Sometimes a car is just a car, sitting under the hot sun in the grocery store parking lot.
But not always.
A car may also be a ticket to past and future experiences we’ll hold onto forever, a time machine that reminds us of people loved and lost. When we’re lucky, we get to savor small moments during this period of uncertainty, and create new memories that nourish our souls.
It’s definitely the latter for women from across the country who spoke to the Detroit Free Press about their Mustangs.
Charla Brannon of Chapel Hill, Tennessee − when asked why she didn’t drive a Chevy Camaro instead − wondered aloud if the reporter was trying to insult her.
Love for the Mustang is heartwarming and funny and over the top. It’s a cult following, with clubs and meetups from coast to coast and overseas that attract hundreds and thousands at a time from all income levels. These women show off their personalized cars, some decorated with glitter or rhinestones, and swap stories.
Ford revealed a new gas powered 2024 Mustang at the Detroit auto show this month that continues that tradition.
“Mustang is the poster child of the pony car class,” said Jonathan Klinger, vice president of car culture at Traverse City-based Hagerty, a specialty insurer of collector vehicles. Mustang is the top insured classic car, he said.
Mustang is nearly 60 years old, and Ford sales exceed 10 million. More than one in five Mustang buyers is female and trending younger, said Jim Owens, Ford Mustang marketing manager.
For women, there’s something a little different about the car and owning it. Some say they have to prove they’re part of the Mustang family. Others say Mustang is part of their family.
These are their stories:
‘Drive for hours’
Grace Poer, 47, an administrative assistant from Riverview, Florida, just south of Tampa, said her 24-year-old daughter with autism has always loved Mustangs. As a single mom, Poer would rent a Mustang for Kathryn’s birthday weekend every year, put down the top and drive for hours.
“The day she graduated from high school, we went and bought one,” Poer said. “Her hair is blowing in the wind. We’re like (the movie) Thelma and Louise, but there’s no driving off the cliff. With a Mustang, you don’t feel so cooped in. It’s like therapy.”
Poer and her husband, Robert, met at a Mustang event four years ago. She has a black 1997 Mustang Cobra convertible and black 2020 Mustang GT. He has an orange 2016 Mustang GT and white 1998 Mustang Cobra coupe.
“The biggest thing is that it’s a classic muscle car. Especially for women, that’s empowerment,” Poer said. “It’s very satisfying to know there are so many women that like cars, that are into cars, that understand cars. We’re not all dependent on men.”
Keeping a promise
Gina Encinas, 61, a retired kindergarten teacher from El Centro, California vowed as a child she would one day buy a Mustang convertible and take her grandma for a ride.
“Well, my father bought me a used 1979 Mustang which I totaled two hours after I got it,” Encinas said. “In my defense, someone ran into me. I wasn’t hurt, but my dad said no more small cars for you, so he replaced it with a giant Mercury Monarch. The years passed and I never did buy a Mustang − until May 2022.”
The retirement present to herself: a 1966 Mustang.
“The first thing I did, I called my mom and said, ‘Get my Nana’s picture out, we’re going to take her for a ride in my pony,’ ” Encinas said. “(We) strapped her picture in the back seat and took her for a ride. My grandma passed away many years ago, but I was able to keep my promise.”
Be brave
Heather Storm, a 30-something TV host and writer from Buena Vista, Colorado, said her father was adamant about his little girl being self-sufficient.
“I have a photo somewhere of me at 2 years old handing him a wrench in the garage while he worked on his motorcycle,” she said. “He’d have me get at some hard-to-reach screw or hold onto a few small parts he just took off so they didn’t get lost. Before I could apply for my driver’s license, he made sure I knew how to drive a manual and change a tire. He wanted me to be capable no matter the situation.”
Before leaving on a 250-mile trip that required her to drive alone from Santa Fe on a two-lane highway with limited cell service, she had to fix a leaking lower radiator hose, which required her to drain her coolant, adjust the hose and refill the coolant.
“I drove that day to Colorado without any issues,” Storm said. “I hold onto that confidence whenever I face challenges that bring up fear.”
When she fuels up at a gas station with a male friend, passersby usually assume her 1965 Mustang is his.
“I like to see their face when I open the hood and check the fluids,” Storm said. “Most people think women can’t work on cars and I enjoy bucking that stereotype.”
Preserving classic cars is important for everyone, she said.
“The ’65 Mustang in particular symbolizes an era of exploration in America that is nostalgic. When I’m driving my classic Mustang, I’m cruising, I’m enjoying the loud engine, the smell of gasoline, and the time it takes to pull out of a parking spot without power steering,” Storm said. “I feel transported to another time; I feel like for those moments I understand what it felt like to live in 1965.”
A shift in attitude
In 2017, Kary Kidder of Covington, Washington, founded Mustang Mamas on Facebook so women could connect, swap notes and share stories about their cars. It has grown to include more than 2,100 women in the U.S. and worldwide, including Australia, from teenagers to those past 80, she said. All states including Hawaii and Alaska are represented.
Kidder began her love of Mustang at age 5, when she rode in the back seat of her mom’s car with its white vinyl interior and a white vinyl top.Later, she would purchase 2008 and 2019 Mustang Bullitt editions associated with the Steve McQueen action film that came out in 1968.
But Kidder, 55, never learned how to work on cars growing up. When she asked men in Mustang clubs whether she could watch and hand them tools and learn? Crickets. Total silence, Kidder said.
