In 2002 when the Retrobirds came out, my wife and I were just out of college, still dating, months away from being engaged. She needed a new car, because her little old Honda was starting to show its miles. Everyday for work, she drove past a ford dealership with a metallic thunderbird blue one on a pedestal. I went with her to test drive it. Of course neither of us could it afford it, and it wasn’t the least bit practical. But she fell in love with it. I wished I could by it for her.
But she settled on a practical, cheap, VW Jetta that turned out to be a POS. And for the next 15 some odd years drove a work car, or mini vans hauling kids, spotting tbirds from time to time, and pointing them out. For the last 10 years she has always had a nice new mini vans, but stayed in love with the retrobirds.
This past mother’s day we were having lunch at her parents, where I had happened to stash an ‘03 Tbird with a custom teal paint job, 80k miles, with her name on the title in the garage. Grandma was so excited she kinda blew the surprise a bit, but it was a glorious memory that I’ll always cherish. Cheapest car I ever bought at $10k, by far the most fun and exciting. We still have a van for the whole crew, but now everybody fights to be able to ride shotgun in moms tbird. The
chrome on the door handles are peeled, the brakes where in need of a job, I’d like to replace the whole suspension (and probably will), and the
soft top is starting to come apart. I’ve already put $5k into the thing. But it’s everybody’s favorite, including myself. Sorry this critic missed out on the fun/cool factor with the retro birds. His loss.