The First Ford Mustang Sold

Gail Wise unknowingly became the first ever Mustang owner when she bought her skylight blue Pony on April 15, 1964, a Wednesday, in Detroit, Michigan, two days before the public even had a chance to see its debut at the World Fair in New York. She was 22 years old, had just graduated from college and had gotten a job as a 3rd grade school teacher. She needed a reliable car to get to and from work. She traded in a $400 Chevy, and she borrowed the rest from her parents to cover the $3,419 price for the car, which was, at that time, over half of her teacher’s salary of $5,100 a year, but understood the car was special. When she got to the dealership, she told the salesman she wanted a convertible but there wasn’t one on the floor. He told her to follow him to the back room where they had the car she bought, the dealership was using it to drive around. “When I drove it down the street, it was like I was a celebrity,” Wise said.

 

Gail and her husband, Tom, drove the Mustang until 1979 when it started having mysterious problems. “Tom would say, ‘I’ll fix it next week.’ Of course, next week turned into twenty-seven years and four children later,” shared Wise. The couple built an additional garage so they could keep the car, but it sat under a pile of storage for over two decades.
When Tom retired and made time to work on repairing the old Pony, a Google search showed him that the “first ever Mustang owner” bought his car on Thursday April 16th. He and Gail knew that wasn’t right. Fortunately, the couple kept all the original paperwork and documentation from the day Gail purchased it. After some searching in their basement, Tom recovered the documentation that would ultimately become proof that Gail Wise was the first person ever to buy a Ford Mustang.
“We had everything. We didn’t know it was anything special. But we kept the new car invoice, the registered owner’s manual. Tom’s a saver,” said Gail.
So they gathered the paperwork from the sale on Wednesday, April 15th and called up Ford.
Since then, Gail has been recognized as the official first owner of a Mustang. She and Tom travel with the car to auto shows all over the country and enjoy the public spotlight. “I feel like a movie star at 72!,” Wise said. However, Wise has noticed something odd about how the media portrays her: “I think it’s silly when I go on the Internet and all the headlines say, “The first Mustang owner was a WOMAN” she said. “I never felt like I was beneath any man. I remember the sales man telling me that the Mustang was more of a muscle car, but I said, ‘Girls like to have fun, too.’”
The car is estimated to be worth $350,000 to $450,000 today.

Interview with Gail and Tom Wise - 6:35:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R3XEW8f3_I

The first Mustangs were built in Ford's Dearborn, Michigan factory on March 9 1964 and the car was first shown to the public on April 17 at the New York World's Fair. The first-generation Ford Mustang was manufactured by Ford from March 1964 until 1973.
It was initially introduced as a hardtop and convertible with the fastback version put on sale in August 1964.