As I read our message, I began to think back through the years of the Ford Mustangs.

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful car introduced to the market . . . a design icon, the 1964 Mustang . . . simple and sleek, and often white.

Mr. Shelby developed the car further, to become a powerful racecar; beautiful on the road; awesome on the track.

There was even a black version, that you could rent from Hertz Rent-A-Car, so you could rent a car and go racing for the weekend!!

By 1970, it had grown a little larger, but was still a dominant racer, the Boss 302. People loved it, even in the bright yellow.

But then, the entire automotive industry went through some very difficult times; some awful cars were produced, even under the wonderful "Mustang" name.

These cars were awful looking, even though they still carried the Mustang name, and some the Cobra name and snake badges. People tried everything to make these cars more appealing . . . they played with the back and they played with the front, but it almost seemed hopeless. The collectors of the original ones were embarrassed about all these nasty looking cars. Some blamed the designers; some blamed the industry; some blamed the economy . . . but all agreed that these were tough years for the Mustang brand.

Then, an amazing thing happened. After a few more false starts, the folks designing the Mustangs went back to their roots, their magnificent heritage . . . some would say they went back to the core of the brand's DNA. And the Mustangs became wonderful again. Safe and modern, and reliable and advanced, but still with the inspiration of the great ones from the 1960's.

And, guess what . . . the best of these classics is yet to come!!