1988 Ford Mustang

GT Convertible

8 cylinder

Automatic

1FABP45E5JF129839

Clear

Gasoline

Background: This auction is for the car I’ve owned that is absolutely my favorite of all time, a 1988 Ford Mustang GT convertible. It’s my favorite car because it’s: · fast: 8 cylinder power (and sound!) · fun: top-down driving but top is strong and easily goes up/down · flexible: carries four people (unlike many convertibles) · full-power: windows, locks, cruise control, etc. (Plus I think it’s the nicest-looking car in the parking lot whenever I walk up to it, unless there’s a Vector or Silhouette or Mangusta there, but that hasn’t happened yet!) I used to own another “Fox-body” Mustang, as they call this body style, but it was a 1987 GT convertible model with white exterior, white top, and red cloth interior. That was a great car, but this one looks, drives, and sounds even better. The reason I’m selling this car is that my daughter is now of the age where she participates in lots of group activities and I find myself driving my Quest minivan almost all the time. I just don’t drive the Mustang enough and it should really be in the hands of someone who can use it more than I can. This car has a red exterior, white convertible top, and VERY rare red-and-white interior. After two years of searching online for just the Fox-body Mustang GT convertible, I finally found and purchased this particular vehicle in 2008 with about 39,000 miles on it. I’m a college professor/engineer so I treat the car with respect and it shows. I’ve never driven it hard and it has been stored in a heated garage since I’ve owned it. The car now has just under 43,000 miles on it and it’s still in excellent mechanical shape. This is definitely one of the lower-mileage Fox-body Mustang GT convertibles that you will find today, and mine comes with the very desirable red exterior, clean white top, and rare red/white combination interior. Also, as of this year, the car is now 25 years old, if that means anything to you in the way of “classic” or “vintage” designation. It also still has the original window sticker from the DMV from when I first brought the car to California, showing the CA DMV registration date of December 18, 2008. It is also apparently the ONLY red Fox-body Mustang GT convertible for sale on eBay on the West Coast; there seem to be several on the East Coast but none on the West Coast. Finally, the vehicle is currently legally licensed, registered, smogged, and insured in California and has a clear title with no liens; I have the State of California Certificate of Title in hand. Mechanical: This is what I feel is actually the car’s greatest value: it starts every single time on the first key turn and has never died on me or left me stranded. Even better, it is relatively cheap to buy, insure, run, and maintain. The car has required no exceptional maintenance since I’ve owned it. All major mechanical systems (engine, transmission, suspension, convertible top, etc.) work as they should. The engine idles and runs smoothly with no hesitations on acceleration or deceleration. The car drives straight down the road with no shimmies or wobbling and stops straight as well without pulling to the side. The car also has four fat Firestone LeMans Champion HR 215/65R15 tires with lots of tread left on each one, so you won’t need new tires for quite a while. Interior: The front (leather) seats have been covered by seat covers since the day I bought it and so are in fairly good condition with surface cracking and only one tear on the front passenger’s seat (see photos). There is some fading and cracking of the leather on the top ridge of the rear seats (see photos), but it certainly doesn’t affect the functionality of the seats. The most striking part of the interior is the two-tone red-and-white color scheme. I searched online for over two years to find this color combination, as there are many cars with red interiors and many cars with white interiors, but incredibly few with this color combination. It really looks great. Exterior: The exterior of the car is 1988 Ford paint color “Scarlet Red”. The paint has some minor chips, but for a 25-year-old vehicle, the paint is in pretty good condition (as you can see from the pictures). There is no visible surface rust and nothing obvious underneath when I looked there (see the photos). The white convertible top is in great shape in both color (no staining) and function (goes both up and down correctly with the power top button on the dash). I just washed the car a couple of days ago and there was no visible water inside when I finished, and I had the hose turned on full blast when rinsing. Options/features: It has, I believe, every possible option available in a 1988 Mustang GT convertible with the exception of the upgraded stereo with equalizer (which can be found occasionally online), including the following features, power options, and/or equipment, that all work correctly (aside from those noted in the “Flaws” section below): · Power steering · Power brakes · Power locks · Power windows with locking over-ride · Power mirrors (dual) · Air conditioning (that blows cold even on 100-degree