1969 Ford Mustang Grandé: Equine Luxury

I'm listening to The Supremes as I type this. It seemed appropriate. What a time to be alive, 1969. The moon landing, last chance for suicide-door Lincoln Continentals, supper clubs all over the place, amazing music. And a mind boggling assortment of brightly hued pony cars and muscle cars!

Thomas Klockau

This week, I read the final Chevrolet family car, the Malibu, is being put out to pasture. If you told someone in 1969 that was going to happen, they would have laughed and laughed. And they'd have gotten a chuckle, too that the 2024 model was available only as a four door sedan. A rather attractive sedan, sure, but in 1969 you also could have gotten a coupe, two-door hardtop, four-door hardtop, convertible, and station wagons in several degrees of trim, right up to a fancy schmancy one with Di-Noc woodtone side paneling.

Thomas Klockau

Wait, we were talking about Mustangs, weren't we? Apologies for the digression, but as a die-hard sedan man, I bemoan the state of sedan availability today. Not everyone wants an SUV.

And back in the late '60s, not everyone wanted a sedan. Coupes and convertibles were still wildly popular, and pony cars were near the top of a lot of wish lists. In 1969, the Mustang offered three basic body styles as usual-coupe, fastback (newly dubbed Sportsroof for the model year), and the two-door hardtop.

Thomas Klockau

And in addition to the Mach 1, Boss 302, and Boss 429 performance models, there was also the Grandé-the luxury Mustang. It was available only as a two-door hardtop, and no convertible or Sportsroof Grandé was ever catalogued.

Thomas Klockau

While the standard Mustang hardtop was priced at $2618 with the six cylinder and $2723 with the base V-8, Grandé pricing came in at $2849/$2954. As you'd expect, it had a nicer interior and more exterior chrome trim, in addition to wire wheel covers.

Thomas Klockau

The 1969 Mustang brochure made it overwhelmingly clear this was the fancy Mustang. "Sheer Luxury. All planned to reflect your lavish mood.

Ford

"As you can see from its very handsome styling and attractive appointments, such as wire-style wheel covers, dual racing-style mirrors and neat two-tone narrow tape stripes, Grandé says here it is the elegant Mustang." However, despite all that marketing praise, the Grandé still came standard with the 115-hp 200-cubic inch inline six.

Ford

Of course, several V-8s were available, but the big draw for this trim was the plush interior with special door panels with integrated courtesy lights and reflectors, a rim-blow steering wheel, where you could sound the horn by pressing on the inner steering wheel at any spot, an electric clock, simulated teak wood trim, and vinyl and hopsack cloth upholstery.

Thomas Klockau

In total, 22,182 Grandés were built for the model year. 299,824 1969 Mustangs of all trim levels and body styles were sold. The Grandé was the second lowest-selling Mustang; only the convertible, with 14,746 made, was more scarce. Most popular, unsurprisingly, was the base two-door hardtop, with 127,954 built.

Thomas Klockau

And now that I think of it, I don't recall seeing many 1969 Mustang convertibles, despite the many shows I attend every year. As for Grandés, I have seen a couple, including the fantastic metallic dark green '73 I wrote up a couple years ago, but this was the first 1969 version I'd seen up close that hadn't had all its Grandé specific trim and top removed.

Thomas Klockau

This car was at the 2024 Loafers car show in downtown Hannibal, Missouri. It is held every Mother's Day weekend, on Saturday. I met up with my friend and fellow car nut, Jason Shafer, and we spent a couple of content hours checking out all the cars. The Loafers show has a wide variety of cars, something for everyone.

Thomas Klockau

I initially walked right past this car without a second glance, with my brain automatically reporting, "red Mustang, disregard." But as we were walking by again, I thought, whoa, it's a Grandé! And immediately started gawking at it and taking many, many pictures.

Thomas Klockau

So many of these were turned into faux GTs or customized Mustangs, which is a shame. I salute the owner for preserving it as it was orignally built, as a Grandé. So many don't.

Thomas Klockau

Though I do need to mention it is not precisely as sold new. The window sticker and Marti report were on display in the trunk and it was originally Silver Jade, a gorgeous metallic color that I personally prefer over Candy Apple Red, but to each their own.

Thomas Klockau

This car was originally sold new at Crater Lake Motors in Medford, Oregon. Among other options, it has the Stereosonic tape player, 351 CID V-8, tinted glass, power steering and power front disc/rear drum brakes. Total selling price was $3971.48.

Thomas Klockau

And as previously mentioned, wire wheel covers were standard Grandé equipment, and likely 99% had whitewall tires too, but these styled steel wheels are correct for a 1969 Mustang, and far prettier than many modern aftermarket wheel choices. (I'd still want the wire caps and whitewalls, ha ha.)

Thomas Klockau

It was still a really pretty car, and I was thrilled to see it at the show! Mary Richards would approve.

Thomas Klockau

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