On the eve of its 55th anniversary, the Ford Mustang has also retained its title of ‘World’s best-selling sports coupe’, a crown it hasn’t relinquished in four years.

Ford sold no fewer than 113,066 units of the Mustang in 2018, with sales in Europe up more than 27% thus far in 2019. Meanwhile, the nameplate’s market share is up half a point for 2018 over the previous year, reaching 15.4 percent.

In the US, 75,842 units were moved, spurred on by the new Bullitt version. As for the UK, 2,323 Mustangs were sold throughout last year, representing an increase of 5% over 2017, maintaining the car’s top 10 status in the best-selling sports coupe segment well into this year too.

“We broke the mould when Ford launched the Mustang 55 years ago,” said Jim Farley, Ford president of global markets. “Nothing says freedom, the wind in your hair and the joy of driving like Mustang; it’s an icon. The roar of its V8 on a spring day, there’s nothing better. No wonder it’s the most popular sports coupe in the world.”

Based on worldwide Ford sales data, the Mustang was available for purchase in 146 countries in 2018 and over 500,000 sixth-gen models have been sold globally since 2015 – including over 45,000 units in Europe.

Speaking of Europe, the Mustang’s top 20 countries on the old continent are (in alphabetical order): Austria, Belgium, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Romania, Sweden and Switzerland.