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HomePick of the Day’87 Mustang GT convertible has been driven less than 1,000 miles

’87 Mustang GT convertible has been driven less than 1,000 miles

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The Pick of the Day is a 1987 Ford Mustang GT convertible that comes with an explanation as to why it’s been driven less than 1,000 miles since new.

“In January, 1988, the owner of this Mustang went with her father to the local Ford dealership where he purchased the brand new convertible saying, ‘if we keep this car for 20 years and keep the mileage low, it will double in price’,” the private seller of the car reports in the car’s advertisement on ClassicCars.com.

“Her father drove the car in a few local parades and drove it 300 miles round trip to his daughter’s graduation, but basically the car was covered and locked in the garage for 30 years.  

“When her father died in 1999, he left the car to his daughter.  She continued to store the car until 2018, when she developed cancer.  She asked me to sell the car to help pay for treatments.  I agreed and enlisted the help of a friend of mine who is an expert on Mustangs to get the car ready to sell. “

The Mustang-expert friend believed in the saying, “It’s only original once,” so as the car was readied for sale, all original parts were retained, although the fuel tank, pump and filter were changed and the fuel lines flushed. Spark plugs, battery, etc. were replaced. The lubrication system was primed with a drill motor, light oil was sprayed into each cylinder and the V8 engine, a 5.0-liter unit, was turned over by hand several times.  

“The engine started on the first try,” according to the seller.

In addition, a Marti Report was ordered and delivered: The car was built in Dearborn, Michigan, in December 1986, with Scarlet Red Paint and a white convertible top. It was one of 793 Mustangs with the same paint/trim code that included scarlet red bodyside moldings. It also has a 5-speed manual transmission and 3.08 Traction-Lok rear axle.

The car has been driven only 823 miles, including a couple of road-test miles to confirm all the prep work was done properly, and is in Lubbock, Texas. The asking price is $27,000.

To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.

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Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Hello again,

    The Mustang article certainly has some intrigue but I believe missed some info and a point or two. Interestingly that may actually relate to our exchange on the also unused 450SL.

    I believe the story of dad saying it would double in 20 years (and even what it must have been like to be a young lady with dad at a dealer buying a cute red convertible – that wasn’t then told it was her’s) are important.

    I quick search shows a car like this was likely @$18,000 (+ taxes/fee’s, etc. ?) back then.
    Simple future value calculation shows had he put that amount in anything for the 32 years with a very conservative 4% growth rate – it would have been worth about $65,000. (Adjusted for inflation only it would be @ $35,000!) Much better than the $27,000 they are asking for this. And to be clear, not using the car for either fun or practicality (and unquestionably it requiring resources of other natures and expense to sell) means it was really bought only as an “investment” at most. A very bad one!

    That also emphasized by this actually being a reasonably good choice of a collectable (unlike some), with very good ones marketing @ 10K and special ones with use not far off the asking for this. Proof again that not using a car does not enhance its value particularly. In fact, it limits the market to those that also don’t want to use it, because doing so would depreciate it substantially.

    Thanks,
    Jeff

  2. Original only once to me means all original. I would have preferred they did nothing to this Mustang instead of removing the factory original parts. To me it is no longer untouched original.

  3. Oh, Mr. Heller, certainly you must know that one cannot "dollar&cents" what becomes a collector’s item; there’s an oil burning market for Trabis (the late, ought to be unlamented East German Trabant, a two-stroke cycle abomination that, well, needs recycling- or to just disappear).
    The "Miami Vice" generation of Mustangs carries a lot of cachet and appeal to those who are fans; you just cannot "prime rate, interest accumulated" value an object such as this.
    Had my daughter survived the cancer, I would have been delighted to present her with the car of her high school dreams. What value that? Sometimes, an object becomes more than an "evaluation"; I wept when I saw it, because it was exactly what I couldn’t afford when she wanted oh so much.
    Mr.Freet:
    You are absolutely correct; yet this is not a "one of one" special equipment SVO or GT. The changes were correct and sympathetic.
    But my daughter wanted a red drop top Mustang so badly, and I couldn’t.
    R.

    • Sadly, Mr Heller is correct. This looks to be a fail on all counts. From a ‘dollars and cents’ view (and the stated intention from the outset was to double their money), it has been a bad investment and over the many years, nobody has had any joy from the car. The final blow may be that they may not get the price they expect.

  4. Sad thing is that neither Dad or Daughter got to enjoy the car . Because it sat so much some of the original parts had to be replaced unfortunately . Another sad thing to this story is having to sell the car to pay for her cancer treatments .If she lived in Canada her medical bills would have been paid .

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