Mustang becomes much more worldly
Global demand for the new 2018 model has driven Ford Mus-tang to its third straight year as the best-selling sports coupe in the world, Ford announced. Global Mustang registrations in 2017 totaled 125,809 cars, ac-cording to Ford analysis of the most recent vehicle registration data from IHS Markit. This data — compiled from government and other sources and capturing 95% of global new vehicle volumes in more than 80 countries — puts Mustang's totals ahead of other sports coupe competitors world-wide. Sports coupes, as defined by IHS Markit, include two-door and convertible models. "For years, Mustang was unob-tainable for customers on most parts of the planet. It could only be found on TV or the internet," says Erich Merkle, Ford sales an- alyst. "Now it rolls down streets from Beijing to Sao Paulo. Of the nearly 126,000 Mustangs registered worldwide, Ford re-ported 81,866 of those were in the United States, meaning just over one-third of all Mustang reg-istrations are occurring in export markets. Demand remains partic-ularly strong in China, with 7,125 registrations in 2017. The most popular configuration worldwide is the Mustang GT with the iconic 5.0-liter V8. While sports cars have tradition-ally skewed toward male buyers in the United States, Mustang is increasingly finding favor with women. Ford research shows a 10% gain in women buying Mus-tang in the last five years. Since global exports began in 2015, through December 2017, Ford has sold 418,000 Mustangs in 146 countries around the world.