Ford's new Mustang Customizer website goes live

Ford launched the new Mustang Customizer website yesterday, which allows Mustang enthusiasts to build their dream Mustang online by selecting various color schemes, accessories like spoilers, body kits, custom wheels, and various decals. Then the site has various social media plugins for Facebook and Twitter for the customizer to share his or her design with friends, and even enter it into a 'battle mode' where others can vote on the design, have those votes tallied on a leaderboard, and even pick out a rival to compete with for (online) street cred.

Ford social and emerging media specialist Brian McClary said "This site lets Mustang fans customize cars to their heart's content. It's a simple-to-use layout that lets users take the base design of the Mustang and run with it." This means that customers can use any Mustang - the V6, GT 5.0 GT, Boss 302, or Shelby GT500 - and put it in front of three different backgrounds - a dragway, cityscape, or drive-in restaurant - and position the car in five different angles. The various accessories also include Ford Racing Performance and Personalization parts, and the list of parts is available on a downloadable PDF file that also has links to the corresponding websites for the customer to start a dialogue with their local Ford dealer. Finally, the customers can save their designs, use them as wallpaper, or post them online for the world to see.

Ford Mustang marketing manager Jim Owens said "This is the perfect way to let [customers] test out their design and imagine what's possible, and the interactive aspect also adds a whole new dimension and lets more people get in on the fun." The 'battle mode' is an app exclusive to Facebook that posts the design to the customer's wall, and allows it to accumulate votes. Those votes are then automatically registered on the leaderboard to see whose design is the best-looking.