Art Gallery || Carroll Shelby || Chili Recipes || Club History || Cobra Showcase || Drag Racing || Magazine || Photo Archive
 
Video Channel || Links || HOME

 


 Ford looks back to Thunderbird to move ahead in style
By John Lippert / Bloomberg News (Detroit News)

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co., hoping to become the automobile industry's design leader in the new century, is turning to its most celebrated product of the 1950s for help.

The world's second-largest automaker unveiled its new Thunderbird car Sunday January 3rd at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The reborn Thunderbird, which replaces the bland, overgrown version abandoned in 1997, should be on the market in about 18 months, Ford says. The new car, a sporty two seater like the original, is more than an exercise in nostalgia, the automaker insists.

Ford says it symbolizes a new design emphasis that will help the company lure buyers from competitors. The restyled Thunderbird also underscores a move by Ford and its rivals to make money on "niche" vehicles aimed at affluent and fussy consumers.

"All consumer goods industries are providing people with more choice," said Chris Cedergren, 
an analyst with Nextrend in Thousand Oaks, California. "It's happening with vehicles, too." 
In 1997, 21 percent of new vehicle buyers made over $100,000 annually, compared with 13 percent 
in 1990, Cedergren said. With this rising affluence comes an increased tendency to view cars as 
personal statements rather than basic transportation, he said. 
The Thunderbird, Ford's most striking design in at least a decade, bears the imprint of J.C. Mays, 
who in 1997 became the first Ford design chief hired from outside the company in four decades. 
The Thunderbird is "the tip of the iceberg" of the style innovations Ford will unveil in the next 
decade, Mays said. 
The new car uses some "red, white and blue American flag waving" to distinguish itself from 
"form-follows-function" designs of German and Japanese automakers, the 44-yearold Mays said.
"Cars have become too bland," said Carl Olsen, a professor at the Center for Creative Studies, a 
design school in Detroit. With the Thunderbird, "what you're seeing is a first step toward looking 
back to a more romantic era of car design." 
DaimlerChrysler AG -- including the former Chrysler Corp., hands-down leader in U.S. design -- 
and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG are the world's top auto designers, Cedergren said. Ford has a 
chance to surpass them if it takes more Thunderbird-like risks, he said. 
Ford introduced the Thunderbird in 1955. The car so captured the upbeat, forward looking spirit of 
the time that John F. Kennedy included 50 of them in his 1961 inaugural. 
Sales peaked at 322,517 in 1977. By then, the Thunderbird was 50 inches longer and 2,000 pounds 
heavier than the original. By 1996, sales had dropped to 79,721 and profits had disappeared. Ford 
pulled the plug the following year but indicated the Thunderbird might return in some form. 
Mays succeeds the retiring Jack Telnack, best known for the 1986 Taurus, the teardropshaped 
sedan that was Ford's last styling breakthrough. Mays arrived at Ford after three years as an 
independent designer and 14 years at BMW, Volkswagen AG, and Audi AG. Volkswagen turned 
his Concept One, an experimental 1994 show car, into today's hot-selling New Beetle. 
When designing the modern Thunderbird and Beetle, Mays said, he sought to recreate the 
emotional appeal of their predecessors but not simply to copy them. 
The new Thunderbird has a removable hardtop like the original and features such evocative 
touches as an egg-crate grille, a hood scoop and a wraparound, aircraft-style windshield. A 
single, crisp line runs from rounded headlights to taillights, hinting at the fins sported by 1962 
Thunderbird. 
But the new version shows its modern side with polished aluminum trim and an all leather interior, 
parts of which match exterior colors such as sun-mist yellow, pink and teal green. 
Ford expects to sell about 30,000 Thunderbirds annually, or less than half as many as the 
discontinued version. However, unlike its predecessor, the new Thunderbird will share powertrain 
and chassis components with other company models, including Fords, Jaguars and Lincolns. 
This sharing will allow Ford to include a modern, powerful all-aluminum 3.9-liter, V-8 engine. It will 
also allow Ford to price the car under $33,000, according to James Hall, an analyst with 
AutoPacific Group in Southfield. 
That price will enable Ford to turn a profit and encourage it to target ever-smaller market niches, 
analysts say. 
After streamlining worldwide manufacturing and engineering during the 1990s, "we can make 
money on low volumes," said Ford Chief Executive Jacques Nasser. 
The new Thunderbird will provide an important early test of that belief. 

The original 50s era Thunderbird
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Last updated: All Rights Reserved SAAC-MCR Archive
Originally formed as the COBRA Club in 1972. Established as a Region of SAAC in 1975. One of the oldest SAAC Regions in the United States