It seems the Ford Mustang's long run of retro-nostalgic styling may have come to an end: according to Matt Ramsey at the Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with Ford's plans and who have seen the next Mustang, the 2015 model year iteration of the iconic muscle car will retain some of the traditional styling cues used currently -- the long hood/short deck proportioning, round headlamps and shark-nosed grille -- but will also mark a "radical makeover" of the current model. Dishearteningly, the sources claim that the new Mustang will look more like the Ford Fusion than the current Mustang -- though on the plus side, they also say the new car will resemble an Aston Martin and "is almost a body double for the Evos concept car that Ford showed at the last fall."

Ramsey cites several reasons for the decision to ditch the retro styling, including the need to appeal to the 80 million or so Generation Y buyers for whom the throwback cues to the original '64 Mustang don't mean as much. Sales, too, have been slipping, down 4.4 percent from 2010 and more than half from the car's peak, in 2006. The other retro Detroit muscle, the Dodge Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro, each outsold the Mustang last month.

Ford has made no secret that the retro Mustang styling won't be around forever, and the Evos' sheetmetal has aggression and charm to spare; however, while we would welcome the cloud-connectivity and fastback styling, other details -- namely the bizarre dual gullwing doors and plug-in hybrid powertrain -- simply don't belong anywhere near a Mustang.