I would of thought fox bodies saved it starting with 1979.  Even 1985 things started to look a lot better and more power. 

Uh, yeah, the Mustang saved the musclecar.  No decade saved the Mustang, that's just dumb.  Yeah, yeah, I know it was gong to get axed in favor of the Pinto, but that didn't happen and the Fox body is what saved the musclecar, affordable V8 performance, and without it today's car scene would look very different than the Big Three still competing for bragging rights with high powered cars.  The Fox body proved that EFI and emissions didn't end performance; in fact they made it better than ever once the factory engineers and good old hot rodders figured out what those two things made possible.  The first EFI Fox rolled off the line in '85, so not sure how a decade that didn't start for another 5 years saved something that had already hit its stride by the '90s. 

Steve69 wrote:

My wife had 1987 firebird formula with the 305.  That thig was a dog.  My 1979 Mustang stock 5.0 could blow the doors off of that.  

I have an '86 IROC with a 350 and its not much better.  It handles like its on rails.  The rear suspension (torque arm) is definitely better than the Fox setup, but overall the Fox is just a better car and always had much better aftermarket support (of course they sold more Mustangs each year than Camaros, Firebirds, and Corvettes combined).  Yeah, the 305 was a boat anchor.  Under 4" bore with a long stroke.  Wouldn't rev, but it didn't matter because a TPI couldn't flow enough air after 5,000RPM and the HEI wouldn't throw a spark after 5,500RPM. 
 

Bullet Bob wrote:

I always thought that the Mustang II saved the Mustang marque.  Oil crisis, gas rationing, long lines, people giving away perfectly good 16 mpg "big" cars for very little down against $2500 Toyotas and Datsuns that would get a bit over 20 mpg.  When thing started to settle down Ford came along with the Fox which, IIRC, had a 4-banger, a V6 and a weak sister 302 for engines.  But  the name was still alive and they had something to build on.  JMO

Ah, the 255 V8.  Dark days.  Dark days.  But we made it to the other side.  Thus proving the maxim I try to live by: This too shall pass. 
 

Rudi wrote:

Bullet Bob wrote:

I always thought that the Mustang II saved the Mustang marque.  Oil crisis, gas rationing, long lines, people giving away perfectly good 16 mpg "big" cars for very little down against $2500 Toyotas and Datsuns that would get a bit over 20 mpg.  When thing started to settle down Ford came along with the Fox which, IIRC, had a 4-banger, a V6 and a weak sister 302 for engines.  But  the name was still alive and they had something to build on.  JMO

 
That has always been my recollection as well with many magazine articles that support that.
There are many other theories but the production numbers seem to prove the point.

I did some reading on the origin of the Fox platform.  Development was green lit by none other than Lee Iaccoca in '73.  The idea was to replace the Mustang II and Pinto compact chassis with a universal chassis which could be used across Ford's divisions and sold in both the US and Europe.  The first running prototype was actually a '75 Ford Cortina (only sold in Europe) which used torsion bars in the front instead of coil springs (thank God that didn't make it to production).  The first cars sold using the platform were the '78 Fairmont and '78 Mercury Zephyr.  The redesigned Mustang followed in '79. 

Interesting that we've often talked about how the Mustang was slated to die in favor of the Pinto, but there's no mention of that in anything I read.  Keep in mind that Iaccoca was responsible for the Mustang.  It was his baby, and he was president of Ford.  Ultimately he would have had to be the one to kill it, which seems unlikely.  What was slated to happen was that what would become the Mustang II was slated to be based on the Maverick, not the Pinto, but in ended up being based on the Pinto.  This seems the origin of the urban legend about the alleged demise of the Mustang in favor of the Pinto.  Iaccoca was even quoted as saying, in response to declining Mustang sales that "The Mustang market never left us; we left it". 

Regardless, the Fox Mustang arrived in '79, and the rest is history.  I remember living through the days of the Fox cars and not understanding what they were at the time.  I used to get mad when the magazines gave them ink, thinking why are they wasting space with this garbage?  I should be reading an article about how toe restore MY car!  I've come to understand that history is rarely appreciated while we are living in it.  Now I see the Fox for what it was: the car that saved V8 performance for the everyman, and because of that (and the fact that they really are great cars) I own my '89 GT proudly.