’s a sports car but the design is different from your average smaller sports car. The Mustang basically is a two door, hard top coupe, with a long hood, and short rear deck, designed for four people.
Reporter: Rear deck?
Lee: Yea that’s just another way of saying the trunk part of the car.
Reporter: Does it come in other designs other than the two door hard top?
Lee: It is available as a convertible and will later be available as a fast back. The fastback design is more aerodynamic looking; the back of the roof slopes down towards the trunk. The current two door coupe design is called a notchback.
Reporter: So why did Ford want to design a car like the Ford Mustang? Any Reason in specific?
Lee: Well we wanted a sports car that was affordable for everyone, and smaller and quicker than the Fairlane and Falcon.
Reporter: What was the idea behind the name of the car. How did the developers come up with it?
Lee: Well the credit for that goes to the executive stylist of the car, John Najjar. He is a big fanatic of the WW2 p-51 Mustang fighter plane so that’s where the name came from.
Reporter: Do you think this car will be a big hit for Ford?
Lee: Yes definitely. People are very curious about the car. It is bringing in a lot of attention. We have already started to send a lot out to dealerships around the country.
Reporter: How many does Ford Motor Co. predict it will produce for the first year?
Lee: We hope to produce 100,000 mustangs for its first year. Anything can happen but I think this car will be a big hit. We are trying something new for this year and are anxious to see what happens with it.
Reporter: Besides magazines, is there any other type of publicity that the mustang is getting?
Lee: Actually the car will be used in the third James Bond movie Goldfinger which will be shot towards the end of the summer. This will be big for the movie and car because it will be the first movie that the Mustang is in and its only its first year of production.
Reporter: Is this car targeted for a specific type or age of person?
Lee: No, there is no specific target for the car. People of all ages, male and female are showing much interest in it though. We do notice there are a lot of younger people that are attracted to the car.
Reporter: How about Chrysler or General Motors are they any competitions for the new Ford Mustang?
Lee: Right now we are not worried about them. This is a new type of sports car look. We think they are going to wait to see how the mustang does and then they will make a move.
Reporter: So this car is pretty much targeted for all buyers. About what will the retail price of it be?
Lee: Well we tried to keep costs down as much as possible to achieve an MSRP of 2,368 dollars. Most of the Chassis, suspension, and drivetrain were derived from the Ford Falcon, and Fairlane.
Reporter: for the people who don’t know can you explain what MSRP stands for?
Lee: Manufacturers suggested retail price. That is what Ford thinks what dealers should charge for the car with the selected options that are on it.
Reporter: On the topic of price, where are the Mustangs produced?
Lee: The plant is in Dearborn Michigan and production of the Mustang started on March 9.
Reporter: So by seeing how popular these Mustangs are, are they going to be hard for people to get their hands on?
Lee: Well there are truckloads going to dealerships and we are going to keep producing them at a high rate because of the great demand.
Reporter: Well that pretty much answers all of our questions. Do you have any closing remarks that you would like to say?
Lee: Well I would like to thank you for having me. I would just like to say that this new Mustang is a car designed for America. It is a very sporty and economical car. For the looks, style and comfort, you get for the low price, it’s a great deal that’s hard to beat.
Outro music
Work Cited
Newhardt, David, and Randy Leffingwell. Mustang- The Complete Story. St. Paul MN: Crestline, 2005.
