ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997 TAG: 9703030029
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DETROIT
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
STAFF WRITER JEFF STURGEON CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT.
FADING IN POPULARITY, the model will reappear as ``a much more personally styled reward car.''
Ford Motor Co.'s slow-selling Thunderbird will be grounded for a couple of years before rising again as a smaller luxury coupe that will take the T-Bird back to its '50s roots, industry insiders said Friday.
Analysts and consultants who monitor Detroit's production plans said Ford will halt production of the 1997 T-Bird coupe at year's end and not replace it until the 2001 or 2002 model year.
They said the rear-drive T-Bird's structural twin since 1977, the Mercury Cougar, will be dropped at the same time but replaced in spring 1998 with a small front-drive coupe.
Ford would not comment on its plans for the cars, but spokesman Jim Bright said the automaker is not about to do away with its most recognized nameplate, Thunderbird.
Ford dealers also apparently have not been told officially of the change. Charlie Robertson, president of Magic City Ford in Roanoke, said, "To our knowledge, the car is not going away."
Robertson said he has '97s and expects '98s in September. Customers show "a lot of interest" in the T-Bird, which stems in part from race fans seeing it on the track, he said. Ford supplies race teams with hoods and fenders and other T-Bird parts to attach to race cars, he said.
But if the industry speculation is correct, 1998 will mark the first time in 45 years that Ford has not offered a Thunderbird, which debuted as a cute two-seater at the 1954 Detroit Auto Show and went into limited production later that year to compete with the new Chevrolet Corvette.
George Peterson, who owns the industry consulting firm AutoPacific Inc., said Ford planners and suppliers have told him the new T-Bird will be offered as a four-seat convertible only, with rear-wheel-drive and V6 and V8 engine options.
Consultant Chris Cedergren of Nextrend said the new T-Bird will be a two-seat roadster and may be offered in hardtop and convertible versions, but that the convertible likely will represent the bulk of its sales.
Peterson said Ford wants to target aging baby boomers who will have extra cash to spend on a fun car when their children have grown and left home.
``What Ford hopes is that the Thunderbird will be the vehicle that hits the heartstrings of people coming out of their minivans and more mundane vehicles,'' Peterson said. ``They're calling it `a much more personally styled reward car.'''
Ford is expected to borrow heavily from the styling of the classic early T-Birds, just as it took styling cues from the first-generation Mustang when it redesigned it for 1994.
Ford expects the new T-Bird to be a niche car, with sales of 40,000 to 50,000 units a year, priced from $28,000 to $35,000, Cedergren said. Thunderbird sales fell to 79,721 units last year, from the T-Bird's height of 325,153 in 1977.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. For the first time since the 1955 Thunderbirdby CNB(right) came out, the model produced at the Lorain, Ohio, plant
(below) may not be available next year.