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Is It the First Production Mustang?

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Posted on 02.26.2008 19:58 by Ralph Kalal
Filed under: | Car Museum

The two cars are identical, but for one minor detail: the serial number.

One them has a serial number that ends in 01, the other serial number ends with 212.

The former, pictured here, is in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

The other one for sale at a Chicago area muscle car dealership.

Both are claimed to be the first Mustang ever sold to the public, back in 1964.

The museum Mustang is not for sale.

The other Mustang is for sale, with an asking price of $5.5 million. According to the dealer, it was actually delivered to its purchaser the day before the first day on which the Mustang could be officially sold.

And, of course, that’s where it starts to get murky – because all but about $50,000 of that price tag is ostensibly justified by the car’s status as the first production Mustang sold to the public.

The dealer claims the museum car may have a lower serial number, but that it’s not really a production car. He claims that his Mustang is a “preproduction” car which was not intended to be sold to the public.

Hah, figuratively speaking, says the Museum. They point out that the car was, indeed, sold. It was sold to an airline pilot who kept it. Ford eventually got it back from him, but not without doing a lot of begging (presumably with an open checkbook).

The museum’s curator, Bob Casey, has one other question: “if this guy can prove his car is first – more power to him. But I would think that if that is the case his car’s serial number would be closer to number 1 than 212.”

Good point.

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