Five years back, I saw this beautiful, late-third-generation Mustang GT soft top while on my way to meet my brother for an after-work cocktail. His law office is mere blocks from Ford’s Garage, the restaurant and bar seen in the background and also where he and I were headed. It always struck me funny that Fort Myers, Florida – of all places – was where Thomas Edison had gone to winter, and also that he and Henry Ford were so tight. I just never remembered reading about this in history books when I was a kid. Nonetheless, the sight of this era of Mustang in such great condition, in downtown Ft. Myers, and also while meeting my brother during the holidays, brought back a flood of memories.
Things often seem a lot less uncomfortable or unpleasant when seen through the backward lens of hindsight. Twenty years ago, I was just about to graduate from college, and my brother was in his senior year of high school. Being constantly pitted and compared against each other despite our age difference (three years is not an insubstantial number for young adults) was not great for our relationship, which only seemed to become rock-solid after we were both out of the house.
Around this time, I owned the above / below, same-generation ’88 Mustang LX hatchback with the 2.3L Lima four (with all of 88 mighty, electronically fuel-injected horsepower!) and a five-speed manual. I purchased it when it was five years old and with 60,000 miles on the clock from a local Ford dealer’s used-car lot, with money I had saved on my own without any help from anyone. This unassisted purchase was a landmark of adulthood for me. My Mustang was slow but pretty, and the fact that its styling had continued mostly unchanged for four, full model years after ’88 helped me preserve the illusion that my car was still on the new-ish side.
I kept it clean, inside and out, and yes – I bought a few accessories for it, as you can see from these pictures. I had a few facial piercings at the time (ears and nose), so it kind of makes sense to me now as to why I would have wanted to individualize my car, since there were still a glut of these Foxes on the road. I’ve often thought that in the mid-’90s, mine just might have been the nicest, non-convertible, four-cylinder Mustang in all of Lee County, Florida.
Diverting back to family stuff, I quickly came to see my Mustang as an ally when returning to the Dennis family nest after being away at college. It often seemed that no matter how hard I tried to prove to Mom, Dad and my two brothers (of which I am in the middle) just how much I had grown and matured since the last time we had all been together, I often fell flat on my face – or at least felt like I had.
Mom, Dad and my older brother had all earned advanced college degrees after undergraduate school (which I did not), and my younger brother had just returned from spending a year of high school as a foreign exchange student in Denmark. (Ooooo, la-tee-dah for him.) I often felt like the four of them were deliberately talking way over my head, with their stupid discussions of world events, politics, and things that probably would matter to most informed adults. I didn’t care. Outside of the college classroom, I was usually done with voluntarily thinking other people’s thoughts on my own time.
That’s when my Mustang would become my savior. “I’m out,” as I would dismiss myself from the house as discreetly as possible, with a random assortment of cassettes and the keys to my trusty, white steed. In a way, this was kind of like going to my room, except my Mustang was a mobile, detachable unit that facilitated my escape from the resurgence of unpleasant family dynamics from which I thought becoming a college man would give me a free pass.
With my most recently made mixtape in the cassette deck of my aftermarket stereo unit with its detachable face plate (purchased from now-defunct Circuit City), I was suddenly back in charge of my own environment. The seats in that Mustang were so very comfortable – nicely bolstered on the sides, and finished in a rich-looking fabric that resembled wide-wale corduroy. (All of us former “Alternative” subculture kids must now remember and pay homage to the ’90s resurgence of the popularity of corduroy among us.) The comfy driver’s bucket seat always seemed to cradle me so soothingly in the midst of my post-teenage angst at feeling dumb and underappreciated by my family.
Time does heal, though, and Dad is no longer with us, twenty years after this scene I’ve set. I’m proud to call my younger-brother-slash-former-archnemesis one of my best friends and biggest allies, and I adore his wife and kids. Looking at the Mustang GT in the title shot in this once-familiar setting and remembering my own, cherished pony, I’d like to believe the kids in the next generation of my extended family will have at least a slightly more positive experience of family than I did during the holidays in those transitional years between being an “adult child” and just being an adult.
