Feel like a grand trip to the mid-west, Urbandale, Iowa, to be exact? Then take nine thousand bucks and rescue this 71,000-mile survivor from its sole owner. Rocco B was the one to uncover this gem of a 1974 Gran Torino Elite hiding in plain sight here on craigslist, so a big thanks for a great find.

The Gran Torino Elite debuted in early 1974, living for three model years. The first of those saw its name as noted, and for 1975 and 1976 the name was simply Ford Elite. The original name signaled that this model was at the top of the Torino food chain. The car became a stand-alone model when badged “Elite.” It was envisioned by marketers as a kind of junior model to the Thunderbird, and its competition ranged from the Chevy Monte Carlo to the Chrysler Cordoba.

You can see the car’s pretensions to luxury from glance one. Check out the twin-split opera windows. How thick is that vinyl top? Are those wheel covers factory? They look like a lot of work to maintain in as-new condition. Add to that the body-side molding, faux dash panel wood, and tufted leather seats, and you’ve got a “spoil yourself” kind of ride going. About the only thing Ford got wrong was the bumpers, which stick out in an ungainly way. Then again, that was due to Federal safety mandates. They do somewhat mar the natural lines of the grill and tail area, though.

So if you want something rather tidy (relatively speaking) in size but big in style, this might be your new ride, and the price seems tempting for a car that looks as clean as this one. What we don’t know is a lot of information about this unit. The miles would appear to be original, though the interior looks a bit dirty. Perhaps that’s due to the light color or the image quality, though. But under the hood is pretty dusty, a contrast to the paint surfaces. Does this suggest a repaint somewhere in the past, or just that the original owner, the father-in-law to the person posting the ad, simply didn’t open the hood? My dad was like that—I never saw an air cleaner cover growing up. The guy at the service station was the one who checked our oil, because he knew what he was doing. So you’d want to inquire about mechanical work done, reliability, how much the car has been driven of late, and whether there’s paperwork on the car. That would seal it for me, especially if a test run revealed that the seller is not exaggerating with the claim “Drives like new.” Where you gonna get a car this cool for this kind of money?