The Thunderbird is a mythological, supernatural being found most often in Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest. The thunderbird is said to convey power and strength and many tribes have it as the crest atop totem poles.
Ford's 1971 Thunderbird sat atop their metaphorical totem pole but did it convey power and strength? More like luxury and indulgence.
The original Ford Thunderbird was a two passenger automobile that debuted in 1955 and despite handily outselling the car that it was spiritually pitted against, the Chevrolet Corvette, Ford opted to make Thunderbird a four passenger automobile beginning in model year 1958. Seeing that the original Thunderbird was more of a two passenger luxury car than sports car to begin with, it wasn't that much a stretch for the public to accept that a somewhat lithe, sporty two seater was suddenly a full size luxury car. Sales, in fact, actually quadrupled and over night, whether they meant to or not, Ford created the personal luxury car niche.
Remarkably, it took General Motors five years to introduce a personal luxury car of their own; Ford was all but onto their third generation (or second generation four passenger) of Thunderbird by the time GM introduced the Buick Riviera in 1963. Our subject here is part of the fifth generation of Thunderbirds that debuted for 1967 in coupe, and even a "suicide" four door model which further stretched the boundaries of not only what a Thunderbird was, but where the Thunderbird existed, literally, on Ford's totem pole.
A luxurious Ford sitting atop the Ford Motor Company's totem pole did no favors for Lincoln not to mention further muddying what ever prestigious image Mercury every had. Why Ford ever introduced this car as a Ford and not at least a Mercury is a question for Henry Ford II and his minions in that great boardroom in the sky. The Mercury Cougar of this vintage was based on the Ford Mustang chassis; Cougar not sharing chassis with Thunderbird until Thunderbird moved to Ford's intermediate chassis in 1976. Then, not only were we scratching out heads as to what a Thunderbird was, we had to figure out what a Cougar was supposed to be compared to what it once was.
Ford's pricing ladder was never as clearly defined as General Motor's ladder was, Fords have long crowded lanes that Mercury was in to say nothing of barging in on Lincoln's territory. GM suffered from similar ills particularly starting in the mid 1960's where Chevrolet overlapped with more expensive makes and models at other divisions up to and including Cadillac. The attempt to push Lincoln to the top of Ford's totem pole could explain why beginning in 1972 and through 1975, Thunderbird was little more than a de-humped Lincoln Continental Mark IV. Pictured above is a 1972 Thunderbird. Again, Thunderbird was a mid sized and quite tastefully styled personal luxury car from 1976-1979.
Of all the names of American automobiles none perhaps was as mellifluous as Thunderbird. Like someone given a regal sounding name at birth, no other American automobile nameplate came with as lofty an expectation to live up to either. Ford produced Thunderbirds, off and on, through 2005 and interestingly, when they did a retro Thunderbird from 2002-2005 they chose not to do something based on four passenger Thunderbirds but instead used the original two passenger Thunderbird from 1955-1957 as inspiration. Maybe after all those years the Ford Motor Company came to the realization that the two passenger Thunderbirds were arguably the only Thunderbirds worthy enough to labeled, "Thunderbird".
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