By far my favorite domestic muscle car is the Fox body era of the Saleen Mustang. In addition to being enormously collectible owing to their limited production, these cars just scream 1980s vibes with their wild decal kits and paint and wheel schemes. Sure, horsepower wasn’t affected all that much and in that regard, you may find Saleens of this era somewhat unlovable, but I can get past that pretty easily when they look as good as this 1988 Saleen Mustang here on craigslist does. The seller notes it has very low miles and pictures show a car that presents as-new with an asking price of $49,500.

I wouldn’t say these cars were ever not sought after, but I do recall a time when they were much more affordable. Some of this had to do with the fact that you weren’t getting a seriously hopped-up car even with all the visual enhancements Saleen made, which was in stark contrast to the later Mustangs built by Saleen that did receive ample upgrades under the hood. But as time wore on and 1980s cars came back into style, the Saleen-built Fox bodies were seemingly destined to rise in value given they were always somewhat hard to find and welcomed with open arms at enthusiast gatherings like the Radwood car show. This Saleen looks absolutely mint and the gold and black color combination is seriously sharp.

The interior is also like new but right away you notice a feature we don’t often see in the Saleens: an automatic transmission. Now, I’m not going to trash a car because of its transmission, but this feature in a car like a Saleen would make it a hard sell to buy at $50,000. A time-warp Saleen with the five-speed manual? Totally different story. Given the Saleens of this era were largely stock under the hood, you also don’t want to reduce the performance that the standard GT and LX 5.0 cars offered, because even though they were respectable drivers, they certainly weren’t rocket ships. The Recaro-style seats (or are they Lears?) are in outstanding shape and look extremely comfortable.

The underhood shots show a clean, unmodified drivetrain with what is presumably a numbers-matching engine. The seller doesn’t provide much in the way of details regarding any upkeep or maintenance history associated with this Saleen, which really is a requirement at this level of the hobby. While I get that the low mileage should alleviate some concerns about upkeep, you’d still like to see proactive belt and fluid changes in its history file. The Fox body Saleen is only going to keep rising in value but part of me thinks this automatic example should be had at a discount; what do you think – is $50K still fair even for a Saleen with two pedals?