days) · Seat forward/back slide adjustment · Seat rake adjustment · Seat hip bolster adjustment · Dual power lumbar seats (both still work!) · Cruise control with steering wheel controls for set, coast, accelerate, and resume · Tilt steering wheel · 8-speaker AM/FM cassette stereo · Remote trunk release · Remote fuel door release · Dual fog lights · Trip odometer · Center console armrest with storage bin · 12v outlet (in the center console) · Dual sunvisors · Dual rear-view mirror interior courtesy lights · “Turbine” style alloy rims · Windshield wipers with delay · Dashboard display dimmer · Color-matching floor mats · Parade boot (that I’ve never even put on the car) · Ford OEM leather bra (in great shape) · Sony 10-CD changer in the trunk with wired remote in the tray below the radio. The CD-changer was installed with the intention that removing it would be easy and not destroy the look of either the trunk or dash. Flaws: There is a small hole (about 2.5x4.5 inches in diameter) and a section of missing paint in the body section just above and behind the right headlight. Check the pictures and you’ll see that this is fairly minor and does not affect the functioning of the car at all. I purchased a black Ford OEM leather bra when I bought the car, and I much prefer the look of the car with the bra, so I never bothered to fix this flaw. Someone with a little bodywork skill would have it repaired in an hour or two. Adjusting the right-side power mirror causes a fuse to blow. I just set the mirror once and left it alone. There is a small dent (about 2 inches by .5 inches long) at the back of the right-side rear wheel well and an even smaller dent at the back of the left-side rear wheel well. Again, someone with a little bodywork skill would have these fixed pretty quickly. There are a few small nicks in the paint around the body. The left rear seatbelt locked up last year and due to the age of the car, replacement seatbelts in red are VERY hard to find, so I had it replaced with a blue seatbelt that works correctly. The second functioning blue seatbelt (even used, you often have to buy them in pairs) and the faulty red seatbelt will go with the car to the winning bidder. I just noticed that the left rear window motor has started sticking so the window needs a helping hand to raise. It lowers just fine. The passenger visor mirror plastic flap is missing. CARFAX report: After running the CARFAX report, the vehicle is reported as “Potential Odometer Rollover” due to one recorded item on 8/26/2005 showing the vehicle mileage at 133,000. Although I cannot prove it, it’s pretty obvious that, based on the other CARFAX records and the clean condition of the car, this record is a mistaken data entry that is off by 100,000 miles. The previous record dated one year prior (8/17/2004) shows the vehicle mileage at 30,000. ALL other mileage records (back to 2/15/2000 and forward to 12/11/2008 when I took ownership of the vehicle) show an average miles driven of about 3,100 mile per year. The likelihood that in a period of just one year the car was driven 103,000 miles just does not make sense, when, during all other periods of its life, the car was driven pretty close to 3,000 miles per year. It’s pretty obvious that the car was driven 3,000 miles that year but the DMV entered 103,000 by mistake. This makes even more sense considering that all subsequent records go back to showing 3x,xxx miles, NOT 13x,xxx miles. Another indication that this record entry was a mistake is that the current condition of the car is much more indicative of a car with 43,000 miles and certainly not 143,000 miles. Of course, I can’t prove this one particular CARFAX record is an error, and I’m not sure there’s any way to correct the DMV’s mistake, so future owners may have this issue. You can see the entire CARFAX report on the vehicle here: http://www.carfax.com/viewEmailReport.do?a=p7gEMaarMf033J9v3aucDK53W5ca7Hef5HZFmffD%2B8TcU3xPPmzKZw%3D%3D&language=en Bottom line: This car is not a perfect show car but it’s also far nicer than a beat-up daily driver. You’ll be proud (and confident) to drive it anywhere and not be embarrassed about its condition or driving capabilities. Disclaimers: I reserve the right to delete bids from buyers with less than 50 eBay feedback responses or recent negative feedback. The vehicle comes with no warranty expressed or implied. The car is for sale locally so I reserve the right to end the auction at any time as the vehicle may no longer be available for sale on eBay. I will not pay for any shipping costs, but will work with the buyer’s shipping agency if needed. If you are a local bidder (near Pleasanton, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area), feel free to come by and drive the car. You can also take it to a local mechanic and have them check it out PRIOR to the close of the auction. Finally, this auction will run (as all eBay auctions SHOULD) with no reserve and a $1.00 opening bid. At the end of the auction, we’ll all know just how much a 1988 Ford Mustang GT convertible with very low miles (less than 1,800 miles/year) and in good condition is worth. Good luck, bid early and bid often!