What's the Plan??

[Heisenberg]

Does anyone know the official plan for the Thunderbird. That is, how many will be made per year, and for how many years? I originally heard that they would be available for five model years, with 25,000 being built each year. Now, I understand they have built at least 31,000 and may extend their manufacture for more than five years.

I love my car, but I do not feel that it is appropriate to manufacture what is claimed to be a "limited edition" automobile in such way that dealers are lowering prices or making special deals to move them off the lots at the end of the model year. Increasing production numbers will not make this car more special to its owners or its place in history. I'd appreciate any info you may have.

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday!

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[KYbluebird]

Ford stated they would make 25,000 per year. It turns out they mean calender year, not model year. Since the switch to the '03s was delayed, extra '02s were built instead of '03s. The '04s will start building in July so there will only be about 18,000 '03s compared to the 32,000 '02s and there should be 25,000 '04s. Ford's production line was designed to build 25,000 per year and so far, that what it has been doing, the only thing changed was when the model year switch occured.

------------------
Ron

VIN #7729, seq.#7505, blue premium,
partial blue interior, no top, Louisville Ky.

 

[InfernoRed]

Well,unfortunately from a "limited" edition standpoint so to speak,FORD is out to make money.That requires they turn product to turn a profit.They know they have basically darn good looking design which can sell.So it only makes sense to take it beyond 5 years of production.

Also...that five year figure PROBABLY only refers to this body style with only minor beauty modifications.A vehicle model(from any company)averages 5-6 years without major design changes.Some are shorter...example the Aztec...so ugly,it must either change drastically and soon or die.Some are longer...the Dodge Viper went for 10 model years without any major change...outside of adding a coupe to it's lineup for a few years...this is highly unusual and shows how well the design stood the test of time for appeal purposes.But MOST vehicles go for 5-6 years.....

Back to lowering prices to move them off lot.This is simply good buisness sense.A car dealer HAS to sell at ANY cost(no pun intended)...if a new car sits past a certain date into the new model year...the dealer has to pay fairly high taxes on it...they don't want to.Also,the dealer has to sell a certain number of cars of any one model to get new ones of the same model or the latest model year of the same model.On top of that,todays shaky economy is forcing dealers to drastically lower costs just to move ANY vehicle model.......once again,buisness survival.

You guys are fairly lucky though in an indirect way at the 36-39K price tag applied to the T-Bird.Imagine how hard it would be to get one and probably more common over all if they had stuck to thier innitial early price announcement of an estimated 25K price.Even I would have bought one.Instead i bought my two cars for the price of one loaded T-Bird.

InfernoRed

 

[Terry]

I've always thought of Corvettes as fairly limited production 2 seaters but they sell 36,000 a year now, year after year, approximately 1,225,000 built so far since 1953. 2 seat Tbirds,less than 125,000 since 1955 so far. (10%) You may see 5-10 'vettes for every 2 seat Tbird. Made me feel better