I am a Ford man. I have not owned a Ford automobile in nearly 20 years and I currently own three Hondas cars, but deep down inside I am a Ford man. I am a Ford man because my automotive consciousness was first aroused by Fords and I was imprinted for life. Frankly, there is only one or two current Ford products that I would even begin to consider to purchase for myself, the majority of the Ford product offering leaves me cold at best. But there is a lingering bit of car DNA within me that still cares about all things Ford.
I get the Ford thing genetically. My grandfather was never a handy guy; he never worked on his own cars. But he bought a very sharp 1947 Ford convertible as soon as they hit the market. This was one of the first cars my Dad drove as an impressionable teenager at the dawn of the Hot Rod era of the late '40s and early 50's. Dad was the original Rebel Without A Cause; white t-shirt with a pack of Pall Malls rolled up in his shirtsleeve, duck tailed haircut, greasy hands, the whole image of a street racer. He messed around with various street rods and helped a neighbor prepare a drop tank lakester. But a stint in the Navy, marriage and a young family straightened him out and put him back on the straight and narrow. During the 50's he drove a '55 Chevy Bel Aire, but by the time I was four or five years old at the dawn of the 1960's the family was driving a Ford Falcon and a Ford Galaxy. Grandfather had gone through a few cars but the one I remember from that era was a '62 Ford Galaxy convertible with a 390, four-barrel carburetor, and dual exhaust. That was one hot number and it eventually got passed down to your family for Mom (!) to drive.
In the spring of 1964 I was just turning eight years old and Ford unleashed the Mustang as a birthday present to me. Like the Beatle's invasion of America the year before, the Ford Mustang was an immediate success and swept the country in Mustang-mania. I was not immune from the Ford fever and I fell instantly in love with a small sporty car that promised high performance (but in actuality was a pretty mundane grocery getter in all but the highest level of tune). At the same time, Ford contracted with England's Lola to build the GT 40, which eventually went on to dominate the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Carol Shelby was turned away by General Motors when he asked for their small block V8 to stick into English roadsters but Ford tossed him a hand full and the Cobra was born. The small block Ford V8 was the engine of choice for Indianapolis at the time. Cosworth adopted the Ford V8 bore spacing to create the DFV engine that ruled Formula until the mid-1970's. As I grew from a boy into a teenager, Ford had positioned itself as the American performance car company.
But reality is harsh. By the time I started to drive, Mom was driving a Pinto and Dad had moved on to a Cadillac Coupe de Ville. An entire herd of '65-'66 Mustangs passed through the family garage as second third and fourth cars. But what had once seemed like a muscle-bound road machine revealed itself to be a glorified Ford Falcon with slightly more attractively creased sheet metal.
Familiarity breeds contempt and as I became more familiar with Ford philosophy, the more contempt I had for their products. Designed for quick, cheap and easy construction and not necessarily to be repaired or improved, Fords of the era left a great deal to be desired. Combined with the rise of emission standards in the late 1960's that choked the life out of engines that did not have the benefit of today's technology for lean and clean engines that could also deliver performance, I lost that blind love for all things Ford.
During the 1970's and 1980's the country and I entered into a dark automotive period. Gas shortages, ever increasing emission standards, restrictive vehicle codes all combined to take the fun out of the car crowd and I turned away from active participation in the automobile hobby.
It took the influence of my wife to show me the way of the Honda automobile in the early 1990's. She and her family (not car people by any stretch of the imagination, but people who recognized quality and value) were all Honda drivers and they revealed the joy of a well-engineered car that can also deliver performance and economy. My three current Honda cars represent the fourth, fifth and sixth Hondas I have owned and I would be hard-pressed to name another manufacturer I would consider buying from today.
But I still stop to stare at the new Mustang, I dream of owning a Ford GT and I am waiting for the current Ford Thunderbird to become cheap enough as a used car to allow me the opportunity to modify it into the performance roadster I think it could be. I root for the Cosworth powered Formula teams and I get a small amount of satisfaction when a Ford powered car wins any other kind of race. But there are no Ford products that I would purchase brand new right now.