In 1964, Woman Bought First Ever Mustang For Just 3,500 - It's Now Valued 450,000

Jan 03, 2019 by apost team

In Park Ridge Illinois, Gail Wise, 76, had no idea that inside of her garage was a treasure that had sat there for over four decades: a stunning baby-blue Ford Mustang.

Her husband, Tom, discovered the truth about the Mustang when he was looking for some car parts online. He happened across a story about a person who said that they had bought the very first Mustang on April 16, 1964. Tom paused and then realized that Gail’s Mustang was bought exactly one day earlier.

Gail says that he then “went down to the basement and found the receipt and the owner’s manual. Sure enough, I had purchased the car on April 15.”

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What that meant was that Gail was, in reality, the very first person to own a Ford Mustang. And while that is a nice distinction, it also meant that her baby-blue, fully restored Mustang was even more valuable than she thought. Her beloved car was now valued at around $350,000 to $450,000.

Gail well remembers that day in 1964 when she and her parents visited a car dealership on Cicero Avenue in Chicago called Johnson Ford. She was 22 years old and had just started her career as a teacher. Her parents helped her buy the car, lending her half of its price, which back then was $3,447.50. The dealership actually sold her the car before it was debuted at the World’s Fair in New York on April 17, 1964. Before that, Ford ran an ad campaign that never showed what the Mustang looked like.

Gail says that she was thrilled with the car: “It was sporty. It had bucket seats [and a] transmission on the floor.” She even drove the car right out of the showroom "with everyone waving at me and asking me to slow down.” Like only a Mustang can, Gail remembers that she “felt like a movie star at 22.”

For 15 years, Gail used the Mustang as her primary car until it broke down sometime in the 1970s. That’s when it was parked inside the family garage. Gail had tried to get rid of the car several times, but her husband always refused, saying that he wanted to fix it up one day. It was lucky for Gail that she listened to Tom!

Gail was invited to Ford’s ten-millionth Mustang celebration on Aug. 8, 2018 to show off her Mustang at the event. She expressed that she once again felt like a movie star. Her only regret, however, was that her parents couldn’t be there with her.

It just goes to show that you never know what something is worth. What you think is junk might just be worth its weight in gold! Let us know if you think that there's anything hiding in your garage that might be worth more than you think!