The new Ford Marstang as we like to call it because of its design similarities with the Aston Martin DB9 has been a hit in Europe with nearly 500,000 people. Its actually been a hit with Ford’s online car configuration tool. Will Ford have 500,000 orders? no we don’t think so, it may well be only a small percentage of people are actually serious about buying online. We estimate about 2 to 3 percent max. So who has been going onto Ford’s website and configurating the Mustang? Most probably kids and people with dreams and the odd individual with real money to burn. Who hasn’t configured a car online without buying? Ford noticed website data indicated that the new Mustang equipped with the 314PS 2.3-litre EcoBoost engine accounted for half of all configurations. The other half were specified with the 418PS 5.0-litre V8 engine. Confirming European tastes for sports cars with accessible performance, the most popular specification overall was the EcoBoost-equipped model with six-speed manual transmission, chosen for 37 per cent of models configured. Manual transmissions overall accounted for two-thirds of models specified. Of the five largest European sales markets – UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – the powerful 5.0-litre V8 engine was most popular in the UK (54 per cent) and Germany (60 per cent). The EcoBoost engine was most popular in Italy (61 per cent), Spain (59 per cent) and France (55 per cent). The top colours were Race Red and black, each accounting for 20 per cent. Still there is no better way to drum up interest in the Mustang than by data mining on your potential customers. Lets hope Ford don’t do a News of The World phone tap.