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Unsolved Mysteries: 1974 Ford Thunderbird
Looking like the perfect set piece for a John Updike novel, this Watergate-era T-bird is kept in beautiful shape by somebody but never seems to move. The similarly grand house is similarly picturesque but silent.
For 1972 Ford mated the Thunderbird with the Lincoln Continental MKIV, and for the first time since 1951, a Lincoln product shared a great deal with one of the blue oval's more workaday brands. But there wasn't much that was workaday about this generation of Thunderbird - the biggest and longest T-bird ever and one which also aspired to be the plushest. By 1974, with the addition of impact bumpers, the T-bird was over 4,800 lbs. and 225 inches of opulence.
Inside, some of the more detailed and luxurious trim of the prior generation had given way to pieces that were easier and cheaper to produce, but on the surface things seemed just as luxurious. The related Lincoln was, by then, a $10,000+ machine, with the Thunderbird a relative bargain at $7,700 - a sum which could buy a very modest house in 1974.
That price meant that the T-bird, which had kicked off the "Personal/Luxury Car" concept in 1958, was now appreciably more expensive than many of the imitators and competitors that had grown up around it - including direct competitors like the Buick Riviera. Ford even created a smaller luxury coupe based on the Torino - the Torino Elite - to compete with the lower priced (and generally mid-size) competitors like the Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Although bigger still meant better when this Thunderbird was introduced (and indeed, for an older generation of customers this would never change), the first OPEC crisis put a big dent in this generation of Thunderbird, with sales dropping by more than 30% for 1974 and ultimately leading to the T-bird's downsizing in 1977. Even for big luxury cars, it was hard to argue the practicality of a car this large that was functionally a 2+2 with a limited trunk, and no Ford coupe, save the big LTD 2-door sedan offered through 1978, would ever approach it for size again. Lincoln, on the other hand, would go to the opposite direction and grow the Continental MKIV to 233 inches in length (but a lighter 4,500 lbs.) for 1977.
Both Ford's approach with the smaller T-bird and Lincoln's approach with the bigger MKV were highly successful - but that had more to do with the market's appetite for such cars than the specifics of each design. In 1980, both were downsized, but neither the T-bird nor the Mark ever enjoyed such broad appeal afterward, as coupes declined in favor of SUVs, trucks, and as baby boomers had families, Minivans.
©2016 A. Kwanten.
Unsolved Mysteries: 1974 Ford Thunderbird
Looking like the perfect set piece for a John Updike novel, this Watergate-era T-bird is kept in beautiful shape by somebody but never seems to move. The similarly grand house is similarly picturesque but silent.
For 1972 Ford mated the Thunderbird with the Lincoln Continental MKIV, and for the first time since 1951, a Lincoln product shared a great deal with one of the blue oval's more workaday brands. But there wasn't much that was workaday about this generation of Thunderbird - the biggest and longest T-bird ever and one which also aspired to be the plushest. By 1974, with the addition of impact bumpers, the T-bird was over 4,800 lbs. and 225 inches of opulence.
Inside, some of the more detailed and luxurious trim of the prior generation had given way to pieces that were easier and cheaper to produce, but on the surface things seemed just as luxurious. The related Lincoln was, by then, a $10,000+ machine, with the Thunderbird a relative bargain at $7,700 - a sum which could buy a very modest house in 1974.
That price meant that the T-bird, which had kicked off the "Personal/Luxury Car" concept in 1958, was now appreciably more expensive than many of the imitators and competitors that had grown up around it - including direct competitors like the Buick Riviera. Ford even created a smaller luxury coupe based on the Torino - the Torino Elite - to compete with the lower priced (and generally mid-size) competitors like the Chevrolet Monte Carlo.
Although bigger still meant better when this Thunderbird was introduced (and indeed, for an older generation of customers this would never change), the first OPEC crisis put a big dent in this generation of Thunderbird, with sales dropping by more than 30% for 1974 and ultimately leading to the T-bird's downsizing in 1977. Even for big luxury cars, it was hard to argue the practicality of a car this large that was functionally a 2+2 with a limited trunk, and no Ford coupe, save the big LTD 2-door sedan offered through 1978, would ever approach it for size again. Lincoln, on the other hand, would go to the opposite direction and grow the Continental MKIV to 233 inches in length (but a lighter 4,500 lbs.) for 1977.
Both Ford's approach with the smaller T-bird and Lincoln's approach with the bigger MKV were highly successful - but that had more to do with the market's appetite for such cars than the specifics of each design. In 1980, both were downsized, but neither the T-bird nor the Mark ever enjoyed such broad appeal afterward, as coupes declined in favor of SUVs, trucks, and as baby boomers had families, Minivans.
©2016 A. Kwanten.