Ford Oz secures more Mustangs

If you're among the 6000-plus Australians who've placed an order for the new Mustang, the good news is Ford Australia has secured an extra 2000 vehicles from the US, which are due to arrive late this year and should shorten a waiting list that had stretched out to late 2017.

The bad news is early adopters will miss out on a series upgrades for the 2017 model year, including the latest SYNC 3 infotainment system, which Ford says brings increased functionality and improved responsiveness, and is compatible with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Ford Applink 3.0.

Three new paint colours will also be available as part of the MY17 upgrade, which will commence production in June 2016, including Lightning Blue (Prestige), Grabber Blue and White Platinum Tri-Coat (Prestige).

The Mustang's most popular paint colour in Australia – Race Red – continues to be available, but the three new colours will replace Deep Impact Blue (Prestige), Competition Orange (Prestige) and Guard (Prestige) offered with the MY16 Mustang.

Other changes include the fitment of a spare wheel for EcoBoost models, although a 19-inch steel spare wheel and tyre remains unavailable on the Mustang GT due the fitment of Brembo brakes.

Ford says the changes will come at no extra cost, with prices remaining unchanged. However, Ford lifted Mustang prices by up to $2500 in December, just as the first shipments arrived Down Under.

Ford Australia president and CEO Graeme Whickman said the Mustang shattered his company's 2016 sales predictions, with 1500 more orders placed than expected.

"The 2000 extra Mustangs heading for Australian shores demonstrates the excitement around the vehicle, and it validates Ford Australia’s commitment to invest in expanding our performance vehicle line-up to five models this year," he said.

The other four include the Falcon XR Sprint, Fiesta ST, Focus ST and Focus RS, which arrives here mid-year.

Ford said interest in the first four-cylinder Mustang has increased with 40 per cent of all Mustang convertibles sold in February powered by a 2.3-litre turbo-petrol EcoBoost engine.

The Mustang was Australia's top-selling sports car in the first two months of this year, helping Ford Australia to a 17.2 per cent increase overall to February this year. Whickman was quick to point out the Ranger has also outsold Toyota's dominant HiLux so far in 2016.

"Our Australian design and engineering teams played a large role in the development of Ranger and we’re glad to say the Ranger 4x4 is Australia’s top-selling truck so far this year, with 19 per cent of the market compared to the HiLux 4x4 on 18.5 per cent," he said.

"Our kid-ready Ford Kuga is up 51 per cent year-on-year, while Mondeo sales are up 427.9 per cent on this time last year.

“Mustang has a bigger role as a flagship for innovations such as EcoBoost engine technology that we offer on other vehicles such as Focus and the Ford Kuga SUV to give customers a great blend of fuel economy and efficiency."

There's no word yet on local availability of the Mustang's official Ford-backed 500kW Roush Performance supercharger kits currently being tested in Australia.