Ford built 4,103 emerald-green Mustangs for a 7-Up giveaway that was abruptly canceled and this is what happened to them

A long time ago, Ford built limited-edition Mustangs for a 7-Up giveaway, but it didn’t go as planned.

The whole campaign was a bit botched, and those cars were never used for the intended purpose.

Which leaves us with a question: where are they now?

Well, not where you think.

The Mustang 7-Up Edition was (supposed to be) a thing

The 1990 ‘7-Up Edition’ Mustang was originally created as part of a promotional giveaway tied to the 1990 NCAA basketball championship.

The contest was canceled before it launched, but Ford had already committed to the design and decided to manufacture and sell the cars through dealers instead.

Strategically, it doesn’t sound that great, but it gets more complicated.

That’s because the idea was to build 30 units, but Ford decided to build way more than that.

The reason why Ford built so many Mustangs ‘7-Up’

Only 30 units were originally slated for the contest, and just two were built before the cancelation.

But Ford still decided to scale up production to turn it into an unofficial 25th-anniversary model.

They initially planned to build 5,000 units, but ultimately capped the run at 4,103 cars – with 2,743 automatics and 1,360 5-speed manuals.

The edition featured a unique color scheme combining Deep Emerald Green Clearcoat Metallic paint with a white convertible top and white leather interior.

But as the giveaway had been canceled, Ford had to figure out what to do with these Mustangs.

The car was rebranded and quietly put in production

Instead of scrapping the cars or letting the design go to waste, Ford rebranded the car internally as the 1990 Limited Edition LX 5.0 Convertible.

Obviously, as the 7-Up collab was no longer a thing, they couldn’t call it the ‘7-Up’ edition.

But that’s basically what it was.

Collectors knew about it, and instantly coined them ‘7-Up Mustangs’ due to their distinctive Deep Emerald Green and white scheme.

Through the years, some have been scrapped or lost, but most are still here.

And they’re less expensive than you think.

Clean, driver-quality examples generally sell between $15,000 and $25,000, while low-mileage or mint-condition models have fetched up to $50,000 at aucmastions.