No one is guaranteed an easy path on that journey. I hope that if and when one of my nephews or nieces feels the way I did back then, they will have access to their own, personal, motorized escape machine like the four-cylinder Mustang I remember so fondly.
Title shot as photographed downtown Fort Myers, Florida.
Monday, December 24, 2012.
And yes – the digital dates on the other photographs are actual.
Nice. I love seeing old, real shots of peoples’ cars. And fondly remember a tan wide-wale corduroy jacket (!) I bought in the early 90’s and still had until a few years ago.
You pretty much perfectly encapsulated teen angst and bad family dynamics–nicely done. My escape machine was much older relative to my own age, but I used it in precisely the same way and I felt the same about it as a result.
Speaking of teen angst (and thank you), I love how this generation of Mustang GT convertible was immortalized in one of my favorite movies, ever: “Heathers”!
My high school parking lot in late 1980s Tarpon Springs Florida was FULL of fox mustangs. They almost had no choice when picking a typical car for a high school kid at that time.
A car I’d be happy to own today. That generation (third? – then everything before the Mustang II is considered first generation?) of Mustang has always been my favorite. Amazing how getting rid of the grille can make a car look better.
Syke, I have also come to really re-appreciate the third-generation Mustangs. It’s almost like the majority of them started disappearing about five years ago. Now that they’re not everywhere, they seem almost fresh again. Smaller, bantamweight cars.
Looking at these – especially the 1987 – ’93 models, and especially compared against the retro-flavored Mustangs that followed it (many of which I also like – especially the ’05), I can now, again, appreciate these on their own merits.
Great piece Joe! I always enjoy hearing your personal accounts and how you so effectively relate them to a particular car. I’ve often found the same solace in escaping in my car for a little drive with my music (from CDs in my first couple years of driving, now my Spotify playlists) during times of stress.
Thanks, Brendan!
I’m not actually sure if this is correct, but Wikipedia mentions that the ’93 Mustang was the first, regular production car to feature a CD player as an option from the factory. (That just doesn’t sound like it can be correct!)
While don’t play either CDs or Spotify when driving, I do like to hook up my MP3 player to the auxiliary jack and put it on shuffle. I don’t miss having to cart (only a limited selection of) CDs around when driving.
“Wikipedia mentions that the ’93 Mustang was the first, regular production car to feature a CD player as an option from the factory”
The Wiki entry on Vehicle Audio credits the 87 Lincoln Town Car as the first American car with a factory installed CD player. This sounds more reasonable. My 94 Club Wagon had one, and I do not remember thinking that I had some sort of hot new tech. 🙂
JP, thanks for confirming. This is why Wikipedia seems good for only certain kinds of information. 🙂
My 1993 Toyota Land Cruiser had a factory CD player, and while it was new for us, it didn’t seem that special by then. It was also our first vehicle with a keyless remote and 16″ wheels. A quarter century later we still haven’t owned anything with larger wheels.
In 1999 I decided I “deserved” and could afford a vehicular “toy”. I seriously considered a (used) Fox Mustang and even test drove a nice 5.0 LX convertible, dark gray with 5 speed, asking price $3500. Then my wife suggested I get a motorcycle, since I had then been a few years without a bike, and she knew how much I liked to ride. I jumped at the chance, and bought a bike (for 3x the price of the 5.0) which I still own. I often wonder if I’d still have the Mustang if I had gone that route. I do still find that era’s LX, without the GT’s “aero” trim, very attractive. I had even driven a new ’86 GT (4 eyed) before buying my ’86 Ranger.
Nice mustang. White wouldn’t be my first choice, but I suspect it would be more appreciated under Florida sun than in Michigan snow.
Don’t know if you noticed, but they were building a Ford’s Garage in Dearborn this summer. I assume it is open now.
Dan, I hadn’t seen (or don’t remember seeing) the other Ford’s Garage this past June! I think it’s great – I like the Ft. Myers one a lot.
