2005 Thunderbird Value?

Why are we as owners trying to drive the price of them down.. Just a thought.. My $.02 cents... If Fatman wants a 05 Cashmere and he can afford it, yes he may be paying a little more than some folks think he should, but he is not buying a daily driver like a that he will be getting rid of in 3 years.. This may be his forever car.. A care he really wants to enjoy of a very long time.. He know exactly what he wants etc.. More power to him.. Enjoy!

Thank you!

JW in Dixie said:
You're right! I bought my 2004 for just the same reason - wanted one. :)
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Exactly!

Both of you, well said.

Just came from my local Ford dealer, ( had my 2010 F150 with 27,000, in for oil change and "the works check up") and there was a 02 White Bird in for service, I talked to my guy (Honest Billy Ray), he said, can't get parts any more, and that the lower the miles, the higher the $$ will be (I think we all know that).
 

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Thankfully, the minor parts are available - we just have to take great care of the major ones. Service, service, service.

At our Birds' age and status in life, they're sorta like an expensive GF, SO/wife, mostly money is not the object. Had one and sure wish I still had her! :(
 
Sorry folks I just reread my post from up above.. I have to stop using my I pad to respond.. The auto correct has a mind of it's own.. Sorry, on a couple sentence's I couldn’t even figure out what I said..

My story is I fell in love with the Retro T- birds about 6-8 years ago.. We saw a beautiful T-Bird blue one with 2,100 miles on it and they were asking $30K for it.. Never seen rain, garage kept. looked brand new and one owner.. Not sure what year it was.. My better half and I both loved it.. BUT we had daughters in college at the time so it just wasn’t in the cards.. I keep my eye out for them and I would see them pop up every so often.. I drove a nice white one over to my wife’s work about 4 years ago.. Again she loved it and so did I. They were asking $21k and it had about 24,000 miles.. I think it was a 2002.. Again it just wasn’t the right time..

So two year ago we had the epiphany that we are not getting any younger and what should we do when we hit retirement.. I had a pop up camper that we had since 1986.. Yes it looked not a year over 1990.. It was in great shape but our daughters have grown and we were ready to move up to a hard sided one with cable dish A/C and a great idea called a BATHROOM! So we went looking and we saw a few around the $24k -30K mark and as we were looking at them we looked at each other and said what the heck are we buying a camper for.. Let’s find a T-Bird and drive in style to hotels.. So we looked for a low mileage one knowing it was going to be a garage queen.. Again I knew of a white one that a Mercury dealer had all winter with 24k miles and they were asking $19,995.. It was a different one than the one I mentioned above.

So a couple days after the camper show I called the Mercury Dealer which I knew because we bought our Mercury Monterey Minivan from them (it was in late February) a couple years ago and asked if they still had the T-Bird and they said no.. They sold it last week to a couple who lived 200 miles away.. I then went on autotrader.com and saw the 2002 red one we ended up buying that had 16,000 miles and they were also asking 19,995. So we jumped at it,, It was located in a Mercedes Benz Dealership in town.. So I talked them down $800, (big deal they knew they had a sucker on the line) and like I said before, at NYS inspection, they had to put 4 new tires on because the original OEM tires were still on it and they were dry rotted. They didn’t put the OEM Michelin Pilots on but I talked then into a set of Continentals..

So we looked at it as out forever toy.. Sure we wish we could of got it for 15K but who cares.. We saved $5-10k not buying the camper that we may only of used 5 times a year.. Instead we bought a wicked cool torch red 2002 t-bird that gives us a thrill every time we drive it.. Being a garage queen that it is, it’s maybe been driven 40 times over the past 2 years.. That equates to about $500 per trip.. Some very expensive trips BUT what the hell, we only go around once and we have worked our butts off over our life time for this one simple pleasure and we are riding in "what we can afford" style..
 
I'v been scanning all the sights, ebay, autotrader, ect. for some time now, and in the last few days the prices of T-Birds has jumped. The same car that was $15K last week is now $21K. Has anyone else noticed this or am I imagining things?

I do all my camp'en at the Holiday Inn!:rolleyes:
 
Compared to 2009-2011 during the height of the Great Recession - our Tbirds have actually gone up in price! I started looking at Tbirds around 07 when they were 5 years old. Didn't want to pony up the entry price then, but keep watching em on the web. During the height of the Great Recession you could pick up Tbirds with 15,000-20,000 miles with hardtop for $15-$17K from dealers. Now that same vehicle is probably $20K-$22K or with less miles even more expensive. I always wanted a Inspiration Yellow one - one year only color 2002, A dealer in Stl had one listed for $16.9K back in 2010 with 20,000 miles. Still regret letting that one get away but since it was the Great Recession I tried to get an even better deal - LOL but failed. I ended up with an 03 Red one 5 years ago, on some days I'm happy with it but now that I started smelling anti-freeze again yesterday not so much today. LOL
 
Fatman, you are wise to be checking out this forum before you buy.. At least you know what issues may arise down the road.. I never found this forum till after I bought ours.. After seeing some of the issues in this forum with parts availability, and less than reliable mechanical design I'm not sure I would of bought a T-bird although I do love the style and ride... It's not the usaual models you see around almost every corner.. Nope, not giving up names of other makes and models that I think are common... But with that commonality comes factory and aftermarket support..

Let us know if you join us in our joy and challenge of Gen 11 T-Bird ownership..
 
stevedaphotoman said:
Fatman, you are wise to be checking out this forum before you buy.. At least you know what issues may arise down the road.. I never found this forum till after I bought ours.. After seeing some of the issues in this forum with parts availability, and less than reliable mechanical design I'm not sure I would of bought a T-bird although I do love the style and ride... It's not the usaual models you see around almost every corner.. Nope, not giving up names of other makes and models that I think are common... But with that commonality comes factory and aftermarket support..

Let us know if you join us in our joy and challenge of Gen 11 T-Bird ownership..
Click to expand...


I'm still look'n!!
Found another Cashmere on Trovit the other-day, 26K miles, asking 12,6. Sent an email yesterday. Waiting for a replay.
 
I told you there were some great deals. All you have to do is research. It took me 4 months before i found my bird. In fact I was recently searching internet just to see if I could find anything out there that was reasonably priced. Found one exactly like mine and had 15k more miles and they were asking 32k. Good luck!!
 
This one just showed up about a week or so ago in California, not much information in the ad, only three pictures that are nondescript, none of the interior or motor. I'v emailed them asking for the VIN. # and maintenance records as well as the carfax (if any).
Waiting on them to reply.
 
Fatman I this the one.. I just saw this pop up on a Thunderbird facebook page.. WOW 330 miles Cashmere >. Beautiful but with 330 miles comes a almost new car price tag.. Boy it looks sweet!

*****************************************/330083180867021/
 
Thats Sweeeeeet !!
Still waiting on a reply from Trovit. I'v sent 3 emails, no respondence.
There was one that showed up on carsforsale Sunday, low miles, at $13K, emailed for the VIN.#, got a replay later that day, it was gone!
 
It could have a lot of problems from just sitting - bearings throughout, is just one that comes to mind.
 
My experience with "salvage title" is it has NO legitimate title for that state ( car was made up from salvage/remnant parts from different cars), light flood = mold, electrical problems down the road.
If you like the car and want to customize it further, or hotrod it, go for it! But $9500 is a lot of $$ for something that has no real value as a true T-Bird.
JMHO
Gull wing doors were not an option offered that year :rolleyes:
 
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