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Best of the Worst Cars to Collect |
Sold for $6,500 on July 5, 2012 302 Cubic Inch/ 139 HP V-8 Engine 4-speed manual transmission Original Wheels 78,000 miles |
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1978 Ford Mustang II King Cobra |
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In 1978, the King Cobra became available.
This was a limited edition version with 4,313 units produced. It
featured a deep air-dam, stripes, and a Pontiac Trans-Am style cobra
snake decal on the hood. The King Cobra was available only with the V8
to help bolster the car's performance image. On the momentum of the
Mustang II's successful sales, a totally new Mustang was introduced for
the 1979 model year. Writers of the past few years tend to ignore the huge successes of the Mustang II and point out flaws as evaluated by today's standards. Opinions include noting in 2003 that If there were any steps forward in technology with the Pinto chassis, it was that it had a rack-and-pinion steering gear rather than the Falcon's recirculating ball, and front disc brakes were standard, Edmunds Inside Line wrote of the Mustang II: It was too small, underpowered, handled poorly, terribly put together, ill-proportioned, chintzy in its details and altogether subpar. According to Edmund's, the 1974 base engine’s 88 hp (66 kW; 89 PS) was truly pathetic and the optional V6’s 105 hp (78 kW; 106 PS) was underwhelming.(With the addition of mandatory catalytic converters in 1975 these outputs fell to 83 and 97 hp (72 kW) respectively.) In 1976 the standard four cylinder swelled to a heady 92 hp (69 kW; 93 PS), the V6 increased to 102 hp (76 kW), and sales were a surprisingly stable 187,567 units—a mere 1,019 less than in '75. In 1977 the engines’ power outputs dropped again, to 89 and 93 hp (69 kW; 94 PS) respectively, and production dropped about 18 percent to 153,117 cars. Writers of today ignore the rave reviews of 1974–1976 models, and one even describes the Mustang II as lamentable. The New York Times said in 2006 that defective steering, together with a fuel tank of the same design as in the Pinto, a car forever infamous for exploding when struck in the rear, caused owners an anxiety that was heightened by the fact that some Mustang IIs had Firestone 500 tires, notorious in the 70's for widespread failures. It continued: Ford, not content to drag the revered Mustang name through the mud...added badges from Ghia, the venerable Italian studio that it had bought, to versions of the Mustang II with partial vinyl roofs and tacky opera windows. Are these worth collecting? Well like anything if you can find a perfect or near perfect one for a very reasonable price they may eventually start to appreciate. They do have a small cult like following. But serious Mustang collectors think these are horrible and don't belong in the Mustang group and will simply refer to them as a Mustang II and a mistake. To most serious collectors these are nothing more than re-bodied Pintos. However the King Cobra listed here is the best of the worst as noted. |
