The 1979 Ford Thunderbird was Smaller and Cheaper Than Most Prior T-Birds, And Sold Like Crazy

Good morning. This is Bill from Curious Cars and Autohouse of Naples on a, you know, it's a pretty nice Florida Friday. I can't complain. The weather's, I don't know, maybe in the 50s somewhere. The humidity is low. There's no birds up in the trees stalking me. I can't even hear them. They're not even chirping somewhere. There just aren't any. Fantastic. There hasn't been a goat sighting in weeks and not even a deer on the road. I mean, it just, you know, it just, this is peak Bill right here. It just doesn't get any better than this. The weather's great. There's no animals around. There's no birds around and I do, well, I have this bird, but otherwise I've got nothing else and I'm very, very chipper. Heading back up to Mecham and Kissimmee tonight. Again, I'm on the road a lot these days, which is, you know, it's a mixture of fun because I like going the back roads and seeing if I find anything. I found an old Suburban last week with a manual gearbox. If I could have just come together with the guy, oh my God, did I love that thing. An 85 Suburban with a manual. Not too many of those out there. But yeah, he was a little bit optimistic in what he expected out of it. So probably not going to see that one. But anyway, Peter's running through some of his fancy crap tomorrow. So I thought I'd be there to, to assist, watch some of the high-end ---- go through Mecham and we'll see if we have any fun with that. Meanwhile, I'm going to have some fun with this. This is a 1979 Ford Thunderbird. It's finished in powder blue, which is a fantastic color. I drove this home for the first time last night. It's a car I bought about a week ago and you get more attention in this car than you do in like a Lamborghini Countach. It's unbelievable. And frankly, I hate attention. I hate driving on the streets and people wait. Oh, you've got a great car. I mean, I know a lot of people like that. I don't. I'm just a low profile guy. I mean, when I have to drive something, like Peter once had me drive home a pink 911 to photograph, which was probably the low point in my life. But, you know, I wore a trench coat, sunglasses and a hat. And that's what I want to do whenever I have to drive one of these old cars around because I just don't like it when people give me attention. Oh, look at this. The doors open on the damn thing. But anyway, when I drove this thing home last night, it was quite the opposite. The attention I got seemed to be, I don't know, it just seemed to be less offensive than usual. And what really surprised me is that a lot more young people were enamored of this car than basically any of the old crap I'd driven before. So it was a neat piece. It was a lot of fun and I'm happy to be having it here today. This Thunderbird came out in 77 with this body style. As Road and Track said at the time, it used every cliche in the book. The king of bling, Lee Iacocca, was sort of the project head for this thing. And you have to give him credit, the golden boy, whatever you want to call him. They sold a shitload of these things. A shitload. Like, 78 was the peak year with over 300,000. It went down a little bit in 79. But the leisure suit crowd in the Malaise era went nuts for this Thunderbird. You know, look at the giant taillights with the Thunderbird logo, wire wheel covers, lovely little chrome impact trim with white vinyl inserts to match the split Landau roof with the wraparound roof thing in the center. I mean, those hood vents, sorry, fender vents on the side are actually functional, but they are cliched, I have to admit. Front end, the extruded parking lamps, the hideaway headlamps, the big chrome bumper. It does use a lot of styling cues that were already well established and brought them all together in one piece. And the American public went nuts for it. But one of the reasons the American public went nuts for it is because it was cheap. It was actually about $3,000 less than the prior generation Thunderbird. And here's why. You know, a lot of people mistake these cars for a lesser option, lesser equipped version of the Mark 5s of the same year, the 77 to 79 Mark 5, which share the same creased bodywork, long slab sides, the, you know, all the edges, but it really isn't. It has nothing to do with that car. That Mark 5 is still using the old big frame that it shared with the Thunderbird right up until 1976. This Thunderbird is using the Torino and Cougar platform, which was downsized and less expensive to make. And the reason this happened is not just all the oil and gas embargo crap, but the big expensive Thunderbird wasn't selling that well. For just a few bucks more, you could get the Lincoln. So why not? So Iacocca, in his eternal brilliance, decided to downmarket the Thunderbird, cut some costs from the original MSRP, and use the name Cachet onto an already existing platform to make a ton of money. And it worked extremely well. A little known car is the Gran Torino Elite. It came out in 74, ran through 76, three years, and it sold okay, but nothing like this T-Bird did. But what it basically was, was a placeholder until they got this Thunderbird ready. And you might remember it had quad opera windows and, you know, big swooping fenders and stuff. A very sort of interesting 70s car with the same, you know, light structure, not the hideaways, but the same front end structure anyway. But that thing was always intended to be a placeholder until they could get the T-Bird ready. And it did work out extremely well in 77 when this thing went through the roof. I mean, Herb Tarlick from