I had a 1980. Base model, black over silver, cherry red interior. LOVED IT! I agree re luxurious seating position. (BTW there were 2 gas crises, '73 and '79.)
I am amazed at how it's design is trashed online in car forums. Yet it was exactly what was expected. Other than the smaller size shock, designers managed to make it gorgeous with all of the chrome and vinyl roof design cues that were "of the era". What other way could they go? It was a logical progression to have a vinyl roof on them. The rear lights looked incredibly modern and everyone still considered concealed headlights to be a staple of luxury. In fact, Ford's treatment of the concealed headlights was rather fresh and modern as compared to previous cars from the 70s. The digital dashboard made it look like a spaceship. I saw a brand new one which was burgundy with burgundy velour inside and with that digital dash looked like it was something from the future. I had never seen anything like it. Gorgeous car. They did extremely well with the downsized design constraints.
I have a 1981 Mercury Cougar XR7 with only 34,000 original miles on it. When I bought over a year ago, it still had the original white walls it rolled off the assembly line. In the past I've owned two 1980 Ford Thunderbirds, a Town Landau and base. My Town Landau had digital instrumentation and really was fully loaded. The sagging headliner can be done easily! The material can be had for less than a hundred on Amazon. It's very common stuff. So easy and cheap to replace! The silver trim inserts on them bumpers are not foam. It's plastic with silver mylar insert. Damage those and be lucky to find ANY replacements! I literally got lucky finding a pristine one at at junkyard when I accidentally damaged mine on my Cougar.
i think the ford fairmont futura should have been the tbird the roofline on the futura really looked like the outgoing 77/79 tbird roofline . but anywho..i like this car alot..i think its a good looking car..and i like red ..and nice velour interior ...and i think out of all fox body fords..this has the best looking dash in it
The advantage is that it can built like a Fox Mustang, but I prefer the Cutlass of the era as it wasn't tacky and didn't look so cartoonish disproportional.
Research please. '77 Tbird was NOT on a Mark frame! Moved to Torino bones, it lost c.1,000 pounds. '80 Tbird was about 900 lb lighter again. Do the posts? DO THE RESEARCH please.
owned 3 of these cars 1 cougar , and two thunderbirds, a 1980 and a 1981 , all had the 5.0 v8 with 4 speed auto, the engine was reliable, but not the suspension parts, they ate up front ball joints and rack and pinions and front struts and strut mounts like nobody's buisness, that's why i sold them, you could replace that stuff and 2 years later you'd have to do it all again...and the dashboards all had the screws rattle out continously and the door panels would also rattle apart with screws falling back out, and the power window tracks were plastic and also failed regulary, i put 200,000 miles on these cars , the maintenance got pretty annoying over time....also if the heater core failed you'd have to take out the entire dash and heater box, which is a 7-9 hr job with 200 screws.....the 255 v8 was basically the 302 v8 but smaller with not much power....or fuel economy benefit, after ten years id had enough of the constant maintenance from daily driving.....
I had a 1980. Base model, black over silver, cherry red interior. LOVED IT! I agree re luxurious seating position. (BTW there were 2 gas crises, '73 and '79.)
I am amazed at how it's design is trashed online in car forums. Yet it was exactly what was expected. Other than the smaller size shock, designers managed to make it gorgeous with all of the chrome and vinyl roof design cues that were "of the era". What other way could they go? It was a logical progression to have a vinyl roof on them. The rear lights looked incredibly modern and everyone still considered concealed headlights to be a staple of luxury. In fact, Ford's treatment of the concealed headlights was rather fresh and modern as compared to previous cars from the 70s. The digital dashboard made it look like a spaceship. I saw a brand new one which was burgundy with burgundy velour inside and with that digital dash looked like it was something from the future. I had never seen anything like it. Gorgeous car. They did extremely well with the downsized design constraints.
I have a 1981 Mercury Cougar XR7 with only 34,000 original miles on it. When I bought over a year ago, it still had the original white walls it rolled off the assembly line. In the past I've owned two 1980 Ford Thunderbirds, a Town Landau and base. My Town Landau had digital instrumentation and really was fully loaded. The sagging headliner can be done easily! The material can be had for less than a hundred on Amazon. It's very common stuff. So easy and cheap to replace!
The silver trim inserts on them bumpers are not foam. It's plastic with silver mylar insert. Damage those and be lucky to find ANY replacements! I literally got lucky finding a pristine one at at junkyard when I accidentally damaged mine on my Cougar.
i think the ford fairmont futura should have been the tbird the roofline on the futura really looked like the outgoing 77/79 tbird roofline . but anywho..i like this car alot..i think its a good looking car..and i like red ..and nice velour interior ...and i think out of all fox body fords..this has the best looking dash in it
The advantage is that it can built like a Fox Mustang, but I prefer the Cutlass of the era as it wasn't tacky and didn't look so cartoonish disproportional.
Research please. '77 Tbird was NOT on a Mark frame! Moved to Torino bones, it lost c.1,000 pounds. '80 Tbird was about 900 lb lighter again. Do the posts? DO THE RESEARCH please.
Thank you for the information.
Robb the 255 is a disaster, aovid all costs, this coming from ford guy, but like you I like the fairmont bird
I had a 255 Tbird; it was a DREAM to drive.
owned 3 of these cars 1 cougar , and two thunderbirds, a 1980 and a 1981 , all had the 5.0 v8 with 4 speed auto, the engine was reliable, but not the suspension parts, they ate up front ball joints and rack and pinions and front struts and strut mounts like nobody's buisness, that's why i sold them, you could replace that stuff and 2 years later you'd have to do it all again...and the dashboards all had the screws rattle out continously and the door panels would also rattle apart with screws falling back out, and the power window tracks were plastic and also failed regulary, i put 200,000 miles on these cars , the maintenance got pretty annoying over time....also if the heater core failed you'd have to take out the entire dash and heater box, which is a 7-9 hr job with 200 screws.....the 255 v8 was basically the 302 v8 but smaller with not much power....or fuel economy benefit, after ten years id had enough of the constant maintenance from daily driving.....
I had its Mercury Cougar XR-7 cousin. Worst car I ever owned.