Where did all the Thunderbirds go?
That's something that's been going through my mind lately. Ford Thunderbirds used to be fantastic, beautiful luxury cars. But now you're lucky to see one on the road.
The Thunderbird was introduced to the world in 1955 where it was marketed as a "Personal Luxury Car". It had only two seats until 1958 when Ford thought it practical to add a rear bench to it. It stayed that way for quite awhile until 1997 saw the end of the Thunderbird. America decided that large two-door luxury cars were a thing of the past and consequently stopped buying them.
But that wasn't the end of the Thunderbird.
In 2002 Ford decided to give the T-bird a last hurrah. With styling cues taken directly from the first generation Thunderbird, and a Jaguar 3.9L V8 motor this 'Bird looked and sounded absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately, even though the tribute was a good car, it didn't last.
In 2004 Ford executives decided to cancel the Thunderbird in 2005 with no heir to her throne. This was met with mixed feelings in the Thunderbird enthusiast community as the car was a good automobile, but not as good as it could have been. The Thunderbird was said to be grossly underpowered for its size and felt like driving a Cadillac Deville instead of a two door sports car. The sales figures for the car reflected these feelings as it decreased from 31,121 in 2002 to 9,220 in 2005. In total only 67,518 Thunderbirds were produced in the 2002-2005 final run of the vehicle.
Personally, I'd like to see another Thunderbird generation; one still inspired by the original, but the best it can be. Look how the "new-stalgic" Mustang did. If Ford could pull that off for a new Thunderbird (or maybe a Torino...) that would just be fantastic.
I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that.