My old Mustang’s “Oxford White” exterior gleamed when it was clean (thank you, Nu Finish!), but it got dirty quickly. The interior was “Regatta Blue”. I thought it was a nice color combo, but I liked these Mustangs even more when the black rub strips around the perimeter were body-colored.
Great post Joe. I can definitely relate to jumping in my car for an escape, both physically and mentally. I think it’s one of the things that bonds us to our cars. Recently, when my daughter was back from college (Freshman year 1st trip home) for Thanksgiving, one of the first things she wanted to do was head out in the car (though she doesn’t have a car of her own yet, she has “adopted” my Jeep and named it “Gemini”). The purpose of the trip? Just to drive. Not even to see friends, but to get behind the wheel, be in control, listen to music and decompress.
Also love seeing your pics. I remember these Fox Mustangs being abundant, and in every condition from cherished (like yours) to rolling junk. Now, they are a rare and enjoyable sighting. I definitely think this Mustang has withstood the test of time and still looks great.
Wonderful recollections that are highly relatable on a number of levels, right down to the four-banger Mustang. Mine was a gray ’89 coupe with an automatic. It was what helped cultivate my two-decade disdain for four-cylinder engines.
Incidentally, I swapped it off almost a month to the day after you took your pictures. It had 95,000 miles by that time and the rear axle was heading south. Oddly, I do still (sort of) miss that car, having dreamt about driving it just last night.
Jason, yours was an auto – so you missed out the wonky angle of the shift knob! When I first test drove my Mustang in the summer of ’93, I thought the shift lever was bent – like the car had been in some sort of accident and they forgot to fix / prep it.
The angle actually ended up making perfect ergonomic sense. You can see a bit of the shift knob in the brochure shot of the dashboard, in the article.
You have again ignited my long term regret of passing on a new Fox Mustang in 1985. But on the plus side, I am wearing corduroy pants today. The CC Effect apparently works on clothing too.
And wow, the importance of the college kid’s escape pod. That 71 Plymouth Scamp really was like an extension of my room. I had not thought of in in this way, but you have nailed it.
Pretty but slow… yes indeed. Painfully slow.
Mine was a 1988 convertible, metallic blue with white interior and white top, 4 banger automatic.
In the eyes of my wife it wasn’t even pretty.
She used to say I have bought a “convertible” Del Rey.
Del Rey is a Brazilian Ford, design for a more “mature” costumer.
Ford never built a convertible Del Rey
Rubens, I came to like the relative boxiness of the Fox-bodied Mustangs. I had a good friend with a similar year Camaro RS, and she used to joke with me that she and I didn’t even have the same class of car. Hahaha!!
It’s true – her Camaro was V6-equipped, but despite my car’s relatively upright profile, I came to see my Mustang as simply being more “European”. I had always liked the European Ford Capri, and I came to see my 2.3L-equipped Mustang as kind of an American update on that idea, even if it wasn’t as light or tossable. It had lots of cargo space and utility, and my friends at the time didn’t complain too loudly when four of us had to go somewhere in my car.
About the Del Rey, it gives me a certain “Ford Fairmont” vibe – but I like it! I can completely see the “mature” aspects of the way it looks. 🙂
I agree with you about the “European ” look of the Fox Mustang, but being honest here, it wasn’t the Mustang I wished to have. When I bought it I was living in Atlanta, it was in the early 2000s and I knew I wouldn’t spend many more years in the States, I had to go back to Brazil and that was my only chance to own a Mustang.
That was something to tell my friends back in Brazil: “I had a Mustang”. And believe me, people were quite impressed because the Fox model is pretty much nonexistent down there.
I remember when the first “retro Mustang” appeared on the cover of the Hot Rod magazine in 2005 (I still have that magazine somewhere), that was my Mustang but I just couldn’t afford it.
12 years letter and the “2005” Mustang still is my favorite modern Stang.
OMG that looks just like the retarded ugly brother of the Euro Ford Granada Mk 2
the editing on this blog sucks.