WKRP, I think he had a Cordova, which was a competitor for this car, but he might as well have had this car. What else? It was actually made to compete with the Monte Carlo. The personal luxury segment, the two-door luxury coupe and the affordable range was exploding in the 1970s. You know, disco was on the way. Jimmy Carter was on the way. Everybody wanted to kind of look cool. They opened their chests up and wore big gold chains and that sort of thing. And to go with it, they needed something that Ricardo Montalban would approve of. So he did the ads for the Cordova. So this segment was going absolutely nuts and the Thunderbird hit it square on the bullseye right in the nick of time. And they did sell a bunch of these things. In 1980, they downsized completely with sort of an unappealing weird little smaller Thunderbird, and it didn't do nearly as well. But I do love this thing. I mean, look at the size of the rear bumper. Look at those big, crazy-looking taillights. You've got the reverse light in the center with the Thunderbird script. Dalton was under strict orders not to remove that original Ford, what is it, LaRue Zinc East Berlin PA. This is a 49,000-mile garage-kept example that's just epic. I mean, I know it came from, you know, Saltachusetts or Pennsylvania, but obviously it wasn't something they ever drove in the snow. This car has original powder blue paint all over it, original vinyl top. It is an epic, epic survivor. And I was very happy to find it and buy it. I had to pay a ton for it, but I didn't care. It drives so nice and it's so much fun to drive around the hell with it. I might even keep this one. I don't know. I have nowhere to put it. Anyway, let's just get into it. So we'll start inside the trunk. So I've got this round key. Again, going back to the 70s, they had the two-key system, square and round, which I really like and I miss. Everything's so, I don't know, it just seems so all the same these days. Sorry I have all my crap in here. Again, I'm going back up to Mecham tonight, so I had to bring it with me and I didn't feel like coming back after driving away. There you see the full-size spare tire, the original cheesy cardboard stuff covering some of the, you know, trunk appendages there. I think the gas filler neck is behind that. This car was Z-Barted, which I think ended up having some sort of a lawsuit of some kind when, you know, it didn't work. I don't know. They're a big class action suit against Z-Bart. But anyway, it seemed to work on this car as there really isn't any rust on it. But nice, big, proper trunk. You could fit all kinds of crap in there and everyone's going to be pretty chipper. You got the jack usage and stowing thing there. All very nice. Have a look under the hood. Not that long. I mean, this was a downsized car and it's like 190 feet long. It's, you know, Queen Mary level. Ah, it cracks me up. Ah, the 70s. Okay, so here was a 302 V8. Really, really terrific motor and, of course, at the time was considered quite small and quite fuel efficient in a way that it would not be considered today. I can only imagine how crap the horsepower rating is. I don't even want to think about it. It's probably like Miata levels currently. But it's, you know, a great torquey engine and the 302 did go on to achieve much fame as being a fantastic engine. This one is air conditioned, as you can see. Still works. Worked from the minute I got it, which was terrific. Big air cleaner on there. And I think the 351, for some reason, was the only engine you could get in California. In 77 and 78, you could still get a 400 cubic inch optionally with the 302 as the base model. And then in 79, the 400 was gone. That was the end of it. You know, that was peak Jimmy Carter malaise there. So the 302 was all you could get. Maybe the 351 in Cali. I don't know. But everywhere else, the 302 was your engine. You know, and even if it was a little bit underpowered at the time, it was enough to torque the car down the road. You know, you're not going to set any land speed records or anything, but it was enough and is a terrific engine. So it's got that going for it. But everything nice and proper under the hood and even the coffee can is still there. Absolutely love the split vinyl top and the four window. I mean, this is just such a unique thing. I mean, you can argue about the styling. You can say it's weird and strange and, you know, useless and whatever else. But at least it's styled. I mean, at least it's not just trying to look like everything else. The way every car today looks like some European car, the Japanese cars look European, the American cars look European. You know, Europe won the styling competition at some point, probably beginning in the 80s. And it's all fine and good, but it really just didn't do anything for style, which the American car companies had in droves before 1980. And this is a great example of that. Look at this giant rear quarter window, tiny little D pillar, you know, support there, big curved glass at the back with all the chrome and aluminum trim and surrounds. You've got an opera window here with the T-Bird logo in it. Very, very cool. The pinstripers must have loved this thing because it had so many different lines you could follow. So you see you have a pinstripe going up towards the sky, coming back around and towards the back, and then another pinstripe heading towards the front and those big slab fenders and chiseled hood and again, functional air vents, which is just cool. Chrome trim abounds. You've got these little bullet aerodynamic mirrors, which are kind of cool. You got chrome door handles. You've got