Happy MLK Day!: Cold Start

Cs Mustangii
ADVERTISEMENT

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, everyone! We’re mostly taking it off here at The Autopian, because we think it’s important. We’ll have some features go up today, but our main staff is taking the day off, so we won’t have the usual number of stories. Thanks for understanding and/or observing with us. And, yes, I did pick that Mustang II image because there’s a couple of Black golf enthusiasts there, and the reason is a good reminder of why we have this holiday: It’s not common to see Black people represented in car ads. At all. It’s pretty ridiculous when you think about it.

So, let’s all give it up for the Mustang II, because combing through hundreds of car ads this morning, this was the first one I hit that didn’t have exclusively caucasian people. Cars are for everyone, and it’s worth remembering that.

Have a great holiday, everyone.

27 thoughts on “Happy MLK Day!: Cold Start

  1. All I could think of is Eddie Murphy on SNL and the Mr. Robinson skits. And the fact that he and his woman have Mr. Landlord’s pos mustang and golf toys. So the next question is this. Is Mr. Landlord still alive? Some shit never changes. Happy MLK day you white bastards! Love, Jesus….

  2. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
    I think I read that on an old Lamplighter scroll somewhere. Didn’t realize they stole it from MLK.

  3. Wife: I can’t believe you spent good money on this thing!

    Husband: Honey, please don’t beat the new car with my 5-iron! I have a tee time at three.

  4. She: (holding golf club) “Oh this thing is so long! I don’t know if I can handle it.”

    He: (holding her) “Baby, it’s all about how you do the stroke.”

          1. I moved to Portland in April 2005. For the first six weeks, the weather conditions when I awoke at 7am were identical every single day: 49°, light rain. When I say every single day, I mean EVERY SINGLE DAY. Seasonal affective disorder is real, y’all.

            My wife and I got “priced out and rained out,” as we like to say, in 2016, and relocated to my native Gulf Coast. Greetings from the sugar-white sands of the sunny Redneck Riviera.

    1. Raining. I freaking hate when it rains in January. It’s all gonna freeze into an ice rink in the next 24 hours or so and it ruins the snow for winter sports. I’ll take -10 over 38 and rain any day.

      On the plus side, maybe I can hold a Red Bull Crashed Ice competition on my neighborhood streets tomorrow. 😉

    2. In pure, old white guy fashion I will join in this nonsense weather talk. Because I don’t understand this holiday as much as I should.. so it’s difficult for me to have a valid opinion about it.
      Sunny and cold here in the PNW..
      in King county, Wa.
      Glad The Autopian gave all but their most hard headed staff the day off.
      Less content was a great decision for the day. It gave me time to read Martin Luther King Jr.‘s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”. It’s a great piece.

  5. I thought maybe you were sharing proof that even Ford thought the Mustang II was worthy of whacking with a golf club. Only with proper instruction, of course.

      1. I agree. I used to think all the Mustang IIs were horrible travesties, but the fastback had grown on me. In fact, I think the King Cobra was better looking than the Fox body ‘Stangs. Fight me.

          1. The fox body was so generic looking that from 30 feet away you’d have to squint to tell it apart from a Tempo, Taurus, Cavalier, Escort, or any other similarly-sized car from that era.

            Love or hate the II, it stands out.

      2. Snarky comments aside, I think the Mustang II is one of the best looking generations of Mustang, maybe the actual best. I like it better than Fox bodies, Whalestangs, and maybe even the original. They’re great looking cars, only let down by the engineering inside. Although I like the hatch, I’m partial to the notchback, without the vinyl “Landau” roof, of course.

        1. This is why I’ve owned three IIs, three foxes, and two S197s over 21 years of Mustang ownership. In all that time I continuously owned a II, the foxes and S197s were all in and out of my life fairly quickly.

    1. Ford was trying some weirdly upscale positioning with the Mustang II, with extra sound deadening, soft suspension, the Ghia package, and what with Iacocca referring to it as his little “jewel box”, I guess the golf-adjacent imagery is part of that. It may be a cheap little Pinto-derived hatchback, but, look, you can take it to the country club!

    2. “OK Dear, if you are planning for a career in law enforcement, you are going to need to know how to break a tail light lens.”

      *With apologies to Torch.

Leave a Reply