FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => Non-FE Discussion Forum => Topic started by: thatdarncat on February 29, 2016, 08:13:34 PM
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My mom bought her 1968 Cougar on Feb 29th 1968, so a leap year birthday. Well maybe the day it rolled off the assembly line is really it's birthday, I don't know lol. Anyway, I rode home from the dealer in it that day and I still have the car. I always remembered we bought it on leap day. I have some of the original paperwork, thought some of you might get a kick out of it.
(http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff437/red0wl/1968%20Cougar%20paperwork%20001%20rs.jpg) (http://s1235.photobucket.com/user/red0wl/media/1968%20Cougar%20paperwork%20001%20rs.jpg.html)
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That's pretty cool, Kevin! It's hard to beat a story where the car has been in the same family since day one. Any idea what the $536.20 discount was for?
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The discount was just the amount the dealer knocked off the list price, my parents didn't trade in a car. Percentage wise that was quite a bit off, maybe my dad was a heck of a negotiator lol. They do say buying at the end of the month is your best deal. I will say Ford must have been making a good markup on that vinyl top, $20+ more than the AM radio and almost as much as the power steering.
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Very cool! Love those prices, eh?
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That's pretty cool to still have the invoice. It does seem like a big mark up when the radio is 2/3's the price of power steering.
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LOL! Freight, $80! Sales tax, $90! Deposit, $25!! Those were the days... ;D
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Just imagine 12 years after 1968. All the muscle cars that could be had for 500 bucks or less each. 12 leap years later.....most of these cars are priced out of site.
Oh, Happy Leap Birthday Cougar.
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Kevin, I assume it still has the C-code 2V small block? Is the car still in stock condition? Just dreaming, but because of the timing of your Mom's purchase she might have been able to order a GT-E with Merc-o-Matic and the 390hp hydraulic-lifter 427; the last of the 427s in passenger cars! ;D
Bruce
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LOL! Freight, $80! Sales tax, $90! Deposit, $25!! Those were the days... ;D
I just went back and noticed, if you look real close, that bill of sale was created on a .....typewriter! Looks like an IBM Selectric ball type (showing my age here!) .
Wow, when was the last time one of those was used at a dealership, or anywhere for that matter?
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Just imagine 12 years after 1968. All the muscle cars that could be had for 500 bucks or less each. 12 leap years later.....most of these cars are priced out of site.
Oh, Happy Leap Birthday Cougar.
Not $500 but....starting in late '73, the First Oil Embargo killed the ownership of muscle cars big time. Gas went from about 35-40 cents/gallon to $1.00 almost overnight (yeah I know, I know...cheap today.eh?) and guys were scrambling to dump their muscle cars. Every dealer's back lot was stuffed with, I kid you not, Z-28's, BB Mustangs, 440 Cuda's, BBC Chevelles, Boss 302's, 440 Challengers, you name it. They were trading them in at first to GM, Ford, Dodge, etc. dealerships but by say February, 1974 the dealers wised up and either refused to take one in on a trade or paid peanuts. Chevy Vegas and Ford Pintos were flying off the shelves! Keep in mind too that insurance rates for muscle cars were also zooming up at the time due to thefts, racing accidents and bad press, a double whammy to us youngsters, some now married and raising a family, paying the mortgage, etc. Something has to give....and did.
Most of those muscle cars languished on dealer and corner used car dealerships for quite a few years thereafter even as the gas crisis lagged a bit. My bro' bought in late '76 IIRC his very low mileage genie '70 Boss 302 for $2,200! All we had to do was pop the tranny and fix a throwout bearing and tranny front cover someone messed up, all for about $14!. One could get any of the above cars for between $1,500-$2,300 tops at the height of the crisis. Wish I had spare cash then and bought about a dozen!
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/10/15/234771573/the-1973-arab-oil-embargo-the-old-rules-no-longer-apply
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My mom bought her 1968 Cougar on Feb 29th 1968, so a leap year birthday. Well maybe the day it rolled off the assembly line is really it's birthday, I don't know lol. Anyway, I rode home from the dealer in it that day and I still have the car. I always remembered we bought it on leap day. I have some of the original paperwork, thought some of you might get a kick out of it.
(http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff437/red0wl/1968%20Cougar%20paperwork%20001%20rs.jpg) (http://s1235.photobucket.com/user/red0wl/media/1968%20Cougar%20paperwork%20001%20rs.jpg.html)
Your car was delivered on the same day I was! I hit 12 this year too!
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LOL! Happy birthday, Ross!
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Your car was delivered on the same day I was! I hit 12 this year too!
Ha! That's pretty cool also, Ross. Not often you get to see a car that was produced on your birth date.
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"Your car was delivered on the same day I was! I hit 12 this year too!"
That's pretty cool - Happy Birthday. I would guess that makes you the forum's youngest member lol.