It was ordered with a load of options, factory air conditioning, eight-track player, and power accessories, and then, they didn't drive it.
5000 miles can be accomplished in less than a year for a commuter, less than a month for a road tripper... and in less than 5 decades if the car is not in storage.
So, I'll guess since no one ever tells the story of why they paid full price, then stored their car for decades, out of the sun and weather, never decided to get rid of a huge waste of space they weren't using... we will never know what makes a person pay for a car just to fill their garage with it for decades.
But this just sold at auction for 45k. The seller got lucky enough to find someone who wanted to trade a years income for sentimental attachement to the great 70s station wagon.
I bet the new owner won't make it a daily driver either, and tries to flip it, but at a loss, within 3 years
https://drivetribe.com/p/1978-ford-country-squire-sells-Sj_C5REFSVSYDStZrWynxQ?iid=fZ4slEG4QK2qvdzQKYKmXg
Well Jesse I can tell you how it happened to a Lincoln near me. A local school bus co. owner always bought a new Lincoln every 5 years. in 1979 he went to trade his 1974 Town Car for a 1979 Collector series Town Car. The only problem was at the time with the fuel shortage as it seemed the dealer was not offering enough for the trade in. Knowing that 1979 was the last year for the largest Lincoln he bought the new Lincoln and put it in his garage until the day when the 1974 was too tired to go on. Then came 1984 and he didn't want to trade in the 1979 with only 9 miles on it so he gave away the 1974 car to a grand child (I believe) bought the new one and as far as I know the 9 mile 1979 Town car collector edition Lincoln is still under cover in his garage.
ReplyDeletewow, that is one crazy cool true story! Thanks! I hope that the battery was disconnected and the car was put on jackstands to take the weight off the suspension and tires.
DeleteOf course given the vintage of the car, and the fact that Fords, it seemed, had some pretty nasty driveability problems back in the early emission era, perhaps the darned thing just didn't run well, so they put it away. Maybe they were better by 1978, but I recall driving a 70 and a 71 of various sorts (fortunately employer's not mine), and they were so bad they really were nearly unusable.
ReplyDeleteChuck Berry had a garage full of malaise era Cadillacs in storage because he couldn't get what he wanted for them in trade in, and he figured that one day he'd sell them for more than they were worth because he had owned them. But even after his death they're still just old Cadillacs that no one really wants any more than when it was time to trade them in.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to happen with every generation. When Ford was discontinuing the Model T for the Model A people bought three or four T's so they could drive one for the rest of their lives.
ReplyDelete