Offered for sale on here on craigslist in Joplin, Missouri, is this 1963 Ford Falcon sedan. First generation Falcons such as this one, are still easy to find. We can chalk that up to what a great car it was, and the successful launch that Ford gave it. Reportedly over one half million of these were sold in the first year, with well over one million sold by the end of the second year. But even at a million units, Ford didn’t own all of the market, as competitors rushed similar cars to production, such as the Chevy II/Nova, Pontiac Tempest, Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Cutlass, the Plymouth Valiant, Dodge Dart, Studebaker Lark and Rambler American.

While the early ’60s are thought of as the end of the tail fin era, cars in general remained large for another decade or so. But examples like this one prove that not everyone subscribed to the longer, lower, wider, and bigger-is-always-better philosophy. Housewives of the day bought these in huge numbers because they were fantastic second cars. They were less expensive to buy, easy to drive, easy to park, and cheap to own.

A half century later, they’re still easy to find. So why is this one special?

The seller says it has 63,000 original miles. The body looks to be solid, with only surface rust being much of an issue, and he says the floor panels have been repaired. As far as the exterior panels we can see, they appear to be straight, and the brightwork also looks decent. The car has the 170 cubic inch inline six cylinder engine, with a three speed manual transmission, both of which are said to be in good mechanical order. If all that weren’t enough, we can also see that lots of time and money were spent restoring the interior. Check out the new seat covers, the condition of the dash, and he says it has new carpeting. It also has a new windshield, a new exhaust system, new tires and more.

If this really is a car that’s good enough to fly in-drive home, for the asking price of $3,500 it works on so many levels. Perhaps a third or more of its price is invested in the interior alone. With such an easy-to-do body, and so much of the other expensive work already done or not needing to be done, wouldn’t this be an extremely compelling and easy way to get, (or stay) in to the old car hobby?