Whoever modded right this moment’s Good Value or No Cube Mercury Sable wagon by incorporating options from a ’50 Ford ought to obtain an award for audacity and kudos for the standard of the conversion. Let’s see if the value tag is equally admirable.
It’s fascinating that throughout the previous couple of weeks, we’ve been capable of dance with not one however two of Fiat’s famously diminutive basic sports activities automobiles — a 1975 X1/9 not that way back and a 1968 Fiat 850 Spider simply this previous Friday. Of the 2, the Spider fared higher, unsurprising given its far decrease $5,900 price ticket and nearly as good of form. That combo led to a strong 67 p.c Good Value win for the compact convertible captivator.
Over the span of its greater than a century of existence, the Ford Motor Firm has launched quite a lot of iconic and course-altering merchandise to its lineup. Quite a few of the corporate’s wares, from the Mannequin T to, most just lately, the F-150 Lightning, an all-electric version of the corporate’s — and America’s — top-selling automobile, have confirmed to be singularly epochal.
At this time’s 1988 Mercury Sable wagon combines two such iconic automobiles masterfully into one. The primary of these is the 1950 Ford, a clean-sheet design launched the 12 months prior in alternative for the pre-war Ford and lengthy thought of the automobile that saved the corporate. The latter of these is the Mercury Sable, a gutsy ’80s design shared with the Ford Taurus, which was one more dangerous and progressive providing that will show an out-of-the-park dwelling run for the corporate.
Right here’s the craziest side of this practice melding of kinds and eras: nearly as many years separate the Sable from the period of its Ford entrance clip as does from its mannequin 12 months and the current day. Really feel previous but?
We aren’t advised who constructed this superb amalgamation of retro throw-back ’50s Fordor and ’80s future-speak Sable wagon, but when we might discover them, I’d gladly shake their hand and purchase them a beer — the automobile is simply that ass-kickingly audacious.
It’s superb how nicely the ’50s Ford bits have been built-in into the Sable’s styling, and I think that the retro elements should not previous metal however truly a fiberglass package initially supposed for a ’90s Thunderbird or Cougar. The entrance finish is profitable sufficient, however the grafting of the horizontal rear lights and their wind-split fender bulges is a masterclass in steel modding.
Different retro touches including to the time warp impact embody tailgate badging, facet trim, and, within the cabin, each a wooden load flooring and an old-school horn ring by some means mounted to the inventory Sable steering wheel. There are just a few different tidbits that go unexplained right here, things like a clock taking the place of an air vent and what look like redundant local weather controls mounted below the dashboard.
It’s not all an old-school pep rally, although. At challenge are the remaining seats, which put on ill-fitting and out-of-the-moment covers resulting from apparently worn seating surfaces. There’s additionally the query of the nondescript five-spoke alloy wheels that don’t converse to both period the automobile makes an attempt to bridge.
The drivetrain is solidly ’80s Sable, that includes a 140-horsepower 3.8-liter Essex pushrod V6 and a four-speed AXOD computerized with column shift. The advert claims the automobile to have lived its life in Southern California and therefore is free from rust. At a reported 96,000 miles, it’s touted as nonetheless operating nice and being a cheap experience. A clear title comes with the automobile.
The vendor has set a $14,500 worth and claims to have obtained a variety of bites at that worth however no severe patrons as but. Possibly they’d have facrimson higher if they’d listed the automobile below the ‘Autos’ class as a substitute of ‘Boats.’ I imply, the Sable isn’t wherever close to sufficiently big to be thought of a land yacht.
Discounting the class error for a second, we’ll now have to find out if errors would possibly even have been made in setting that $14,500 price ticket. What do you say? Is {that a} honest worth for therefore superb a automobile? Or, regardless of the automobiles’s old-school aspirations, is that asking an excessive amount of?
You determine!
Fb Market out of Tucson, Arizona, or go right here if the advert disappears.
H/T to Patrick Moir for the hookup!
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