Back in 1966, the Mustang was a hot selling sports car and the Ranchero (based on the Ford Falcon) was a popular car-based pickup truck. Mash the two together and you get the 1966 Ford Mustero.
This wasn’t a factory option, but was a special edition made under license by Beverly Hills Ford in California. Like a reverse mullet, the Mustero was Mustang party in the front and Ranchero business in the back. Officially, the concoction was called the 1966 Beverly Hills Ford Mustang Ranchero, but the term “Mustero” caught on pretty quickly.
Total cost for a new Mustero was $6,000, which translates to almost $60,000 today. That was over $1,000 more than a fully loaded Shelby GT350 in 1966. It was about equal to most Lincoln vehicles as well. But it’s only about the average price of an F-150 today. Inflation sucks.
The 1966 Beverly Hills Ford Mustang Ranchero was a pretty radical idea. Even for the already weird mid-60s. There’s no true number for how many Musteros were made, but the best guess is about 50. Most of them were shipped overseas to buyers in other markets.
The Mustero wasn’t really a success.
The whole getup was basically a Mustang with its back end chopped off just ahead of the +2 seating to be replaced by a fiberglass pickup truck bed. The drivetrain, wheelbase, etc. all remained standard 1966 Mustang.
The lack of success for the Mustero comes mostly from it being not terribly useful. More gimmick than good idea, the fiberglass bed and lack of a tailgate made the hauling capability of the Mustang Ranchero pretty dubious.
As a collector’s item, the Mustero is extremely rare and is only really known amongst Mustang aficionados. They rarely appear at auction or for sale.
Photos in this article courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
