What Could've Been My First Pony

Here are a few other Fox-Body Mustangs I looked at before settling on the one that I have.

This is one of the first that caught me and my dad's eyes when we went out Mustang hunting for me. Found it just going back home on Dixie Highway. It was pretty nice. It's a 1992 Mustang LX 5.0 with a cowl induction hood on it and a T-5 tranny, I think. Very clean-looking on the outside, but had it's minor flaws (Rust was coming up from beneath the paint). It was still something clean I could fix up and drive without putting too much money into it. It looked badass with it's cowl induction hood too. But when it came down to the asking price of $4200, that was over the limit (My price limit was about $3000). It had been sold the next day when we went back to get the number for it anyway.

Shortly after that, we saw a cool '86 5.0 at a dealership near where we saw the red LX 5.0. It was white with black stripes, but it was a drag racer, as seen by all the wires sticking out of the dash which were hooked up to engine guages. Forgot what transmission it had, but it was also a convertable. Didn't stay long, because it wasn't talking to us at all. It was kinda rough, would probably be too rough for being a former drag racer, and it was a convertable with a rough top (You don't want one of those in Kentucky if you're going to use it in the winter too). Move on. Didn't take any pictures of this.

This is a 1989 Mustang GT with a 4AOD that I looked at. It was but a 5 minute drive from where I lived, and I also noticed it on AutoTrader.com. It looked like a good buy at first (I think he was selling it for about $2800-$3200), with a clean body (Or so I thought, or wanted to believe), but when I went back a second time with my dad and took a closer look, it was rough. Body was rusting at the fenderwells and at the base of the spoiler, paint was chipping and fading, interior had burns in it, body trim was coming loose, headlights were worn out, and one of the center caps of the turbine wheels on the driver's side was missing. Don't remember the milage, but it sure wasn't well kept. Oh well.

Here's the Mustang I came very damn close to buying. This is the Mustang that really spoke to me and my dad when we went Mustang hunting, and was the next one on the "Looked at" list after we spotted the red '92 LX 5.0 above mentioned. Spotted this at Mike's Motors. It looked just like mine, body-wise: Same Corral Reef color, same LX hatchback body style, but it had Weld Racing drag racing wheels (You can see pizza cutters up front and fat-ass tires out back). It was pretty clean-looking, but was missing a bit of body trim on the driver's side, the driver's door wouldn't shut properly, driver's side parking light lens was busted out, and the windshield was cracked (We looked at this car after Louisville had just gotten over some of it's worse rain storms of the year). Inside, it was T-5 equipped with cruise control (Mine also has cruise control), and the previous owner had installed a Pioneer CD player. There were seat burns, though. As for performance; It was a rocket! Flowmaster mufflers with the pipes cut off after the mufflers, headers, and God knows what else on that mighty H.O 5.O engine! It was loud as hell, but the sign of being a performance rocket showed in the worn clutch which wouldn't grab until almost completly off the floor. Nice car which we could've fixed ourselves, but they wanted nearly $4000-$5000 for it. We left.

We also saw another Corral Reef '93 LX at the dealership next to Mike's Motors, but it was a 4-Cylinder. Wasn't what I wanted, we peeked, we quickly moved on. Didn't take pictures of this car.

But that wasn't the last time we spotted Mike's Motor's 5.0 out. See that white '89 GT up there? After we were disappointed with the condition on that car, we desided to give Mike's Motors a second try, praying that the green LX 5.0 was still there, and if it is, we'd Jew 'em down on the price. Well, it sure as hell was still there (A month later until then), so we went back there. We went back there, and we were able to reason them with KBB prices and drop the price down to $2700, but when we arrived, we saw a nicer Mustang that wasn't the beat 5.0 we saw last time. And of course it wasn't that 5.0 we saw last time; It was the Mustang to be that you see all over my Cardomain site! Seeing that one, it was nicer, and we gave that heavy consideration. I was still torn between having the speed demon I had dreamed about, but the practicallity of the '93 LX with insurance, gas prices, and how it's body and interior was already near-pristine overrode every horsepower the 5.0 could dish out on an open road (It also had a sunroof, and a better Pioneer system than the 5.0). I wasn't sure about it, even after giving myself time to think about it, I soon agreed with my dad on the 2.3 LX on the way back to the dealership. We went back ready to buy it. And we almost didn't do that either. My dad had the check, ready to sign for $2700 like the KBB recommended, but they wanted $2800 for it. We left, but we would've been kicking ourselves if we passed up on such a nice-looking car, so we turned right back, basically said "Take it or leave it", so they took it; $2700. Same price as the 5.0, even though it didn't offer V8 power, but I appreciated that I at least got a Mustang name regardless, and we could safely drive it back ourselves (The guy at the dealership kept talking about towing it because of the worn clutch; That kinda worried us). Looking back, I'm glad I didn't get the 5.0 for practicallity reasons after all.

On a side note: On the way back to Mike's Motors to buy my car, we also saw one of those rare yellow LX 5.0 convertables at a dealership not too far away from Mike's. It was those collectable Mustangs that was yellow with the white top and chrome Pony wheels. It was already sold. Oh well. Didn't take pictures of that.

Other Cars I Wanted Before Settling On A Mustang

As much of a Mustang guy as I am now, the Mustang wasn't a main ambition at first. When I was getting into cars back when I was 13 or so, I admired owning a 1999-2000 Honda Civic, preferabbly an Si, just because it had VTEC, and VTEC was cool. Yes, those were my ricer years. I also looked to a 1990s Honda Prelude, ever since I first saw some guy who lived in front of my middle school drive a tuned mid-1990s Prelude. Somehow, I can't remember exactly, but I eventually turned away from Japanese cars. Maybe that happened when I stopped looking at "Import Tuner" magazine. Next up on my "To Shop For List" was a VW GTi. I liked Volkswagen's, and still do. Those GTis were pretty neat as a German car, and were cooler than any Honda I admired. Even then, I drifted away from my German dream.

After failing to settle on anything overseas, I looked at what was on my home front; The American dream. A Neon could be cool if tuned, but somehow, I don't think I could see myself in a Chrysler. Same with a Cavalier. A Mercury Cougar, perhaps? Nah. Those were always expensive, and they're very uncommon in the first place, even though the V6 engine was nice. Once my dad bought his 2003 Ford Focus ZX3 (Replacing his Jeep Wrangler, and after liking what he saw with an SVT Focus), I started to warm to those and became a Ford fan. This is about where I really started to break apart from my ricer image. Helping him work on his engine gave me some hands-on insight to those Zetec engines, so I looked at Foci and late-model Escorts. I seriously had admired a Focus for their chassis, engine, and unique body styling. I also looked at the 1992-1996 Ford Probes, especially the GT because of their V6 engines, and they had sleek, sporty bodies. Just anything, as long as it was an American Ford. I didn't want to be another Japanese ricer when I entered my driving age.

But once we saw that red '92 LX 5.0 on Dixie Highway, my step-mom and dad mentioned about a Fox-Body Mustang to me, as long as the one I found was in reasonable price. I was excited at the thought of that. I used to not like the Fox-Bodies because of their bodies, but warmed to them out of appreciation for the 5.0 engine. They had nice styling, but was still sedated so nothing was too flashy. I admired a Mustang before (Mostly the late-model '99+), but never actually came to looking at one of any model year to buy before then. And hey; Even the Mustang name was a far contradiction from any trend set by the "Fast and Furious" movie-drones. What a better car to see myself in?