It was ten years ago, August of 1999 that I bought my current car. When mi chica and her dad went to Mexico and blew the engine on my Aerostar mini van the search started to find a good replacement for it.
When I was young I got to drive my sister's 1966 Mustang Fastback to school every day, luckily for me she only worked a block away from home and didn't need the car at all. Me on the other hand was more than happy to take the car out for some good exercise. The 66 got stolen one night and it was never found.
I always wanted a Mustang after that other cars got in the way. So without the van I decided my next car had to be a Mustang. I went to Pioneer Ford one afternoon and found a beautiful 94 six cylinder convertible, the next day I took mi chica to see it only to find out the car had been sold almost as soon as I left the lot.
So for the following days I kept going to different dealerships. One day my daughter had a swimming party at a local swimming pool and I had to go with her. The pool was right across the street from Sanderson Ford. I crossed the street and went browsing. As always a salesman approached and offered his help, I told him I was looking for an affordable Mustang and told him of the one that almost was from Pioneer Ford.
He showed me a few of the ones they had at the lot but all were a little too high in price, the one I had seen was $13.000, what they had were all well over $16.000. I thanked the salesman for his help and started to walk away.
"Is your heart set on a newer Mustang" he asked me, I turned around and asked what he meant. He then said I have a 93 convertible in the back lot, we just got it in last night and you may like it. It's the older style though. Of course I said let's go see it. I spotted it from a mile away, it was a little dusty and they had not clean it yet but it sat there in front of me saying buy me and take me home. I knew immediately that was the car for me.
This was even better, a 1993 Mustang GT convertible, the last of the Fox bodies, with 73,000 miles already on it but I didn't care, and the best part was that it had a 5.0 under the hood. After a brief test drive which was more like a family outing since the whole family came to see it, the car was going home with me.
I have enjoyed this car for the past ten years, it is my daily driver so it is starting to show it's age. It now has about 170,000 miles on it but still drives nice, other than my transmission giving up on me two years after I bought it, the car has really been good. Only those items that wear down have been replaced, my brakes have only been done three times since I bought it, the belts changed twice, the water pump also twice, tires three times, the convertible top once.
Driving through Palm Springs on our way back from this year's Fabulous Fords Forever car show in Califoria.All in all, this car is without a doubt the best car I've owned and the one I like the most, my 70 Chevy Impala comes a close second but this days Chevy is not a word that exists in our vocabulary.
In all this years I have never referred to my car as a "she". My car is bonafied and certified "it". We are buddies, we have traveled many miles together in this past ten years, we have been members of the Copperstate Mustang Club for 10 years as well, and know and respect each other. I treat it well, and it takes me places, that's our agreement.
Yes, it has left me stranded a few times but almost always makes it home on it's own tires. My Mustang is very reliable and very fast, and tons of fun to drive, specially when the weather permits to have the top down.
So, here's to many more years of mutual enjoyment. If you must know, my Mustang rocks.
Car was looking very crappy but Junior took it to the car wash and had it detailed. This image was captured about two months ago..