So if you had a sports coupe with reasonably attractive, contemporary styling and a fun turbocharged drivetrain, you’d definitely want to name it after something unpleasant aliens to do people they’ve abducted, right? Meant to be a replacement for the successful Capri in Europe, as well as the less-successful EXP in North America, and possibly the Mustang, it’s maybe better seen as a replacement for (or contemporary of) the Merkur XR4Ti featured yesterday. Of course, the Probe, built on Mazda’s GD platform and shared with the MX-6 and 626, is a lower-powered, front-wheel-drive car without some of the European charm, but thanks to attrition it’s become a pretty unusual sight on the roads itself. Check out this 1989 Ford Probe GT for sale for $2000 in Puyallup, WA.
Puh-yall-up? Nope, Pew-wallop. And you better say it right, or they’ll snicker at you behind your back. Anyhow, many would say Saab were the only ones to successfully pull off 3-spoke wheels, but this rendition is actually pretty good. For some reason, the only Probes of this generation that are still on the road seem to be the boring GL or LX models featuring a 110hp four or a 140hp Vulcan V6, most likely running through an automatic, and with one foot in the junkyard. So it’s nice to see a manually-shifted, turbo-four version of this car with glossy red paint and all trim, spoilers, and wheels intact.
Interestingly, the Probe GT was also equipped with 3-way adjustable suspension and variable assist power steering, pretty advanced features for 1989. In spite of its 207,000 miles, it’s said to run well, and benefits from 4 new injectors. On the downside, the driver’s window motor is not functional, but odds are you can find one in a junkyard, or just apply some electric elbow grease to clean up all the contacts and the window tracks. While the 145hp power figure won’t win many admirers at this point, 190 lb.-ft. of torque can still command respect, and hustled the 2900-lb. car to 60mph in 7.8 seconds. And eighties turbo means you’ll get that nice kick in the pants from the turbo coming on at about 3000rpm. Unfortunately, the seller does not provide photos of the interior or engine, so how about a television commercial instead:
Rusty But Trusty 
January 30, 2016 at 7:58 am |
those window regulators were notorious for failing and were a dealer only part in the 90’s; $250+ over the counter and $200 dealer price at the time; If both were bad it (a common occurrence) the repair could cost as much as ya’ paid for the car, and likely why it was at the wholesale auction, oh, and motor mounts were also crazy expensive and prone to premature failure, the automatics were also junk with the added bonus of being difficult to R&R.
January 30, 2016 at 11:16 am |
Sheesh, good thing my college roommate (who had one of those) didn’t have to deal with any of that…
January 31, 2016 at 10:11 am |
well,, you know I’m a dealer; so I’ve been there numerous times. I bought and sold quite a few of these back when they were common, and the first thing I checked was the windows; I was always happy to see manual handles on the door panels because Probes were good sellers but if you bought the car for $700 and had to spend $400 plus do the work to get the windows working on top of whatever else the car needed, it took the shine off the purchase rather painfully. The Mazda automatic transmission used in these and the 626/MX6 were really poorly made; I’m always leery of any Mazda automatic even now because how often they’re bad,.