Whoever modded at the moment’s Nice Price or No Dice 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 inside the previous couple of weeks, we’ve been in a position to dance with not one however two of Fiat’s famously diminutive basic sports activities vehicles — 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 caused a strong 67 p.c Nice Price win for the compact convertible captivator.
Over the span of its greater than a century of existence, the Ford Motor Company has launched quite a few iconic and course-altering merchandise to its lineup. Numerous of the corporate’s wares, from the Model T to, most 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.
Today’s 1988 Mercury Sable wagon combines two such iconic automobiles masterfully into one. The first of these is the 1950 Ford, a clean-sheet design launched the yr prior in alternative for the pre-war Ford and lengthy thought of the automotive that saved the corporate. The latter of these is the Mercury Sable, a gutsy ’80s design shared with the Ford Taurus, which was yet one more dangerous and modern providing that may show an out-of-the-park dwelling run for the corporate.
Here’s the craziest side of this tradition melding of types and eras: nearly as many years separate the Sable from the period of its Ford entrance clip as does from its mannequin yr and the current day. Feel previous but?
We aren’t informed who constructed this superb amalgamation of retro throw-back ’50s Fordor and ’80s future-speak Sable wagon, but when we may discover them, I’d gladly shake their hand and purchase them a beer — the automotive is simply that ass-kickingly audacious.
It’s superb how properly the ’50s Ford bits have been built-in into the Sable’s styling, and I think that the retro elements are usually not previous metal however truly a fiberglass equipment initially supposed for a ’90s Thunderbird or Cougar. The entrance finish is profitable sufficient, however the grafting of the horizontal taillights and their wind-split fender bulges is a masterclass in steel modding.
Other retro touches including to the time warp impact embody tailgate badging, aspect trim, and, within the cabin, each a wooden load flooring and an old-school horn ring in some way mounted to the inventory Sable steering wheel. There are a couple of different tidbits that go unexplained right here, things like a clock taking the place of an air vent and what seem like redundant local weather controls mounted beneath the dashboard.
It’s not all an old-school pep rally, although. At subject are the remaining seats, which put on ill-fitting and out-of-the-moment covers as a result of apparently worn seating surfaces. There’s additionally the query of the nondescript five-spoke alloy wheels that don’t communicate to both period the automotive 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 automated with column shift. The advert claims the automotive 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 working nice and being a cheap experience. A clear title comes with the automotive.
The vendor has set a $14,500 value and claims to have acquired a variety of bites at that value however no severe patrons as but. Maybe they might have facrimson higher if they’d listed the automotive beneath 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 may even have been made in setting that $14,500 price ticket. What do you say? Is {that a} honest value for therefore superb a automotive? Or, regardless of the vehicles’s old-school aspirations, is that asking an excessive amount of?
You resolve!
Facebook Marketplace out of Tucson, Arizona, or go right here if the advert disappears.
H/T to Patrick Moir for the hookup!
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Source: jalopnik.com