Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Super Coupe is probably the last truly interesting Thunderbird model ever made. Let’s see if this extremely well-kept edition from the North is worth bringing home the Canadian bacon.
With Honda’s wonder-twinning with Nissan to stave off the Toyota-Subaru-Daihatsu-Suzuki-Mazda-Yamaha juggernaut, one has to wonder what will happen to Nissan’s Infiniti brand, the lesser equal of Honda’s Acura. Judging from the responses to the 2015 Infiniti Q60S Sport we looked at last Friday, few of you care to find out. Despite its nice condition and reasonable specs, many of you found it too anonymous, and the Infiniti brand overall eminently forgettable or the least aspirational. A $17,998 asking price couldn’t sway opinion in the Infiniti’s favor, either, causing the coupe to fall in a hefty 76 percent No Dice loss.
OK, another week and… checks notes… another V6-powered, manual-equipped GT coupe!
Over the last seven decades, Ford’s Thunderbird has had so many lives and re-imaginings that it would have perhaps been more appropriate to dub it the Thundercat. Introduced as a two-seat convertible ostensibly to compete in the same arena as Chevy’s Corvette, the Thunderbird didn’t really hit its sales stride until Ford redesigned it as a four-seater for its fourth model year, at the same time expanding the model line with both coupe and convertible roofs. The next two generations followed this pattern, but things turned topsy-turvy in the late ’60s with the introduction of a larger T-bird and the addition of a four-door model.
The four-door lasted just a few years before being killed off by the next refresh, which was an even bigger car than the last. As was the case with most big American cars in the late ’70s, Ford’s premier personal coupe saw a downsize with the next generation and was shrinky-dinked once again at the beginning of the ’80s. We don’t talk about that first of the Fox-body T-Birds, but the one that replaced it in ’83—the Aerobird”—proved there was still a little rustle left in the ol’ T-Bird’s feathers.
That Aerobird was followed by what is arguably the most technologically advanced car ever to wear the Thunderbird name, offering, for the first time in the model’s history, a multi-link independent rear suspension, supercharged engine, and a smooth, BMW 6 Series-esque body that built on the previous generation’s aerodynamic achievements. This wouldn’t be the last Ford to carry the Thunderbird name, but upon its resurrection in 2002, the cars didn’t carry the same cachet and excitement as did these models.
If you missed all that excitement and are hankering to see what the fuss was all about, then we can thank whoever kept this 1989 Thunderbird Super Coupe (henceforth, SC) in such excellent condition that we now have the opportunity to give it a go firsthand. Plus, it’s a Canadian car, which means it lacks the annoying automatic seat belts for the front seats plaguing U.S. market cars, so it has that in its favor.
According to the seller, this Light Titanium over a gray and black interior featuring leather seating surfaces SC shows a mere 25,494 kilometers on the odometer. That works out to about 15,800 miles for the metric-deficient.
I’m honestly a little confused by those numbers since the speedo shows mph as its primary delineation, and I would assume that means the odometer reads the same. Regardless, this SC seems to have very few miles/kilometers under its belt.
The dealer offering the big coupe describes its condition as “excellent,” and the pictures in the ad bear that out. The paintwork looks as perfect as you could want, and there are no noticeable imperfections on the factory alloys or the plastic headlamp lenses. It’s the same story in the cabin, with no wear evident anywhere and even the factory AM/FM/cassette stereo hanging around for aesthetic value.
Even the engine bay looks to be in as-new condition, and who doesn’t love that polished intercooler pipe snaking over the left bank of the V6? With its blower maxed out at 12 pounds of boost, the Essex 3.8 makes 210 horsepower and 315 lb-ft of torque.
On this SC, that gets routed through a Mazda-sourced five-speed manual to a limited-slip rear end. The seller notes no mechanical issues whatsoever on the car. It is also promoted as having an accident-free history and a clean title. The asking price is $23,951 Canadian, which, at present exchange rates, works out to $16,636 Freedom Bucks.
Would you pay that kind of cash to get what’s possibly the best version of the Thunderbird’s later generations in what looks to be museum quality? Or does that price have you flipping the bird?
You decide!
Vancouver, BC, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Don C. for the hookup!
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