ROYAL OAK, Mich. (WXYZ) — There are so many hidden car collections in metro Detroit, including a garage that features 80 pony cars — and one of those cars is a rare 1997 Mustang Woodward Dream Cruise Edition.
Mike Berardi owns about 80 Mustangs, including a series of Mustangs IIs. He talked us through his logic for investing in so many Mustangs.
"It's from 1974 to 1978, we had the oil embargo right coming in 1974, so gas prices skyrocketed, (and) Ford made the car smaller," Berardi said. "It's funny because people either love them or they hate the little Mustang tubes. Now they're growing in popularity again. But if you think about it, that saved the Mustang from 1973 going forward...they were great on fuel economy so everybody gravitated to them."
"Now these are becoming collectible," Berardi continued. "That's what I'm sitting in right now...it's a 1977 Mustang two convertible, they only made around 50 of these."
Each one of these cars has a story, including his collection of Hertz Rent-A-Racer Mustangs.
"Back in 1966, Hertz and Carol Shelby got together and made rental cars. They made about 500 of them," Berardi explained to us. "You could rent those cars, back in 1966 for about $29 a day, which was quite expensive back then...40 years later, Hertz and Shelby connect it up again in 2006, and they did a 40th anniversary of the GT, you know, the Hertz Shelby rental car. And then at the 50-year mark for their 50th anniversary, they did the same thing in 2016. And you could rent those."
Berardi does make sure that his cars don't sit around collecting dust, and he's fairly meticulous when it comes to these vehicles.
"Each of the cars get driven, nothing sits," Berardi said. "I have an Excel spreadsheet, so I can keep track of when the last time was that they were driven."
Everything gets driven, including this rare Woodward Dream Cruise edition Mustang.
"So back in 1997, Ford, you know, went with the dealers here in Southeast Michigan, and they made it Woodward Dream cruise edition of the Mustang," Berardi said. "They took a Cooper convertible, they had it stripes. They had it (with) a roll bar on the inside. They added special wheels and they added a side exhaust, which is really kind of nice...one just came up for sale locally here and with 10,000 miles, so I couldn't pass it up."
Mike's love for Mustangs extends to memorabilia that includes a pretty sweet Mustang-themed pinball machine.
"My first car was a Mustang too," Berardi said. "I like Mustangs. I worked for Ford Motor Company, it's a great heritage. It has been around for as long as I've been alive, and it just continues even today. (It's the) 60th anniversary of the Mustang this year."
"It's the people," Berardi continued. "It's the car, it's the friendships, it's the clubs, it's just, it's a great car."
