At $18,500, Would You Lean Toward Buying This 2022 Ford Mustang?

Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mustang is being sold by a towing yard, which means it’s probably a lien sale. Let’s see if this clean title convertible is priced to put a new buyer on the hook.

2024 Mustang Dark Horse On Track And The Road | First Drive

The general consensus on last Friday’s 1994 Cadillac Eldorado custom convertible was that it would be the perfect car for someone living in a gated community and demanding dinner at 4:30 in the afternoon. For the rest of us, it didn’t offer that much appeal—nice as it was—nor did its $8,600 asking price. That combination eventually saw the Eldorado fall in a 61 percent No Dice loss.

Unlike Friday’s niche-targeting Caddy, today’s 2022 Ford Mustang is a model of car that has long been successful for its chameleon-like ability to appeal to broad swaths of the car buying public. This convertible, with its standard turbocharged 2.3-liter Ecoboost four and 10-speed (!) automatic, should make for a comfortable and reasonably frugal cruiser that still can get out of its own way when called upon to do so.

A four-pot Mustang may not be everyone’s first choice of pony car, but it’s not a penalty box at all. The 310 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque of the four may pale in comparison to the 460 ponies offered by even the least potent V8 Ford optionally available in the car, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at. The turbo four Mustang is also a cool callback to the wonderfully quirky SVO Mustang of the ’80s in both sound and function.

This one, in Race Red over a black interior, has just 16,000 miles under its belt. It must have had quite an adventure amassing those miles as it’s now being sold, not by its owner but by a towing yard that has taken possession of the car and is now trying to recoup the expenses it has racked up. Those are likely made up of fines and storage fees.

According to the ad, this “Tow Yard Special” will come with all the proper paperwork to allow for the title transfer. The ad also claims that the title is clean and that the car has been taken for a five to ten mile shakedown run to ensure it starts and drives without issue.

Aesthetically, the car appears to be in solid shape, although the seller says the paint could stand a good cleaning. The factory alloys appear free of curb rash and wear Pirelli tires that are probably original. Covering the interior is a convertible top with a glass back window that seems able to keep the weather out.

Nothing appears especially amiss in the cabin below that, although there are some unfortunate nicks in the plastic on the center console and armrest that indicate that the car has seen some use. Power windows and locks, plus cruise control and automatic climate control, spruce up the place, as does the obligatory center stack screen for the stereo and nav. Floor mats are notably absent.

This is a Florida car, meaning it should be inspected for flood damage since almost the entire state is at or below sea level and is hurricane-prone. There’s no evidence of this Mustang having gone for a swim, and the clean title should attest to its being a landlubber, but it would pay to be extra diligent in the inspection nonetheless. Of course, to get to that point, one would have to already have accepted the car’s $18,500 asking price as a reasonable amount for the purchase. We’ll now need to consider that as well.