Hoser768

I guess I'll plead guilty as charged. It's just the way I see too many of my family and friends have ended up. When I was growing up it seemed that you had the family truckster that you rode in as kids, and the 2 door driver that went to work and back. The working parent could drive a coupe and never worry about the back seat, and the passenger door rarely ever opened. Today's modern family needs require more passenger carrying ability. Even if there's a van/CUV solution available, the second car needs to carry as well. Due to both parents having to work, or the situation I mentioned earlier. People can't give up the functionality of 4 doors like they used to. As to the previous poster, I'd have to agree. If a personal luxury coupe comes out of Ford, I think they would have easier time selling a Mark IX than a Thunderbird. I don't know where they would try to insert a Thunderbird sedan in the line-up.

The days of the personal luxury coupe died in the late 80s and early 90s with the Thunderbird and GM W-body coupes. Gone are the days where mom drives a minivan and dad takes the coupe to work. Now mom drives the CUV and dad drives the 4-door to go pick the kids up on the weekends. The Mustang/Camaro/Challenger is now the coupe market. There's no place for the Thunderbird as a coupe, and the sedan bases are already covered. The volume would never make it worthwhile. The demographic that used to buy Thunderbirds is now buying Fusions and Tauruses. What's the coupe buyer looking for today that the Mustang can't provide that a Thunderbird would? Maybe try to take on the best selling 2-door in the US?

My '86 with the Trac-Loc could at least get out of it's own way in snow until I put the Kumho KH11s on it. There's a reason they're called summer tires. They don't work in winter. AT ALL. It's not the car, it's the tires.

It's not dead, it's pining for the fjords. :rip:

Anybody want to bet on the "fix"? There's no shame.. My Mustang wears one too.

LEAVE TOYOTA ALONE!!

Failbook link

What makes me nuts is that Toyota and Honda have the unique ability to make people love to come into the garage and get screwed, or to spend money and not mind it. My Ex's family swore by Honda. Never had a problem. Time for 60k mile timing belt and water pump. $600 kiss-kiss luv my Honda, Never a problem. Yes they replaced brakes at the same time for $500 and found a leaking gasket that they fixed for another $300, but this car is the pinnacle of reliability. The US can't compete. Heaven forbid they find out I replaced a $20 rear wheel brake cylinder in my 15 year old Ford. "We told you American cars are crap! You should get a Honda!" My Toyota owner friends are the same. It's 100% reliable, but they've had some $500+ bill from the dealership in the last year. But it's a great car!

It would have been more appropriate with the Fusion instead of the Taurus...

C4? I got yer C4 right here.

That would seem to summarize the problems lately....

I can has avatar? :lol:

:fan: How many people are actually going to do it?

SkyHawk II

Definitely looks like a leaf and "FFV" to me.

That's where that "I will not downshift." Ram commercial came from.

Good choice. But I prefer, "The Night Santa Went Crazy" Not a direct parody but an obvious shot at "I Believe in Father Christmas".

83 Turdbo Coop 2.3T - Odo shows 65k miles, I'm assuming 165K 86 Mustang GT 5.0 - Odo shows 60k, I'm assuming about 140-150k with non-stock rear gears. 94 Ranger 2.3 - 155K 05 Five Hundred 3.0 Duratech- Turned 50k this week. All run fine but the TurboCoop has a troubling miss and is downright cantankerous until driven a few miles. I'm suspecting some kind of intake leak. I had a 76 LTD with a 400 that had 174K miles. It got sold cheap after the person who replaced the timing gears/chain (me) didn't have anti-freeze on hand and filled the radiator with water to be replaced with anti-freeze before winter, I forgot. :slap:

My '81 must have been the lemon of the bunch. Starter, fuel pump, mixture solenoid on the carb all went bad in the first 10k miles I had it. The steering rack was messed up so I had power steering when turning right, but not left. The final straw was the pulse air valve that was supposed to scavenge fresh air into the exhaust went bad and put exhaust gas into the valve cover, melting the valve seals, and melting the screen that kept the charcoal in the charcoal canister, so the carb filled up with charcoal. It had far more problems per mile than anything else I've owned since. I wasn't all that sorry to see it go. EDIT: I forgot about the time the thermal vacuum switch that controlled the manifold heated air failed while returning to Iowa from New Jersey at -10F, causing a trip at about 45 mph over much of I-80 from Illinois through Iowa due to carb icing and air filter freeze. I know now how I could have solved the problem, but at the time my solution was to stop at every rest area, shut off the engine and let the heat melt the ice in the carb, and I would take the air filter out and use the hand dryers in the rest room to thaw it out before hitting the road again. Good times, Good times..... That and the dealership "mechanics" I took it to after the valve seals were toast, asking for a estimate to fix the valve seals and the quart of oil I was using every 100 miles. When they came back talking about the rear main, cam cover, and valve cover leaks, as the cause, I knew enough to give them an "Oh HELL NO!". I walked out to the car, started it up, gave it a rev, and probably left the place mosquito free for a week. I sold it to some foreign exchange student for $300. I feel kinda guilty to this day for it. :devil2:

Which engine? Fordmantpw already said the Flex V6 AWD can match the 4-cyl, my Five Hundred AWD (Think Taurus X sedan) gets 25-26 on its normal "2 lane rural highway" duty with it's 3.0 V6. I guess it does get 22 when the temps hit about -20F, but I'll forgive it for that. I don't think Freestyle/Five Hundred mileage was much different, and I don't think the Venza does anything much better than a Taurus X could. If I get 17.5 MPG, something is seriously wrong.

"Basically I just need a car, and the 1993 Taurus is one." :lol:

Nope. Definitely a 78-79 Chevette. Edit: Actually, from that angle it could be 76-79, but if I remember the movie correctly, I think it had the 79 front end on it.

And he drove a Chevette. That will send anybody over the edge.

That list is pretty messed up. I'll agree with the Avalanche and 96 Taurus though. El Camino has no place on that list. 1st Gen Taurus/Sable I'd disagree with being ugly. The 96-99? I call it the cross-eyed frog. And I bleed blue. The 2000+ to the Five Hundred / Taurus changeover are mostly rental queens with the bugs worked out, with dirt for resale value. If I needed cheap reliable transportation, 2000 to 2007 Taurus would be near if not top of my list. I can see the Chevette maybe in 50 worst cars, but not 50 most ugliest. It didn't look that bad.

Chrysler will still be in business in late 2010?