chrome around the front window, chrome around the end of the trunk. You've got chrome at the antenna base. You got this fascinating Thunderbird hood ornament up here, which again, was considered sporty at the time. Beautiful flip-up headlights. Let's see, they're vacuum operated. We'll see if they work with the engine off. If I had help, I could do all this without people around. And they do. Look at that. Very, very cool. So those headlights suck themselves upward and reveal the two front driving lights. And the way it works out, because of safety issues, if the vacuum system failed, the headlights would just suck themselves up and the headlights would be exposed. So very, very nice stuff from Ford on that. I don't know if they'll go all the way down. Hasn't run in a little while, so the vacuum's probably, yeah, they're kind of half down. So let's see, we'll start it up and I bet they go all the way down very, very quickly. Yeah, right away, down they go. And there you can see two Thunderbird logos on the front with a Thunderbird script beneath it. Also, you've got this nice big chrome bumper with little bumper rats and rubber impact strips all around. Frameless glass. You know, the pillarless coupe was going away. I'm going to turn that off. It's probably loud. The pillarless coupe was going away by this time. So if you remember the, you know, if you look at a 72 Torino, all the windows go down and you'd have this big expanse down the side. Well, that was starting to leave and this roof pillar was proof of it. They did maintain the frameless glass, which is good. So you at least have that, but no more drop all the side windows and, you know, have this big swoopy thing on the side. Instead, you could have stopped for air conditioning, which was fine. If you look in here, you also have unleaded fuel only. Eh, sign of the times. Like the big chrome strip down the side, too. Now, again, not a particularly luxurious car and certainly not compared to earlier Thunderbirds, which came in just under the Lincoln. You know, this thing was an epically brilliant idea to make the Thunderbird affordable to compete with the wildly successful Chevrolet Monte Carlo, which basically ushered in the affordable luxury coupe platform. So Monte Carlos were selling like crazy. Ford was jealous. They, you know, came out with that Ford Torino Elite to compete for a couple of years before they could make the Thunderbird the true Monte Carlo competition. And it did work very, very well. There you can see the door panels in nice shape, a little bit of wood trim, a little bit of chrome surround. Probably cheaply made compared to prior Thunderbirds, but good enough to look the part. Nice little armrest here, window cranks. They could have power windows, of course, but this guy didn't opt for it. Whoever ordered this one. And speakers in the door. But what an incredible survivor this car is. You see the Ford script in the back. Actually, I'll show you the back seat from the other side since it's more proper. You know, the way the doors close on this car is such a time machine. It really, really is epic. Everything's so hard one handed. Okay, so there's the back seat. Not zoomed out enough. Your Canadians, they're going to be pretty chipper back there. You've got a fair amount of legroom, not fantastic, but good enough. You know, it's plush, but not over the top. You don't have really super fancy velour, just sort of a nice cloth seat with a little bit of velour in there. You fit three guys back there, no problem. And also, of course, three guys in the front. So a six passenger coupe, which, you know, to me is pretty cool. You also had shoulder belts in 79. And this door panel also looks pretty great. We got water, but the way that door closes. I mean, this is like transporting back to 79. I really have to say, whoever owned this car really, really preserved it. Let's hop in and fire it up. Again, with the square key inserted in there, you get that proper American warning buzzer. Not the U-boat of sinking crap you get in the Japanese, sorry, the German cars. Door ajar. Ah, the hell with the seatbelt. Alright, this guy had a tack installed instead of the factory clock. Whoever owned this car really, really loved it. I have to say, I mean, look at this thing. They put an electronic mirror beautifully installed under the factory headliner. There's the factory light, factory visors in exceptional condition. But imagine whoever put that in absolutely loved it, obviously wanted a tack. So he found one that fit the clock hole just perfectly and had it installed in there. Love that little update. Then he still needed a clock. So he put one down there along with what appears to be, what is that, a voltmeter? It's too far away for me to see, but yeah, I believe it's a voltmeter. And then this is the antenna switch, which is working. Power antenna goes up. Let's see what we got. The oldies station. Oh God, this is some sort of 90s song. If that's on the oldies station, I'm screwed. What's this? You may proceed. That's not music for me. There's that 90s ----. There we go. Eagles. What is that, like witchy woman or something? I can take the eagles or leave them. Half the time they give me a pain in the ass. Over here is the climate control. You've got your cool, you've got your hot fan speed, electric defrost there, your headlights. I was so happy to see the first time I got in this car that the air conditioning actually worked. The gauges all meant to look very flight oriented. If you look at the commercials for these cars back in the 70s, it was all about flying. I don't know if that had anything to do with the $6 million man and the jet age and whatnot, but flying was a big deal back then. 77 Thunderbird cleared for takeoff. 