First-Ever Ford Mustang Buyer Almost Sold It for Scrap, But It’s Now Worth a Small Fortune
The first Ford Mustang owner almost sold the car for junk. See why that would have been a mistake.
Written by Andrew Kidd
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
It’s easy to buy something new, get your fill of it, then discard it only to find out years later you’d be sitting on a small fortune if you never parted with it.
Such was almost the case with Gail and Tom Wise, who went back and forth about whether to keep or sell a broken-down car taking up valuable real estate in their garage. And they’re glad they didn’t, because they eventually found they had a treasure on their hands.
That vehicle—1964
Ford
Mustang convertible—turned out to be the first Ford Mustang ever sold and is now worth more than $350,000.Gail Wise’s history Ford Mustang
Gail Wise was 22 and living with her parents in Chicago in April 1964 and needed a car to commute to her new teaching job in the suburbs. According to the
Detroit Free Press
, she went to Johnson Ford, where she told the salesman she wanted a convertible. He obliged, showing her a Ford Mustang convertible in skylight blue that was several days away from being officially revealed. Gail purchased the Mustang on April 15, 1964 and drove it for 15 years before it was relegated to the garage for 27 years.
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Keeping receipts for the Mustang pays off
There were several claims going around about who bought the first Ford Mustang and when; Tom Wise was searching for parts for the Mustang on the internet when he came across a story about a man who claimed to be the very first Mustang owner, having purchased his vehicle on April 16.
Impressively, Tom had kept track of the receipt and realized his wife had bought her Mustang a day earlier.
With that paper trail, Hagerty Classic Insurance estimated that the Wises’ fully restored 1964 Mustang is worth between $350,000 to $450,000 compared to its original retail price of $3447.50 ($31,551.96 adjusted for inflation). As of 2018, the one-owner vehicle had 68,000 miles on the odometer.
MORE: A 100-Year-Old Man Got Back a Classic Car He Drove in 1964
A treasure almost lost
After the Wises’ Mustang stopped running sometime around 1979 after being used as a daily driver for the family of six, the
classic car
was relegated to storage in their two-car garage. Gail recalled that the family had stacked lawn chairs on the Mustang while it sat collecting dust. Tom had built an addition in the garage specifically for the Mustang, hoping to get it running again as a retirement project. And fix it he did; Gail said she lets Tom drive the car now since he dedicated so much time and energy to restoring it to working condition that she didn’t “want to be the one to put a dent in it.”
While the Wises’ Mustang is the first sold at retail, Ford Mustang VIN No. 1 is on display at The Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
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