The first preproduction Mustang, with serial number 1. FORD MOTOR COMPANYFord A retired car salesman in Newfoundland who accidentally sold the first Ford Mustang ever built will be reunited with it this coming weekend.As reported by CTV News, Harry Phillips will be a special guest at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan after his granddaughter started a Send Harry to Henry social media campaign.Prior to the Mustang actually going on sale, Ford sent pre-production models to its dealers, intended strictly for display.In order for all showrooms to have one for the official sales launch on April 17, 1964, the earliest cars built went to the dealerships that were farthest away. George G.R. Parsons Ford in St. Johns, where Phillips worked, got the very first one, a white convertible with serial number 5F08F100001.Captain Stanley Tucker, an airline pilot, saw it and immediately wanted it. He paid $4,300 for it, Phillips said, sealing the deal three days before the launch but agreeing to let the dealership display the car for a while.The whole thing was a mistake. The car, a pre-production model, wasnt meant for sale and was supposed to be returned to the automaker. When it didnt come back, Ford went looking for it.It took two years of negotiation before Tucker agreed to relinquish it, accepting in trade a fully-loaded 1966 Mustang that was the millionth one built. The car went on display at the Henry Ford Museum in 1984. Tucker died in 2008.Canada also got the second one built, a hardtop (pictured above) that went to a dealer in Yukon. That car sold at auction in January 2019 for US$192,500. Only one other pre-production model is known to exist. The first production Mustang intended for sale went to Gail Wise, a schoolteacher in Chicago, who still owns it.Phillips has never visited the Henry Ford Museum, and it will be the first time hes seen the car since he sold it 55 years ago. Museum officials have planned a VIP day for him, including a tour of the Rouge factory where the car was
Origin: Newfoundland man who sold the first-ever Ford Mustang will finally see it again
Newfoundland
Eliminating mailed-out reminders is hitting some Newfoundland drivers in the wallet
A wall of American licence plates in a Maine bar.Dixipix / Deposit Photo A cost-saving measure enacted in 2018 in Newfoundland and Labrador is taking its toll on residents’ pocketbooks. As part of last year’s provincial budget, the government of Newfoundland decided to eliminate the practice of mailing out written notices for vehicle license renewals and switch to e-mailing them instead, saying the cut would save the province about half a million dollars per year. At the time, opponents of the change said it would cause a spike in people running around with invalid plates. Turns out they were right. From the months of July to December, a total of 1,509 people were convicted of driving with expired registration stickers, an increase of about 300 more than the average for the same time period over the previous four years. This means, of course, that the gubbmint is making money on two fronts: the initial savings from stopping the notifications; plus the funds collected from the extra convictions, at $250 a pop. Using those numbers, basic math teaches us the lapsed tags lined government coffers with an additional $75,000 or so. While it’s true that drivers are indeed responsible for the condition (and legality) of their vehicles, not everyone is in tune with the status of the stickers on their car’s license plates as you or I. After all, for many, it’s just one more bill to pay, on par with condo fees or the electric bill. The problem is compounded in this author’s home province of Newfoundland, where many communities rely on internet services with speeds not much higher than dial-up, if they have any access to internet at all. E-mailed reminders may not reach all of their intended recipients. Another quirk of the Newfoundland vehicle registry is that license plates are tied to the vehicle, not the person. With a few exceptions, a driver cannot move their tin tag from one car to another. The takeaway from all this, of course, is that one should pay attention to the expiration date of their car’s registration. Stay alert,
Origin: Eliminating mailed-out reminders is hitting some Newfoundland drivers in the wallet
Newfoundland and Labrador eliminates taxes on auto insurance
Twillingate, Newfoundland, in the background with the 2018 Toyota Camry XSE V6.Sarah Staples Despite Newfoundland and Labrador having the highest insurance rates in Canada, the government is taking steps to lower the cost. According to The Telegram, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball announced to ministers and supporters that automobile insurance tax would be eliminated as part of the 2019 auto insurance reform. “Eliminating this tax can be added to the suite of reforms and will be dealt with in the House of Assembly. We have worked very hard to not just to stabilize but to bring back sustainable measures to our province and restore confidence for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.” The high cost comes from the lack of limits on personal claim amounts, Newfoundland and Labrador is the only province without a maximum cap on payouts. This was a heated issue between the Insurance Bureau of Canada and a group of personal injury lawyers that formed the Insult To Injury Campaign, which seeks to protect accident victims. After fighting it out at the Public Utilities Board, an official report was presented on January 29th. There was still a divide. Service NL Minister Sherry Gambin-Walsh spearheaded the list of measures to stabilize the rising costs of insurance which included increasing the current deductible from $2,500 to $5,000 for bodily injury claims. We reported that Alberta is seeing inclines in insurance premiums up to 11.2 percent, and other provinces are also seeing a rise, up to 9.0 percent in Ontario and 6.5 percent in Atlantic Canada. The data was sourced from LowestRates.ca, who released the 2019 Auto Insurance Price Index for Q1, which tracked the average cost of car insurance. Rates are as high as they’ve been since 2016 when LowestRates.ca started tracking them, while governments are trying to enact laws that will lower the insurance rates for drivers with mixed
Origin: Newfoundland and Labrador eliminates taxes on auto insurance
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