Thunderbird car 197911/21/2023 ![]() If owning the 1980-82 Ford T-Bird with all its flaws does it for you, we say go for it. We wouldn't buy this bizarre ride at any price, but we all have different wants. That's a fair price for an unpopular car from a popular nameplate. Still, the public was not interested, and the sales continued to drop, which is why the brand finally discontinued the nameplate.īack to the 1980-82 Ford T-Bird - if you want to acquire this old chap, you can do so for about $5,000-$8,000. The final attempt to revive the name and the car was in the early 2000s when Ford significantly modernized its T-Bird. The ninth-generation Thunderbird came to the market swiftly in 1983, adopting a new exterior design.Īdmittedly, the Thunderbird nameplate saw many other ups and downs during its long run. These two factors played the biggest part in poor critics and decreasing sales, so Ford had to make a move quickly to mend the damage to the nameplate. In summary, while more fuel-efficient (as per government's guidelines) and improved mechanically, the 1980-82 Ford T-Bird had both strange styling and underpowered engine options. It's not hard to see why so many people disliked the 1980-82 Ford T-Bird, especially if you check it out in person. Then, there's that long hood on the small body, an empty-like front with a misaligned line, and that oversized grille. You can see it now, too, how the proportions of the 1980-82 Ford T-Bird look off. However, placed on a smaller body, the rectangular grille, the fender-wrapping lights, and other components looked odd. Thunderbird (seventh generation) G GAZ-14 H Holden HZ L Lada Niva. The car came only in a two-door coupe body style and used many features from the previous generation. Even though it was downsized and lighter than its predecessors, it was. It also weighed 1,400 pounds less than the previous generation.īut the huge change in size was not the major problem people had with the 1980-82 Ford T-Bird. The car lost 17.3 inches in length, 4.4 inches in width, and 5.6 inches in wheelbase. The 1980 production year shed off quite some from its body. Still, the eight-generation T-Bird was the first one to receive downsizing as part of the design process. And that’s always a good score.The truth is, Ford started to downsize its Thunderbird because of the changed regulations in the late 70s. It’s a dead-on stocker, but sometimes unmolested is for the best when it comes to a used car, and here it’s a gold mine.Ĭertainly the big ‘Bird could use some new rolling stock and some upgraded brakes that can handle the heft, and the 351 could use some performance pieces here and there, but overall this is a minimum-investment kind of car. The red interior isn’t for everybody, but it is a nice change from black and gray. This is a 351W/C6 car, and it has only 104,000-ish miles on the clock, which the seller claims are highway miles, and I’m leaning towards believing it. This particular Thunderbird hails from the Colorado Springs area and appears to be a well-loved example that was dutifully taken care of over the years. ![]() ![]() Make no mistake, these ‘Birds are boulevard bruisers, but they were also one of the most successful generations of T-bird, selling nearly a million examples in three years. The seventh-generation Thunderbird was the same car as the Ford LTD II, which was mechanically the same as the Ford Torino of 1972. You just have to be willing to step outside of the normal scene in order to find a car that you can be proud of, and in the case of this 1979 Ford Thunderbird, you can be proud of what your $1800 buys you. You are not relegated to some early 1990’s FWD turd that not only can’t get out of it’s own way but was so neglected over the years that it lost all of the economic benefits as well.
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