In addition, they don't have complete production statistics on the cars. Unfortunately, they cannot give you a complete build history or listing of all options related to your car. The info you receive will NOT include production totals for other options (i.e., transmission, axle, radio, T-tops, sunroof, dso, etc.). This info is not available from anyone at this time.
Although they will tell you the info for free over the phone, they also sell $20 certificates containing this information. If you do decide to send your hard-earned money in to get a $20 certificate, you should also keep the following in mind:
- you will NOT receive an original Ford document - you will receive a certificate created by the Third Generation Registry containing the info you can call up and get for free
- this info was NOT officially released by Ford (it was smuggled out by an unnamed employee) therefore the accuracy of these numbers cannot be verified
One other suggestion... since it doesn't appear that he can supply info on ALL third generation Mustangs (as we noted above), we believe it would be a good idea for you to contact him (either e-mail or phone) BEFORE sending in any money for a certificate just to be sure you will be able to get the info you're looking for on your car.
What exactly is the Third Generation National Registry?
A relatively "new kid on the block", the Third Generation National Registry, is actually a "registry" in name only. Our registry and other typical registries, exist as "information clearinghouses" - collecting a whole variety of data and histories from the cars, owners and other various sources with the purpose of sharing the information with car owners and any other interested parties. Much of the information our 1982-1993 Mustang GT Registry collects is above and beyond that which was tracked and retained by Ford. On the other hand, the Third Generation National Registry's primary purpose centers around distributing production numbers from their listing. They request nothing more than your car's VIN (and $20 at the time you request a certificate and "register" your car).
We have been in touch via e-mail with the head of the registry for approximately one year. At the time he approached us back in mid 1998, he indicated that, although they were planning to sell the production info by VIN to owners, they (unfortunately) were NOT willing to share any general production totals with our registry. (Click here to read more on this story...)
How to get the production info for your VIN...
We're always more than happy to pass on any information to our faithful registry participants - after all, that's what we're here for! Just one thing, before we spill the beans on where to obtain the FREE information for YOUR car, we want to ask you a BIG favor... in exchange for our referral, we ask that you share the info you receive with us to help in our research. We would really appreciate it! Documenting production numbers helps to maintain your car's value as a collectible - projects like this are at the heart of the issue. With your assistance, we can continue to find answers & help enthusiasts in accurate documentation of their GT's.
You can either mail the info you receive to us at:
- 1982-1993 Mustang GT Registry
6901 Northview Drive
Urbandale, IA 50322
- or simply type the info into an e-mail message and e-mail it to us at mustanggt@mustanggt.org.
OK, without further delay, click below to continue on to the
Third Generation National Registry web page
So you want a little more history on this, eh?...
Back in June, 1998, we received our first e-mail from the guy who now runs the Third Generation National Registry. He eagerly approached us wanting us to send him some VIN's from the registry so he could demonstrate what information he had, but was unwilling to share much detail or even general information with us. After trading a few e-mail messages last summer, he quit corresponding with us - leaving some of our questions unanswered.
He then approached us again via e-mail in January, 1999 to announce that they now had various production totals on some models broken down. He also asked if we would be interested in working with him to sell "certificates" to our members with the information he had. We told him we would be interested in any information we could get especially production totals and asked for more information on the process.
He explained that he was going to offer us a chance to act as a "go-between" and sell these certificates to our registry members. He would charge us $35 per VIN and we could sell them for whatever amount we wanted. We would be responsible for taking requests for the certificates and collecting the money. We would forward the money and VIN's to him and then he would send us the info. We would be responsible for printing the certificates and for mailing them out.
We continued to correspond with him and, before we could commit to anything, we e-mailed him two different VIN's to see exactly what information we would be getting and at that point, he stopped responding to our e-mails.
Unfortunately, we had already pretty much decided that there was no way we could take him up on his offer because:
- we felt the price per VIN would be way too high since people would not be receiving an ORIGINAL Ford document (owners of 1969-1973 Mustangs & Cougars can buy an actual original Ford invoice through a service from Lois Eminger for $35) - apparently he figured this out for himself since he's now charging $20 per VIN for the certificates he produces
- since the information was priced so high to begin with, we wouldn't be able to tack on enough of an extra charge to cover our associated costs (i.e. printing, postage, etc.)
- there would be too much of a possible time lag for processing the request going through us as the "middle-man"
- we would be doing pretty much all of the work to process the requests and we simply don't have the time
So there you have the history on this service and why our registry did not obtain this info and offer it to you ourselves.
While it really is great for the car owners to have this detailed info available to them, it is unfortunate that this organization is unwilling to release general production numbers to registries such as ours. They did tell us that we would only be able to get production numbers from their registry as they are released to the Mustang Club of America.
That is why we're asking for your help if you order the information from them for your car. In order for us to help out other GT owners and dispense free information, we need to collect as much of this information as we can. Since we can't afford to go out and buy much of this info (this is a non-profit hobby for us), we're looking to you to send us copies of anything you have. It will be greatly appreciated by us and the thousands of other GT owners you will be helping out!
