In case you didn't hear the news yesterday...
http://www.blueovalnews.com/2005/products/lane.tbird.disc.10mar05.htm
And good riddance to that old fart chariot. Uh buh-bye.
Now can we please have a REAL T-Bird next time?
I may be in the minority, but I liked it, it just needed a bit of tweaking (read a few sheet metal changes). Oh well, not my fav. bird. Hopefully we get something better next time.
I felt the styling of the car was geared more towards shall we say a "seasoned audience." Darn thing was too heavy too.
The Thunderbird has never been one for slow refinement as it has been a "We've got a totally new car to let's stick the Thunderbird name on it. Ford has had it'shiznits(the new GT) and misses since they started on this retro track and I personally think the new Thunderbird was a miss. I don't think most current Ford owners are really into the status symbol with no practicallity cars and that's what I feel the new thunderbird was. Yes, people will spend high dollars for some of the great new cars, but they've got to get either extrodinary performance or utility to show for the money they spend. This of course is just my own personal opinion.
*joins Crystal's minority* I didn't think it was too bad.
I didn't think it was bad either. I thought they were nice cars. Kind of harking back to the original premise of being a boulevard cruiser rather than a muscle car. And I really like that one that Chip Foose modified right after the new 'birds came out. That was a sweet car.
(http://www.dnet.net/user/jkirchman/carpics/speedbird.jpg)
The idea was good, except that the final car was possibly the worst homogenized choice. They had much better looking cars to choose from. Eh, I rarely see them anyway. The last real Thunderbird was built in Lorain in 1997. But I agree about Chip Foose's version...that was killer.
I see them pretty much every time I go out. There are more new-Tbirds around here than Fox-bodies. (I think MN12s are still what I see most often, though)
That's cuz you live in FL... land of the retired Northerners ;)
I still say it looks more like an early vette though...
I think they were great for what they were meant to be. A short run collecters retro cruiser. Mainly, if you owned a '55 when they were new, you own an '05. But just like the baby birds, there's not much of a market for a relaxed two seat, two door cruiser. That's why they added a fixed top and back seat in '58. Sales shot up, and the cars have been selling extremelly well, until they went back to a two seat, slow, drop top.
I'd take a new coupe any day of the week. :) We need an evolution of the MN-12 design concept (not the platform, because they need to shed a few pounds from that formula). This thing was meant to be upmarket from the Mustang from the begining. Even Shelby had an eye for the muscle coupe T-birds of the late 60's, that's why he used the tail lights on the 500 KR.
Could you imagine a Shelby T-bird coupe? :bowdown:
68 and sunny, and no state taxes. Just remember that. :p
Put that wrench down..
Eric, beat me to it! :)
Yep, that Tbird sucked. I liked driving it as a pretend sports car, but for that price? And it has the same dash as a Lincoln LS? How retro can that really be?
The bird was a turd, it sold to a market that was either half dead or blindly loyal to the Blue Oval.
NO wrenches at work (too cold to go to the garage and get one from the trunk), just a tablet pc that I have a growing hatred for anyway...
This is the only paper I have on the 06' bird, we will see what comes next...
I see it like this:
The Thunderbird was around for fifty years (minus the gap between the 97 and the new style). Of those fifty years, nine of them were a two-seat convertible. 1955-1957 and 2000-2005. For forty-one years the Thunderbird was a personal luxury car, usually with two doors. Better than 80% of the Thunderbirds out there followed the two-door, four-or-five-seat cruiser theme. In 1958, when the T-Bird grew up, its sales increased tenfold. Never in its history of four seats did it ever drop below the two-seater, sales-wise. Until it became a two-seater again.
Now consider that even the original two-seaters were not only competing with the Vette, they were beating them. The recent generation of two-seaters could not even hold a candle to the Vette, much less the SLK, Boxter, M3, TT, and others. It not only looked slow, but it WAS slow. And it handled like . And it had a structure that would make a Fox chassis T-Bird seem rock-solid. All for the bargain price of $40k+. Gee, I wonder why it sold so poorly? The car was a mistake. It was too soft, stylling-and-performance-wise, and it provided no incentive for choosing it over one of its many superior competitors.
Good riddance, I say to it. The only problem is that the T-Bird name will probably never come back because it would confuse customers. Would it be a two-seater (poor seller) or a four-seater (good seller, but confusing to the public which has recently seen Ford selling two-seat Thunderbirds and going on about their heritage)? Would a four-seat Thunderbird be construed as an admission on Ford's part that the two-seater was a bad idea (for the second time)? I would bet Ford wouldn't take that chance over a name...
Of course, if the Zephyr name could be resurrected after being pasted to a Fairmont clone anything is possible...
Here is a pic of a 2006 Zephyr. Crystal, trade in the tablet for a 17" powerbook
Eek, we have another Mac-head.. Eric will be ecstatic.
(I dare not even mention that I'm considering getting a Mac Mini sometime this year)
I partially swiched about 3 years ago, then finally traded my home dell for a G5 last year. Now, I am full bore. 17' powerbook, G5 Dual, one kid has a Imac and the other a 12 ibook, and three Ipods in the house. I sill use the Hp at work though, what a difference is all I have to say.
Who are you, where did you come from...and where have you been all my life? ;)
I'll never be a total Mac user because I've known too many of them that were complete fanatics, and I'm generally not wild about fanatics. (I absolutely could not stand Amiga users, they were so out there about their fanaticism) Besides, I play too many PC games to give up PCs. But I'd consider using a Mini as my second computer, to look stuff up online while this PC is occupied, etc.
I was born and raised outside of Detroit, grew up a gear head all of my life, went to MSU, got a job at this prototype shop for Ford in 1990, transfered out to Palm Springs two months later, and the rest is history....
Well bless your heart! LOL! That's awesome...glad to have you on board here. Are you going to get in trouble with any of this info you're passing along?
Nothing secret so far, there are no photo restrictions on the zephyr anymore, and the pdl is outdated. So no problems here, I know what I can and cannot post. I am glad I found this site though, seems like alot of cool people.
So, would you be able to post any news on a next gen T-bird, or a real Mustang based Cougar? :deal:
Sometimes we are in the loop with very early vehicles, sometimes we are only a year ahead. When I hear something, I will let you know.
It's a work computer. I did talk my boss in to getting me a better one when the new budget comes around in July. Till then, I will curse it's 3x daily crashes... :toilet: (I love that smiley :D)
maybe they have plans to mate up the cougar and t-bird again on the stang platform .wouldn't that be a treat for all of us.
personnaly if i had the money to waste i would get a ford super pusuit. they are kinda strange but the hp and tq is nice, and the 6 speed on a dohc 5.4 would be so much fun.
no state taxes, but an $0.02 tax pending on your TP.
So, say you could plant a bug in someones ear about a REAL mustang-esque type t-bird/cougar like the origionals were. Luxo-stangs!!!!