Now I see where the Brazilian Ford got the inspiration for the Corcel / Del Rey…
One more picture…
We lived in Fort Myers for a couple of years and visited the Edison/Ford lab and estate complex several times. A great visit for anyone with even the slightest interest in semi-modern industrial-technical history. My impression of Ford is that he was a bit of an Edison groupie, maybe trying to be a pseudo younger brother, but there are worse role models!
The Edison/Ford complex is, indeed, very cool! The CC meeting this past June in Dearborn at the Greenfield Village whetted my appetite for another trip to the Edison/Ford complex this winter. In addition to the historical aspects that are normally on display, the lights display is also really worth going there for.
Ford and Edison were so “tight” that they often went on extended camping trips.
I came close to buying a new Fox Mustang several times. While it was available I wanted a V6 2 door coupe, but when Ford discontinued the six, I would have settled for a 4 cylinder. Ford has again discontinued the V6 Mustang (BOO) and so I will have to settle for a Focus or Fiesta (before the Fiesta is discontinued, too).
In my case, I often like an outsider in my family since I was the only boy with 4 sisters.
The camping trips included Harvey Firestone too, among others.
That GT convertible looks very attractive still. My eyes have recently been opened to these cars – especially the more plain LX convertible with V-8/manual.
I would love to “camp” like those guys did. Yes, sleeping in tents, sitting around a campfire, but with 50 servants taking care of them by running the generator to provide electric lights, cooking ribeye steaks, and generally waiting on them hand and foot. I would enjoy being a bon vivant with other titans of industry.
On the other hand, I would also enjoy having a similar Mustang convertible. They still looked good, drive well, have tons of aftermarket goodies should I want to modify, and are priced fairly.
Yes, and one can only imagine the fireside chats that they had on those trips!
HF: “You know Tom, sometimes I can’t sleep at night, and the only thing I’ve found that helps is some home-baked pie and a glass of warm milk over at Evangeline’s place up the river a bit that I bought for her. But it’s hard not to wake the missus and the help with that confounded outboard boat motor.”
TE: “I’ll send you over some Edison batteries and an electric drive motor. Have your man install that on the boat and you’ll glide down the river as quiet as a beaver. I’ll also send a charger to put in the boat house, so get a line run out there if you don’t have one already.”
Too funny, and probably accurate.
When I graduated engineering school in 1989, a lot of my buddies bought Mustang LX 5.0s. Cheaper than the GT, and ostensibly faster because it weighed less.
My inner skinflint couldn’t stomach the $14-15k price tag and went with a less expensive car instead. The payment on my $10k Chevy Beretta was bad enough.
It’s funny how sibling relationships can change. A story of the relationship with my only brother, who is 11 months younger than me:
https://blog.jimgrey.net/2016/09/23/goodbye-rick-sort-of-2/
Since I wrote this, he and I have come to work together again. I see him every day at the office! I’m Director of Engineering at this software company and he’s Director of Quality Assurance.
Jim, I think I would still want an LX 5.0L hatchback, if I could find one in good shape that has been unabused. There is a GT in my neighborhood that is street parked, and while it isn’t completely used up, its once like-new condition and how it has weathered reminds me just how much these cars were not built to live forever.
By the way, I loved that story in your link – that’s awesome. In some ways, that very much echoes my own experience with my brother. We didn’t hate each other (I guess we were close when we were elementary school age), but one thing I learned about him at this time was that he was very much a champion of the underdog. That’s why he’s so great as a lawyer.
My 1988 Mustang GT was the twin of the one in the first photo. Of the cars that I have previously owned in my life that is the one that I really regret getting rid of. I knew that I had made a mistake as soon as I signed the paperwork; well, hindsight is always 20-20. Someone really loves the photo car, enough to put on the boot, something I did no more than a handful of times in seven plus years of ownership. If I ever get motivated enough to resume my long dormant COAL series the 1988 Mustang GT is next in line. Thanks for this article, it brought back some memories.
Joseph;
Thank you so much for the quick trip back in time. I too had a Ford escape machine. Mine was a red 68 custom 500 sedan. I spent many teenage hours “driving in circles” as the folks put it feeling like it was the one and only place on the planet that was truly, inescapably mine!
