Tales of the Mongrel
By Ralph Arata
“Too Many Mustangs”

Writer’s Note: The Ford Mustang was an American innovation which changed the car buying experience for a generation of Americans. For those who read this article and own a Mustang I want to be clear that I have the highest respect for this marque! For all of those that own an MG, I wish to say, ”Wow, what a unique car”!

OK, I have always supported “buying American”. After all it’s the home team that really does support our way of life! For reasons unknown to me to this day I have always bought GM cars…..and they have been great cars! My first real GM “family” sedan was a 1984 Buick LeSabre which I bought from a customer of the company I worked for in Cleveland. A big car with just a 6-cylinder engine and a whip-lash acceleration gear in the trans. It was a cool car for many years and from there I went to a 1992 Buick Roadmaster Wagon which was arguably the biggest car the world!! The kids grew up in this car which transported us all from Chicago to Cary, NC to my folks too many times to count. As I was approaching retirement, I could not help buying the 2005 Jaguar X-Type (I called this my Taurus as Jag was owned by Ford at the time). 5 speed BRG……and the price was too good to leave. And did I say that Jaguar was owned by Ford!

I traded my X-Type and returned to Buick buying a 2012 Regal GS and wow…….4-cylinder turbo and a 6-speed manual trans. Very, very cool. That is unless you’re stuck in Chicago traffic!! 160K miles later it was decision time for another car as the Regal would still be a great around town car but Susan and I did a lot of long distance driving and its days for that were over. Of course, my first love was my Mongrel a 1972 MGB. The only issue was at less than 100 horsepower I was looking (in my old age) for a car with a little more………everything! This is where life turned a bit for me. In the interim, I had Corvette fever for 2 years (a GM car) but there were simply too many Corvettes on the road to justify the cos whereas the MGB is a cool car and these days is very unique on the road.

Susan and I moved to Tennessee and the Regal was traded in Cincinnati for a 2020 Jaguar XE. 2 Jags and an MGB. Susan had a Buick Encore but went for a VW Tiguan so for the first time in my life I did not own an American car.

NOW, the point of the story. Fast forward just a bit to living in Tellico Village SW of Knoxville TN. A lot of nice cars here but then look at all the Mustangs! To me, too many Mustangs. Every time on the road locally all I see are Mustangs. Now I know the Mustang is known as the least expensive higher horsepower car. However, when one is spending $50K+ for a higher performance car why buy a car, everyone already has? There are so many Mustangs here in Tellico they are hard to count. Well, you can’t count them. Why so many? Perhaps partially because the horsepower is affordable? Could it be that Ford does offer several different Mustang models? There is the basic Mustang, the ECO Boost, GT Models, the Mach I and of course the Shelby GT-500. There are convertible and fastback models as well as an all-electric Mustang. I recently found out that Ford still offers an optional 6 speed manual transmission…. try finding one of those these days. Of course, if there is an issue with a Mustang one only need visit their local Ford dealer. There are probably a lot of reasons for so many Mustangs.

In any case I am glad for my MGB. The Mongrel will not beat the Mustang off the line, but it is unique (especially these days). It is also affordable and even insurance is inexpensive. Mustangs do not turn heads the way the MG does. As always, I love the proverbial gas stop where the guy next to me checks the Mongrel out and says “Boy, nice car. Had one of those in college and sorry I didn’t keep it!” The MGB is mechanical. Easy to work on, relatively inexpensive to own and oh yeah, unique on the road!!

~~ ~~ Ralph Arata