Five Reasons Why You Should Respect the Mustang II

By Marcus Amick - July 7, 2016

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Ah, another sob story about a Mustang II.

Even if you’re fairly new to the fan base, you know the ’70s Pinto-based model that once bared the Mustang nameplate is the Ford pony car that most here love to hate.

Hey, we get it. The 1974 – 1978 Mustang was hardly what one would call a performance brute. Birthed during the 1973 energy crisis, most of the models purchased were under powered by the SOHC 2300 inline-four, like this one photographed for Autoblog at a San Francisco Bay junkyard.

And in the topography of Mustang history, this Ghia-badged, vinyl-topped variant is the automotive equivalent of Death Valley. Yet despite the Mustang II’s bountiful rap sheet, we’ve managed to dig up five things about the pitiful pony that demonstrate why it still deserves your respect.

1. Iconic in Its Own Right – Consider this: had it not been for the more fuel-efficient Mustang II, the Ford pony car might have very well fallen victim to rising gas prices, which threatened to end the Mustang altogether.

2. Great Everyday Cruiser – Despite extremely low horsepower — the 1975 model year was embarrassingly puny with an 83-hp four-banger, 97-hp V6, and 140-hp V8 — most car historians agree the Mustang II is a fun car to drive. Chalk it up to its 500-lb weight loss.

3. Legendary Front Suspension – The hot rod industry loves Mustang II front ends for their rack-and-pinion steering and the front suspension’s adaptability to a range of vehicles.

4. Not as Pinto as You Think – The Mustang II gets a lot of flack for being based on the Pinto, but let’s remember, the first-gen Mustang was based on a Ford economy car, too: the Falcon. In fact, the first-gen Mustang had more in common with the Falcon than the Mustang II had in common with the Pinto.

5. Future Collectible – Scouring the internet, we found that you can pick up a few models in pretty good condition for around $7,000, and sources tell us Mustang II prices are only going up. Can you believe we’re living in a time when Mustang IIs are becoming collectible? After reading the four previous reasons why the Mustang II deserves your respect, it’s understandable how there is a growing collector market for this car.

If the Mustang II is becoming a collector, just imagine how much your ’90s Fox Body will be worth in 20 years, when everything is electric and autonomous?