A wondrous white Ford Mustang convertible on black license plates, Spotted in China on a car market in east Beijing. The good Ford was in great shape; paint was smooth, the hood was as new, no rust or rot, and original down until the wheels.

The fourth generation Mustang was made from 1993 until 2004 with a facelift in 1999. This white Beijing car is a pre-facelift example.

Note how close the lever of the automatic ‘box is to the dashboard.

The 4th-gen ‘Stang was available with various V6 and V8 engines. Our white beauty is a base car powered by a 3.8 liter V6 with 145 horses and 292nm, mated to a four-speed auto, sending horses to the rear wheels.

They don’t make badges like this anymore…

3-spoke alloys with the Mustang in the middle.

Black license plates were issued to foreign owned companies from the 1980’s to the early 00’s. These companies could buy a car locally, and they were also allowed to import their own cars.

In the old days black-plated cars had some privileges comparable to diplomatic cars; no police officer would dare to stop them and they could basically park wherever they wanted without fear of a fine.

Nowadays, a black-plated car is counted just like all the others. The government does not issue new black plates anymore but those who have one can keep it until eternity.

The fourth generation Mustang was never officially sold in China so they are very rare. Others we saw are a yellow-facelifted car, and a facelifted GT convertible.