My dad used to be the parts dept manager at a Ford dealer from the 60s to the 90s. One of the most memorable stories I remember him talking (well laughing) about was in 1979, the sales manager had him get plain Jane 79 Mustangs and send them to the local graphics company and get a "Laser II" stripe kit installed. I think he said he had to issue a purchase order for around $25 and they marked the price of the car up like crazy. The sad thing was that people actually thought they were buying some sort of limited production car that would be a collectors car one day. He told me about people coming into parts and talking about how they really had a rare car...the Laser II. Well after reading about the "Stabber" Comets here the other day, it reminded me of the Laser IIs....so for the heck of it I did a Google search and actually found one hit on a forum. I can't believe there is still one around. Never quite made it to the collectors car level yet though.
It did then...does now. Made the dealer a bunch of money though. The black cars with the yellow and orange package were hidious.
In about 1982 I think Ford Had "The Boss is Back" advertising campaign and actually put Big "THE BOSS" lettering down the side of some mustangs...Those stickers were the only thing about the cars that wasn`t stock. They had the 157hp 5.0HO engine in them. Years later my sister in law told me she knew a guy who has a BOSS 302 mustang for sale, which he had purchased new and he only wanted $1,200.00 for it! She told me that "it says Boss on the side of the car"...I got really interested really quick and made arangements to go see the car. " I was thinking `69-`70 Boss 302. Well when I drove up and saw it was an `82 and said "THE BOSS" down the side of course it was a big dissapointment.(The car was ragged out too.) The owner starts telling me " Yea its a factory Boss car,I bought it off the lot brand new and it is REALLY fast with that Boss motor in it." I made the mistake of trying to explain to him (nicely) that it was actually only a Decal option ,and Ford just made "The Boss is Back" an advertising slogan. He got really angry at me and said " WELL I guess I know what the car is since I bought it brand new! It says BOSS right there on the car, and now you show up trying to tell me it ain`t a real Boss?!!" "Boy you probably ain`t ever rode in anything as fast as this car is!!" I just thanked him for letting me see the car and left.
That looks like Comedy Channel's Stephen (Tyrone) Colbert behind the wheel of that Mustang in that add.
We still do that at the dealer and they still sell. Right now we have a v6 4 door Charger with a DEMON strip package. Even has the old little demon devil guy stuck on it. Oh boy.....
We've had a few 2009-2010 V6 Daytonas....ala sticker company. Don't even get me going about the "Baby Viper" 2 dr Neons we had years ago. They did have a cool spoiler.
My dad had an '84 with "THE BOSS GT" down the side. Not a very clear pic, but you can kind of make it out:
who knows it the "laser II" could be worth something one day just like the yenkos...then again minus the HP....