1987 - 1989

Seems like every 71,2,3 mustang I find that's been sitting has a tag on the back that shows a date year of '87, '88 or '89. I have determined that owners after 15 years of the car being on the road called it quits and turned off the key. Now roughly 20 - 25 years later these cars are turning up for sale or are being brought back to life after having been sitting for all these years.

Anyone finding anything different on the tags of the sitting cars?

Anyone want to speculate as to why they were parked in the late 80's? Did the paint get too faded? Did the engine leak too much oil? Did the new cars really have it going on with their modern designs?

Hmm, that last question has me thinking. Seems like the '87 vettes had new digital dashes like Kit from Knight Rider and many of the popular songs were heavy on the synthesizer.

You might be on to something there, Don.

I was driving my '73 Mach 1 daily until I purchased my '89 5.0.

I was so impressed with the power, tractability and great gas mileage of the LX that I pretty much parked the Mach 1.

BT

My car was tagged until 2002. Found several tags in the trunk back to the 90's

Digital dashes hit the big-time around '82 or so and flourished until about 88-90 or thereabouts.

Funny thing about the early "digital" craze is that it was what I consider to be "fake" in many respects. The early digital dashes were just displays only, providing nothing but standard analog information converted to "look" digital to the drivers. All the senders and sensors were still old-fashioned analog design with a "conversion" sonewhere in-line to make it all super-modern and digital.

I think a lot of 71-73s were bought in the mid-to-late 80s, being the most affordable way for someone to get into the "Mustang thing".

They bought them with the intention "fix 'em up"...something more than a series of simple repairs, but far less than an actual restoration.

After driving them for a while and discovering that the "Mustang thing" was really nothing more than driving around in a broken-down, neglected and money-hungry old car that had never been properly cared for in the first place, they decided to park them, having lost that initial burst of nostalgic enthusiasm.

They did not sell them then, since they probably paid too much for them only recently, and did not want to suffer the indignity of such a rapid financial loss.

Now, 15 years later they are tired of looking at them and just dump them as quick as they can.

Of course, that is all just a guess...

Who can't resist the future? A 71-73 must have seemed archaic when the '84 C4 Vette came out too.

I drove my Mach-1 regularly from 80 until I bought a 5.0 L Merc. Capri RS in 86, needing something newer to get around in. By then I drove the Mach-1 strictly as a toy until 1992, when I parked it in the garage intending to restore the car fully.

Unfortunately, life had other plans, and the Mach-1 had to wait. There were a couple of times along the way when it looked like getting it back on the road would happen, but as I mentioned, life can have other plans.

At least now the car runs again, but has a long way to go before it will be finished.