Return with me now to those bygone days… long before the PC, the internet, and the cellphone. In May 1972, when it came time to replace the ’66 Comet, I perused the few avenues then available to used-car buyers: newspaper classified “Autos for Sale” sections, Pennysaver listings, and Sunday-morning sojourns to the used-car lots of northern New Jersey new-car dealerships.
Why Sunday mornings? The dealers were always closed, meaning that I wouldn’t be accosted by any avaricious used-car salespeople hungry to make a sale. I could investigate each dealership’s offerings to my heart’s content, first doing a casual walk-around of the candidate vehicle, then peering through the driver’s-side window in an effort (usually unsuccessful) to read its odometer, maybe even crawling under a particularly interesting specimen in an attempt to gauge the condition of its chassis and underbody.
Lincoln-Mercury dealership signage back in the day.
On one such occasion, I found myself at Fletcher Lincoln-Mercury, in Summit, New Jersey. Briefly distracted by looking through the showroom glass (since they also held a Pantera franchise), I then ventured out to their used-car lot. None of their late-model pre-owned vehicles were of particular interest until a certain red two-door caught my eye…
To digress a bit: I’d been a Mustang enthusiast ever since attending the Ford exhibit at the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows, NY, where they were highlighted. A year or so later, I had a chance to closely examine a new Mustang hardtop (a Laurie Ford loaner) when our ’64 Galaxie went in for service. At the time, I remember badgering my father about trading in our big Ford for a Mustang, but he felt the latter was “too sporty” and not really a car for a middle-aged single dad…
Back to the red two-door. It was a ’69 Mustang fastback (or SportsRoof, in the FoMoCo terminology of the day), candy-apple red with an accent pinstripe and a black bucket-seat interior. I couldn’t quite see the mileage on the Mustang’s odometer when looking through the driver’s-door window, but I did note the presence of air conditioning outlets in the dash, as well as Ford’s floor-mounted T-handle SelectShift automatic transmission gear selector (I had not yet driven a stick-shift at that point. That would come a couple of years later.)
Ford highlighted the new Mach 1 when the Mustang was redesigned for the ’69 model year.
The Mustang seemed to be in good shape, inside and out. The body panels showed no obvious misalignment, and the interior looked clean and well-kept. I didn’t want to risk drawing unnecessary attention from local law enforcement by opening the hood, but the law of averages suggested that Ford’s base 302 V8 probably lay underneath. I resolved to return the next day for a more thorough inspection, which I did.
Monday afternoon found me back at the dealership, where a used-car salesman, noting my interest in the Mustang and presumably salivating at the potential to make a relatively easy sale, assured me that the SportsRoof was a one-owner, low-mileage car that had just been traded in on a new Mercury Cougar. He then quickly invited me to pull the Comet around to the back of the dealership (out of sight from Fletcher’s upper-middle class Summit, NJ clientele) so that it could be appraised.
In my previous post describing the trade-in of Dad’s ’58 Plymouth station wagon for Mother’s new ’64 Galaxie, I noted that our departing Plymouth’s value was pegged at about $375. I didn’t do much better with the Comet, which I admit looked a bit worse for wear after its partial rattle-can paint and several cross-country trips under its belt. Fletcher’s best offer was $400, ensuring that the six-year-old Comet would probably remain safely hidden from local code enforcement until it was disposed of… At any rate, the deal was soon done, and I became the proud owner of a three-year-old ponycar!
After heading back to Art Center late that summer for the Fall ’72 semester, the first thing I did was to drive onto the front lawn at 5353 West Third Street to take a few beauty shots of my new-to-me pony parked in its L.A. surroundings.
The student and his new wheels.
Of course, I had to add an Art Center decal in the corner of the windshield (ironically, a small detail that would have caused the car to fail annual inspection in NJ).
The purchase price of my ’69 SportsRoof is lost to memory. While I’ve managed to retain its VIN (9T02F211575, in case a lucky reader happens to locate it) after all these years, my only remaining paperwork is its Owner’s Manual.
This one’s a reproduction. Mine is now a bit more worn. (eBay)
Decently optioned when new, my Mustang would have had a base MSRP of $2,635 ($20,435 now). Adding in descending order: air conditioning ($379.57), SelectShift automatic ($200.85), 302 small-block V8 ($105.00), power steering ($94.95), high-back bucket seats ($84.25), power disc brakes ($64.77), AM radio ($61.40), whitewall tires ($47.00), full wheel covers ($21.38), color-keyed dual racing mirrors ($19.48), with driver’s side remote-adjustment ($12.95), and dual accent stripes ($13.90), resulted in an as-equipped total of $3,740.50 (now $32,320, or about the same as an entry-level 2024 Mustang).