“I heard story after story about women not being able to ask questions or being mocked or shamed,” she said. “I felt like women weren’t being respected. We’re here to support each other. It’s been a longtime, male-driven hobby, but that’s changing.”
The mechanic’s daughter
Nickie Armstrong, 38, a human resources manager from Richmond, Virginia, is a licensed competitive racer who drives a 1999 Mustang Cobra in the Camaro Mustang Challenge through National Auto Sport Association. She has a 1997 Cobra and a 1978 King Cobra − an anniversary gift sitting in the garage needing attention. Her yellow 2016 Shelby GT350 is the family jewel.
Much of what she does now was shaped by time spent watching the world around her as a kid.
“My dad was a mechanic and he restored a 1973 Mustang when I was younger. I saw the work he did,” she said. “Die-hard Mustang fans are that way because it runs in their blood. It’s passed down in the family.”
Look mean
Brannon, 56, a county executive director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) farm service agency in Tennessee, said her husband has a 1965 Mustang, her son has a 1993 Mustang Fox Body and she has a 1978 Cobra II.
“We go to ‘Ponies in the Smokies,’ a gathering in Gatlinburg in March,” Brannon said. “There was, like, 3,000 Mustangs up there. … From the old cars like ours to the brand new ones that just rolled off the lot.”
She said, “They just look just mean, just awesome, like a pit bull fixin’ to attack.”
‘Sexy and beautiful’
Janice McCombs, 62, an office manager from Beaverton, Oregon, just outside Portland, worked for Chrysler for 17 years and Volkswagen for 18 years. Yet, she’s a Mustang girl.
She bought her first Mustang in 1978 for $1,850 − despite the fact that her boyfriend (now husband) told her not to exceed $1,800 − with a loan from her father at age 18. She went with the “sexy and beautiful” 1969 Mach 1.
“My husband was driving a 1970 Ford Torino Cobra Jet with a 429 engine, bright orange,” McCombs said. “I’m not sure what caught my eye first, the car or him. Now he has a 2009 orange Mustang, manual (gears). I’m personally just thrilled Ford is hanging in there with the Mustang.”
‘He grabs my hand’
Julie Teuber of Snohomish, Washington, bought a Mustang for her 60th birthday in August. She found a 1964 1/2 Mustang with just 56,000 original miles and one owner, who kept it protected in a garage.
“My Aunt Bobbie had a white 1965 Ford Mustang that was white with red interior,” Teuber said. “I was 4 years old when she got it and still envision it parked outside my grandparents home in Long Beach, California.”
The Mustang has had a special effect on her 29-year-old son, who was injured by a drunk driver in a head-on collision two years ago that killed his longtime girlfriend. He began to engage differently when he saw the Mustang.
“It is a healing thing for him,” Teuber said. “My other son has a son who is almost 2. Makai is captivated by my car. He grabs my hand and says ‘garage’ and goes to the car and has me open the passenger side as he climbs in and then points to the driver side. … I get in and he says, ‘key’ and points to the ignition. I said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ He points straight ahead and says, ‘Go.’ “
“That little kid would go all day doing that if he could,” Teuber said. “As I see how my memories were created when I was young, I get to see new ones being created in my own family.”
She added, “Whether it is the 60-year-old, or the 4-year-old girl inside of me from way back in the ’60s, I am so grateful, humbled, and excited to pass the Mustang legacy on.”
Feel good
Michelle Scott, 53, of Kissimmee, Florida, owns a towing company. Her father owned a paint and body shop and drove a 1969 Mustang Fastback, which introduced her to the life of Mustang. It’s all she has owned.
“I can get into my car depressed and it makes me feel good,” Scott said.
She and her husband of three decades now wrench together.
“It started out where my dad would teach me the tools. ‘When I ask you for a wrench, this is a wrench.’ He’d teach me how to change the oil and the belts, she said. “My husband now will ask me for a 10-millimeter wrench, a socket. You know?”
As a mom, she is passing along car skills to her son Corey.
After all these years, people still ask Scott, “Is that your husband’s car?”
It makes her nuts, she said. “I don’t think it’s cool they don’t understand there’s a lot of women who drive Mustang.”
Grab me a beer and tools
Kim Wasielewski, 57, of Lake Placid, Florida, was born in Royal Oak and grew up in Lake Orion. Her father got ahold of a 1969 Mustang for a weekend test drive. An ice storm combined with too little antifreeze left it smoking on the side of a desolate road. A tow truck took it away, never to be seen again.
She remembers her Uncle Jerry’s Mustang in her grandma’s driveway and learning car repair from dad after school. If a part broke, he would tell his little girl what to buy at the parts store, to get him a beer, a chair and tools.
“He would talk me through it, so I could change my own oil or my own motor,” said Wasielewski, a Woodward Dream Cruise alum.
Wasielewski likes to drag race, which means she threw a couple clutches and blew a couple motors. She has a white 2017 Mustang, as well as a 2006 Mustang GT. Now she’s shopping for a Mystic Purple Mach 1.
“I learned to drive in Detroit,” Wasielewski said. “These cars are adrenaline machines. It really helps with my temperament.”
Happy birthday
Antoinette McCord, 51, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, said, “I have loved cars my whole life because of my daddy.”
The mechanic died six months ago, so time spent with the Mustang is especially sentimental, she said.
A truck driver totaled her 1964 1/2 Mustang and put McCord in the hospital. She replaced that Mustang with a white 2004 Mustang GT. Then her husband gave her a 2004 black and orange Mach1 for her birthday in July.
“I love my husband, family and, most of all, that beautiful toy, my car.”
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Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid.