Never forget the time when Ford wanted to build a front-wheel drive Mustang

Who here remembers the Ford Probe? The name is so silly that it might as well be a fictitious car from the Grand Theft Auto series, but they really stuck with that title and slapped it on a Mazda-based i4. The weirdest thing about the Ford Probe wasn’t the name, but the fact that the car was actually touted as a fourth-generation Ford Mustang, despite meeting almost none of the criteria you’d expect from a Mustang.

All in all, the Ford Probe wasn’t a bad car. After finding its place in the market, it had a short but respectable run spanning two generations from 1988 to 1997, and the Ford Probe deserves a second look, if only because it’s a footnote in muscle car history.

Retail prices for this product are from Hagerty and Auto Tempest, while inflation calculations were made using the official website of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sales figures are primarily from GoodCarBadCar.net. Fuel economy figures are from FuelEconomy.gov.

A Mazda-based 4-cylinder pony car?

Some car enthusiasts will tell you that the Mustang is not a muscle car. Even if you put a V8 in it, it is too small to be anything other than a pony Car. We can sit here all day and negotiate the terminology, but we all agree that it is absolutely not a muscle car if it has an inline-four engine and front-wheel drive. And if it’s based on a Mazda platform, why are we even having this conversation?

The partnership between Ford and Mazda has produced some real gems over the years. The mid-’90s Ford Ranger, for example, is a rebadged Mazda B-Series pickup. But the sheer hubris of a front-wheel-drive Mustang can only be explained by a gas leak in the Ford offices or the long-term effects of the oil crisis. Simply put, by the 1980s we had forgotten how to build muscle cars. Just take a look at the second-generation Dodge Challenger from 1978 to 1983 to see what we mean. It doesn’t even look like one.

Due to the public backlash, Ford dropped everything and began development of the 1994 Ford Mustang, a rear-wheel drive coupe with an optional 5.0-liter small-block V8 with 215 horsepower that could go from 0-60 mph in under seven seconds. A fantastic car, but we’re talking about the Probe, which was released in 1988 without Mustang branding and had a 2.2-liter 4-cylinder Mazda F2 engine with 110 horsepower in the base GL model.

How the Ford Inquiry found its own identity

The first probe

The most surprising thing about the Ford Probe is that it was a huge success from the start. In the U.S., Ford sold 77,763 of the cars in its first year and 133,650 in its second year, after running out of inventory the previous year and realizing it had to ramp up production to keep up with public demand. The consensus was clear: We like this car, just don’t call it a Mustang.

A front-wheel-drive compact car will never feel like a true pony car, but the turbocharged and intercooled GT version of the first-generation Probe managed the 0-60 sprint in seven seconds, which would put it neck and neck with the 1994 Ford Mustang when it finally came out a few years later. The base engine did it in 9.3 seconds and the V6 in 8.2 seconds – all respectable figures for the late 1980s.

Hagerty A new first-generation Ford Probe is priced at $13,600 to $16,500. Adjusting for inflation from 1988 to 2024, that gives a price range of $36,929 to $44,804. That would put the Probe in line with a 2024 Toyota GR Corolla, which starts at an MSRP of $36,500 and goes up to $45,140 for the high-end Circuit edition. Fair pricing coupled with a cool futuristic look and somewhat sporty performance made the Probe a winner in the compact segment.

The relaunch of the second generation

The new Ford Probe had established itself on the market as a nimble, front-wheel-drive fastback and already had a successful first generation. It was launched in the 1993 model year, just one year before the new Mustang appeared, and bore this name until the mid-1990s.

The numbers were good at first. In 1993, Ford sold 90,435 units, and in 1994, 83,872. By 1996, sales had dropped to 32,505 units. In 1997, only 17,068 units were sold when Ford began to phase out production.

This time too, the Ford Probe was not bad Auto. With a manual transmission, the V6 model could reach 60 mph in seven seconds (or 8.5 with the automatic, while the i4 did it in 9.6 seconds).

The car was lighter than the previous generation, although it received a wider and longer body thanks to a redesign in which Ford took over the bodywork and Mazda reworked the mechanicals. The Probe was one of the first production cars to have dual airbags as standard, and the base model averaged 24 miles per gallon when paired with a manual transmission.

By the late 1990s, the Probe was simply in a poor market position. If you wanted a sporty hatchback, the Asian brand was part of the appeal of Nissans, Toyotas and, well, the real Mazda MX-6 with which the Probe shared its platform. If you wanted a Ford, the real Mustang had finally returned from hibernation. The newly launched fourth-generation Mustang sold 123,198 units in 1994, and numbers have generally remained strong since then.

In an ironic twist of fate, the third-generation Probe was eventually renamed the eighth-generation Mercury Cougar in 1999. So, in case you’re looking for some fun facts to share with us, here’s how the Ford Mustang became the grandfather of the last generation Cougar.

How much will a Ford Probe cost you in 2024?

It’s safe to say that the Ford Probe is no one’s dream car. But let’s say you want to see what a front-wheel drive Mustang feels like, or you just have a soft spot for fancy compact cars. The good news is that it’s a buyer’s market. No one wants to outbid you on a used Ford Probe, no matter what the condition, so this is a car that’s easy to get a good deal on. We searched used car sites for a few models in good condition and were able to find the following:

• 1989 Ford Probe LX – $5,999. This model has 136,382 miles on the clock. The engine is a 2.2-liter non-turbo and has a 4-speed automatic transmission.
• 1997 Ford Probe GT – $4,495This model has only 72,000 miles on the clock, a 2.5-liter V6 under the hood and a 4-speed automatic transmission.

Are we telling you that the Ford Probe is a hidden gem, an undiscovered treasure, or a hot hatch sleeper car? No. But it is a quirky little piece of Ford history that deserves a second look, and at just $5,000, it’s a project car worth considering.

Of course, you could buy a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am or a real Mustang or any number of cheap muscle cars for that price. But if you want something you won’t see at every car show, the Probe has a certain charm.

Sources:
Hagerty, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Auto Tempest, GoodCarBadCar.net, FuelEconomy.gov