…but I’d rather have the ’69!
As you might expect, there’s more to the story of the SportsRoof. Don’t worry – I’ll get to that soon, however I think it might be fun to review a couple of my Art Center student projects as my industrial design education continued…
The ‘69 was always one of my favorite Mustangs, style-wise… that and the ‘67/68 Mustangs. This is probably why I love my 2007 so much. When designing the 2005-2009 “RetroStangs”, it was these model years that were the inspiration.
As a little kid, I had a toy car… a brand new red and black ‘69 Mach I that was probably my favorite toy car of the lot, even though I was a Chevy guy back then.
I remember loving the look of that “Sports Roof”, even though much later riding in a friend’s Mustang like that, you could not see very well out of the back window. But blind spots were all the rage in those days, as my ‘73 LTD 2-Door Hardtop had a HUGE one… the C-Pillar! You just got used to it.
I also use to check out cars at the dealerships on Sundays. Now I go to Cars & Coffee on weekends.
Dual stripe whitewalls; that was quite a fad for some years.
Another Sunday car browser, here. That was one of my favorite pastimes in my youth, to drive to various dealers on Sundays to see if there was anything interesting there.
The Sportsroof was my favorite body style on this generation of Mustang. Adult me marvels at buying used cars in rusty New Jersey when you were living most of the year in California, but then I also understand the concept of “home” and your comfort at doing business there when you were out of school.
And it is amazing how ancient your 6-year old Comet must have seemed then, compared to how a 6 year old car now is practically new.
A middle aged single man thought a Mustang looked too sporty? Whaaat! Then what does that say about a middle aged married man getting a 72 911E Targa? It doesn’t compute.
A good story, I too remember checking out used car lots after hours in 1972….
-Nate
This, and the ’70 Sportsroof are my favorite classic Mustangs. The ’69 is the only classic Mustang to sport four headlamps, the next year Ford removed them and added a couple of fake vents in their place. The four light look was reprised with the 2005 GT which has the big driving lights in the grille. The notchback coupes had better utility and visibility, but they didn’t stir the blood like the fastback. I missed out on the period when Mustangs like your ’69 would depreciate to their lowest point. Then I bought a new ’07, which got me excited about Mustangs again. That led to a ’70 coupe five or six years ago, but that’s gone now. I currently have an ’06 GT convertible. I like convertibles, but I think the fastback roofline looks the best.
Great write-up and beautiful car, Stephen. I like that you mentioned not wanting to open the hood when the dealership was closed on Sunday. I had a friend who used to do that when we’d look at dealerships on Sundays, much to my chagrin. Nothing ever happened. The ’69 was a great model year, style-wise.
“69 is my favorite year, for a special reason… in January of 1970 my own car was a ’63 Ford Country Sedan hand-me down, but my step-mother had a new ’69 Mustang convertible, champagne-gold metallic, black top & interior, 302, with only 3000 miles on it that she let me drive to Florida for a month long Marine Biology course at the U of S FL in Tampa. Met a beautiful girl in the same class… and I’m still not sure whether it was me or that awesome ‘Stang (it was probably the car, lol), but fast-forward 54 years later and we are still married, and she has a flashy red Mustang convertible of her own… there’s lot’s of Mustang love in this family!
the beautiful blonde’s pony:
’69 Fastback is my favorite Mustang. I bought my 2013 GT based on the styling being so reminiscent of the 69/70.
Darn….I cannot remember your RED Mustang or you at our tiny campus in the Fall of ’72. Surely that RED Mustang should ring a bell in the small student parking lot of the time! Your Mustang should have stood out there like my (’72 Chevy) Mojave Gold ’56 Chevy 150 2 door sedan did. It’s not like the lot was full of RED Mustang “sport backs”. Given my 3 year “stint” in Metuchen, NJ in the mid 50s your plate should have caught my eye, too.
Yet I remember Keith Teter’s ’38 (?) BMW, which was only there sporadically, go figure!
OLD AGE….. 🙁 DFO
Dennis, it’s funny, I don’t recall your Chevy, but I do remember Gene Nollmann’s Sunbeam Tiger, Jeff Pollizzotto’s ’66 Ford Fairlane GT, and John Kraft’s ’72 Dart hardtop (as well as Keith Teter’s butterscotch-colored Maverick…)