4,000 pound car with 140 horsepower. It's not taking off anywhere. I like this PRNDM indicator on the column. It's kind of cool. You got an 85 mile an hour speedo, which is very, very 70s and it's probably pretty accurate. You got 49,000 miles on the clock, which is, as I was told, very original for this car. I believe, again, original paint. Look at the condition of the dashboard, of the factory, everything there. This car is definitely special. You got Ford's tilt wheel, so I can flip that up and make it like driving a city bus or flip it way down and I'm one hand bent over like this at the low rider. It's a nice adjustable wheel. I like the big chrome stock with the black tip to shift. Love it. Also has a remote right mirror and left mirror in order to drive properly. Actually, while I'm heading off on the test drive, I think I'm going to hop out and hang the license plate from the rear so the cops don't get us. There goes Peter off to work. Not in the S560 today. Looks like he's a little bit down market in a 230 car. He is loving it. There's our tag hanging. We're good to go. I'm trying to these videos a reasonable length. I see we're already at 21 minutes. I hear in some of the comments that I talk too much. I get that that's part of the channel, but I can't help but agree that I probably do. I'm going to try to make these things a little bit more condensed. Nice that Peter got the gates for us. We don't sit there and wait for that one. Of course, there's the sun. Anyway, you've got this long expansive hood, which is not unlike the Mark V, but again, this is downsized and not the same. That's a common mistake. A lot of people think they share the platform with the Mark V. I got corrected even on the Mark V video where someone said, this was when Ford started its downsizing. Well, no, that was true of the Thunderbird, but the Mark still had the big giant full frame ----, the XXL frame that had shared with the 74 through 76 Thunderbird, which was much, much bigger. I think eight inches longer than this one. The way this car drives, I swear to God, I know I sound like a sales guy, but this is of all the cars that I've dealt in the last 10 years, including the old stuff, especially the old stuff. This is as close as I felt to living in 1979 driving a current car the way, and nothing feels fragile, nothing feels frail, nothing feels weird. Everything about this car feels probably like it did in 1979. I don't feel like I have to be super gentle on everything or it's going to explode. I feel like I'm a TV detective getting ready to do a car chase at slow speeds or stake out somebody. It's just that complete, that nice, and that confidence inducing. Good brakes. And again, look, I'm not going to hammer it. I mean, this is like three quarter throttle, 30, 40. I want to say zero to 60 time was like 10 seconds in this car. So it's just not a race car. It's not a fast car. Even if those old videos showed middle-aged guys in leather gloves driving them, it really wasn't accurate. It's just not that. No big 460 with 300 horsepower in this thing. What it is is a boulevard cruiser. At least that's what it is now. I mean, back then, I guess it was just transportation with a little bit of style and flair. But I mean, today, the point of this car is just, you know, cruise the boulevards, go to the car shows, have a little bit of fun, have all kinds of people, including kids, give you a thumbs up because they just love the way this thing looks and just have a bit of fun with it. You know, this thing, Dalton took it off. They had a country club sticker on it from someplace in Florida. So it was obviously some guy. I don't know if he was the original owner, if he'd bought it, you know, 20 years ago, but he was driving it as a daily driver with cold air conditioning, which is incredible and truly enjoying himself the way that I am right now. And you do get a nice little V8 growl from it. There's the compass in the mirror. Can you switch it? It's probably just a compass. Yeah, he didn't bother cleaning that out. Why would he? Why would he? You know, I give Dalton a lot of ---- in these videos and people think, oh my God, he's going to kick my ass. First of all, he is not going to kick my ass because I carry in my pocket. And if he comes at me, you know, he's taken one to the temple before he gets too close. Secondly, he watches these videos and he enjoys every bit of misery that he gives me. He smirks with this smirking face. You just want to punch because he's so happy that he's tortured you and, you know, not cleaned something properly that it just gives him great cheer and great joy. So he really is a little bastard, but I have to admit, I kind of love the kid. Certainly not as a family member. Someone suggested he was like an adopted son to me. You know, let me tell you, man, there's a reason I always wore one of those little rubber things. And the reason is somebody like him. If I'd ended up with that ----. Oh my God. Anyway. So here it is. I mean, it tracks straight and true. It shifts perfect. It runs perfect. Everything works. The radio, the air conditioning didn't have to do a damn thing to this car. Somebody had been maintaining the crap out of it. If you have an interest, you can give the guys at Auto House a call 239-263-8500 on the web at autohousenaples.com. Thank you so much for having a look. Really appreciate it. I'll try to come back Monday or Tuesday with something else and we'll keep going from there. Take care. We're going to do 60 or 140.