The Kids Are Alright

The EcoBoost Mustang is capturing younger buyers in Southern California

By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company

If you are a bit older you might find yourself lamenting, “kids today.” However, corporations spend their time obsessing about how to get younger people interested in their brands so they can have customers for life. The latest obsession is reaching “Millennials,” which are people born in from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. As it turns out, Ford has actually broken through with younger buyers thanks to the 2015+ EcoBoost Mustang.

“In Southern California—Mustang’s hottest market buyers are younger,” Erich Merkle, Ford sales analyst, said. “Of all buyers, 40 percent are Millennials, but these younger buyers account for 47 percent of EcoBoost Mustang sales. The EcoBoost option has flipped a switch with young buyers.”

According to Ford’s stats, the percentage of younger buyers for the 2015 Mustang is much higher than that for the previous model. Forty-seven percent S550 buyers are 16- to 35-year-olds, while that group only accounted for 30 percent of buyers in the final year of the S197. Better yet for Ford, a large group of buyers in this Mustang hotbed are sliding into the driver seat after owning a different brand of vehicle.

“According to J.D. Power PIN data, the conquest rate for EcoBoost Mustang is just over 56 percent in Southern California,” Erich added. “Almost all of our Mustang growth there can be attributed to EcoBoost.”

What’s even better is that most cars sit on a dealer lot for 60 days before selling, the Mustang is only in the corral for 16 days before hitting the streets of SoCal. So, if you were one that questioned Ford’s choices with the 2015 Mustang, it appears the moves they made have done the job of attracting new, younger Mustang fans.

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