Image: Google Papers

Every time I see a vintage 60’s Mustang prowling the streets I always wonder what they were like the day they rolled off the showroom floor. If you could go back in time and buy up a couple brand new Mustangs at the $2,368 selling price in this 1964 ad, you could put a couple kids through college with the profits today. This particular ad for the 1964 Mustang ran in the April 17, 1964 edition of the Lewiston Morning Tribune.

The ad was a big one too; it would have been expensive in the day. I like the part at the bottom of the ad talking about the Mustang being on display at the Ford Motor Company Wonder Rotunda at the New York World’s Fair. In 1964 your $2,368 would have purchased you a brand new Mustang with a 260-cu. in. V8 and three-speed transmission. The car also had “wall-to-wall” carpeting, white sidewall tires, and the ad touts the optional 289-cu. in V8 with a four speed transmission.

Today and you would be lucky to be able to purchase the rusted out hulk of a 1964 Mustang for that price. Today’s base model Mustang starts in the low $20,000 range, inflation is a real bitch. Another interesting thing about this ad that you can see if you click through to the Google Papers on Google is that there is a listing for a Steve McQueen movie called Soldier in the Rain right next to the Mustang. We all know that McQueen went on to make one of the best chase scenes in history only a few years later behind the wheel of a Mustang.