Bill, what I’ve observed in 2017 is that in many cases, young adults that are the age I was in the above pictures have technology (versus a car) as an escape machine. There’s something good to be said about both.
I, however, grew up loving / reading about / absorbing so many car-related things, so I can’t imagine a smartphone or gaming system taking the place of my old Mustang – even within a present-day context.
I spent certain parts of my childhood ruminating upon plots involving the death of one brother. (I didn’t carry them out, well, not fully; minor injuries only). We took until our late 20’s to drop the mutual disdain, became friends, and as we both graunch into middle age, are now close. Such a slow transition now seems absurd.
Until the truce, I thought his cars an embarrassment, wide wheels, loud exhausts, heavy rock. For sure he thought my euro trash collection was just weird shit from his weird little brother, and in truth, any if not all of those descriptions were not innaccurate of the cars and me.
I don’t remember escaping family in the cars much – likely they were presently not functioning at any neccessary time – but I did drive the long way sometimes so that they were in bed when I got back.
The Mustang looks best to me in the form you had it, plain, and roofed. Convertible, wide wheels, spoilers, two tone seem to make it lose some design integrity, and looking cheap. Anyway, you at least drove off in a car coolly named. I could hardly escape with much coolness and go a-driftin’ down the byways in a PooJoe.
Loved this escape back in time, Joseph… For me, it was my early 20’s and the escape capsule was also a Ford, but a 1983 T-Bird… a basic V-6 ‘bird, but at 23, you can only afford so much. Before this, it was another Fox… a ’79 Fairmont Futura.
In the case of the T-Bird, I only lived 1.5 miles from where I worked, but still managed to put 25K on the clock every year I owned that car… That’s how much I love to drive. That feeling has never waned. When asked, “Where are you going?” – I’d often reply, “I’m just following the front of the car.”
With the traffic around here (Baltimore/Washington) and sometimes the commute from Hell, you’d think I would hate driving now, but no… because for every backup I encounter, I get the yin/yang of an open stretch of road, and kicking in the little turbo on the tiny 1.5L hamster wheel of an inline 4 in the 2016 Civic rewards me with acceleration bliss.
And then there’s the weekend when I take the “Retro-Stang” out for a drive to no particular destination with my trusty Cairn Terrier Molly at my side (she thinks it’s HER car, BTW)… Priceless.
Retro-Stang Rick, I also simply loved to drive, “following the hood of the car” as you put it – without any specific reason to do so. It didn’t matter that my Mustang would get smoked at a stoplight by a Plymouth Horizon. It was my car (mine, all mine!), and also reliable, good on gas, comfortable to drive, and nice to look at.
I love that modern cars with such comparatively small displacement (like your Civic) can squeeze out so much more power and miles-per-gallon than my 2.3L-equipped Mustang could dream of.
By the way, your generation of Mustang remains my modern favorite. Something so clean about its lines – these still look great to me.
I like this generation. But its a weird one.
Meant to be a big step foward at least design wise, it kind of stalled in some other aspects.
When you consider that this car was still available in Grandma Moses GHIA trim with vinyl roof top, white wall tires and wire hup caps like it was 1974 all over again….
I meant to attach this picture though…
I did actually like the “cabriolet” faux-convertible roof option on the ’82. I’m not such a fan of the wire wheel covers. This particular car would look much better with the TRX wheel/tire combo, but it’s a shame that setup is mostly cost-prohibitive in 2017.
Great write-up Joe. Nothing feels better than when a young man gets his first set of wheels, especially when he pays for it himself. These Mustang always bring back a flood of memories for me. My cousin saved for many years and by the fall of 1989 he was able to afford a new car. So he ordered a 1990 Mustang GT, in red. Even though the car is long gone, me and my siblings still reminisce about all the great times we had in that Mustang. Thanks for the great read.
30 years ago,I bought a 87 mustang gt from a young man who needed to thin out his toys they mentioned that it had some kind of mechanical calamity that was taken care of by extended warranty Had it a couple of years nicest car I ever had The prettiest too!