Vehicle Description
The Fox Mustangs are more than 40 years old now. I'm going to let
that sink in while you look at how clean this 1988 Mustang LX 5.0
hatchback still looks. Basic black paint gives it a low-profile and
serious attitude, while a bone-stock 5.0 provides plenty of
old-school V8 motivation. Affordable fun, that has always been the
Mustang's mantra, and this very reasonably-priced hatchback
delivers.
The clean lines made the LX somewhat of a sleeper in the early
'90s, but everyone knew to look for the 5.0 badges and the twin
polished tailpipes out back. Today these are still able to slip
under the radar and the clean, unadorned lines of the LX look as
good as ever. The black paint job was done sometime in the 90s and
could almost pass for original today, showing some age and wear
commensurate with its age and mileage. There are no indications
that this car has been raced, wrecked, or otherwise mistreated,
with doors that close easily and great panel alignment throughout,
reinforcing the idea that someone took pretty good care of this
car. The infamous '5.0' badges remain in place on the front
fenders, so it's got the right look, and they kept the stock
bumpers and rear spoiler, suggesting that the guy who owned this
car understood restraint. If you're looking for a car to upgrade or
turn into something amazing, this is what you want to start with.
And even as it sits, it's probably more fun per dollar than
anything else we've got!
The gray interior is in fair shape, offering stock bucket seats
covered in Ford's ubiquitous mouse fur upholstery. The driver's
seat has a pretty big tear and some discoloration, but the other
seats are in good shape and seat covers are cheap and easy to get.
The door panels, center console, and the rear seat are all quite
nice, and even the headliner remains taut. Ford's fat steering
wheel feels great in your hands, and the relatively upright
greenhouse makes the Mustang very user-friendly in traffic, where
it's the ultimate point-and-shoot machine. The original gauges are
all fully operational and the A/C blows ice cold, so this is a car
you can still drive every day. Other options include power windows
and locks, cruise control, AM/FM/cassette stereo, and power
mirrors, making this a fairly loaded LX. With rear seats that fold
down, cargo capacity is impressive and the trunk area shows only
minor wear despite being 30 years old. Even the original cargo
cover is still in great shape!
The venerable 5.0-liter V8 under the hood was the go-to powerplant
in the 1990s and it remains fast and fun today. The hard part is
finding one that hasn't been modified, raced, and abused, but this
one appears to be almost entirely stock. Still wearing its original
intake manifold, throttle body, and even the stock valve covers,
it's one of those untouched cars that just seems to run and drive
better than most. On paper, 225 horsepower and 300 pounds of torque
don't sound amazing to us today, but in reality, this is still a
very fast car that has few peers on the street. Thanks to the
quick-shifting AOD 4-speed automatic transmission, it snaps through
traffic with real authority, and the original 8.8-inch rear end has
2.73 gears inside so it's awesome on the highway. 15-inch "phone
dial" aluminum wheels look great on the Fox body and carry
225/60/15 performance radials that give it the right Mustang
stance.
Still fast and still fun after all these years, this is the kind of
5.0 Mustang that turned us all into car guys. Call today!