1958-76 Thunderbird: The rise and fall of the Ford that shook up GM

(EXPANDED FROM 10/1/2021)

The four-seater Thunderbird was a surprisingly pivotal car for the Ford Motor Company during the postwar period. The T-Bird showed that the No. 2 automaker could better compete against mighty General Motors if it pioneered new markets rather than trying to directly compete model for model.

The early four-seaters were remarkably subversive on a number of levels. For one thing, 1958-60 Thunderbird was the first Big Three postwar car to undercut the “hierarchy of brands” strategy that then dominated the US auto industry.

This approach was most highly developed at GM, where a car buyer could show they were moving up in the world by switching from the low-priced Chevrolet to a higher-priced Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and — at the pinnacle — Cadillac. Each of these brands offered distinctive styling and mechanical features, but by the late-50s they shared a common platform.

The Thunderbird challenged GM’s hierarchy of brands by competing price-wise against the automaker’s top-end premium-priced cars even though the personal coupe was sold through plebeian Ford dealers.

T-Bird unleashes massive product-proliferation spree

A key reason the Thunderbird was able to develop an exceptional level of cachet may have been because it had a unique body with more sporting proportions than a typical premium-priced car. An unusually low height and long-hood, short-deck proportions would be widely copied by U.S. and foreign automakers.

Also see ‘1958-60 Lincoln: Failing to beat GM at its own game’

The Thunderbird single-handedly spurred a massive product-proliferation spree that resulted in a diversity of personal coupes, from the high-priced Cadillac Eldorado to subcompact “pony cars” such as the Toyota Celica. This is why the T-Bird is arguably one of the most significant halo cars of all time.

The Thunderbird also defied the then-dominant practice of fielding a broad range of body styles and trim variants. The early four-seaters were only available as a two-door hardtop and convertible — and in high-end trim.

Perhaps most importantly, the Thunderbird challenged the 1950s Detroit groupthink that the more expensive the car, the bigger it had to be. The 1958-60 T-Bird showed that the public would pay a premium price for a smaller car even during a recession.

The biggest irony of the Thunderbird is that it made a mockery of Ford’s hugely expensive effort to invade the premium-priced and luxury-car fields in the second half of the 1950s. Even though the four-seater T-Bird was a parenthetical effort, it was more successful than the launching of the Continental and Edsel brands and moving both the Mercury and Lincoln upmarket.

Ford succeeds at what Studebaker failed to do

Although the Thunderbird is commonly thought of as having pioneered the personal coupe, that distinction should go to Studebaker. Indeed, Ford’s confidence in investing in a four-passenger T-Bird may have at least partially hinged on the early success of Studebaker’s low-slung two-door hardtop and coupe, which were designed by Raymond Loewy’s consulting firm. Almost 80,000 units were sold in 1953, its first year on the market. At the time that was extraordinary for a halo car lacking the room to be a family hauler.

Unfortunately, Studebaker experienced a perfect storm of difficulties that resulted in coupe output declining to roughly 19,000 units in 1956. However, that was still good enough to outsell the two-seater Thunderbird for one more year. Note that 1956 was the first time the coupes were given a distinctive name — the Hawk — rather than referred to as body styles for Studebaker’s line of Champion, Commander and President family cars.

Once Ford added a back seat in 1958, output almost doubled to 38,000 units. In contrast, Hawk production fell to less than 8,300 units. It was mostly downhill from there for Studebaker’s increasingly archaic design, with volume never cracking 9,000 units again.

Four-seater T-Bird takes on top premium-priced cars

A key reason why the two-seater died was because Ford Division Manager Robert McNamara didn’t see much profit potential in the car. However, he advocated for the four-seater because he thought it could be a real money maker — which turned out to be astute thinking (Langworth, 1987).

The four-place Thunderbird immediately sold well despite its relatively high price, which hovered in the vicinity of upper-premium nameplates such as the Buick Electra, Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight, Chrysler New Yorker, Edsel Citation and Mercury Park Lane.

As a case in point, for 1960 Ford produced roughly 30,000 more Thunderbirds than the highest-selling upper-premium nameplate, the Electra. The T-Bird also outproduced the Park Lane by a whopping nine-to-one margin.

By the same token, the Thunderbird’s success may have been the final nail in the Edsel’s coffin. Whereas the Edsel saw only 63,000 cars leave the factory in its peak year of 1958, Ford produced almost 93,000 Thunderbirds in 1960.

McNamara — who became increasingly powerful at Ford in the late-50s and early-60s — quite rightly recognized that the failure of the Mercury and Edsel wasn’t just one of timing and execution. Instead, he presciently saw that Ford’s future success depended upon being different from GM.

McNamara pressed for an abrupt reversal of Ford’s expansion plans. The Edsel was discontinued, the Continental was merged with Lincoln, the Mercury was downsized to a modestly changed Ford, and for 1961 the Lincoln was placed on the same platform as the T-Bird.

GM initially competes with the T-Bird on the cheap

GM waited five years before coming out with a direct competitor to the Thunderbird. This may have partly been because GM already dominated the upper-reaches of the premium-priced field. Introducing a personal coupe might have cannibalized sales of the Electra and Ninety-Eight.

In addition, once GM did start to offer sportier versions of its full-sized cars they sold almost as well as the Thunderbird. In 1962 the output of the newly introduced Pontiac Grand Prix and Oldsmobile Starfire together came within 6,000 units of matching the T-bird’s. This was despite these models lacking exclusive sheetmetal. It probably helped that both were priced lower than the T-Bird (particularly the Grand Prix).

Once GM introduced the Buick Riviera, it did not threaten the Thunderbird’s sales leadership from 1963-65. Indeed, the main impact of the Riviera was to expand the premium-priced personal coupe market to over 100,000 units per year. Perhaps part of the Riviera’s problem was that it was based upon the full-sized Buick. Even though it had unique sheetmetal, it didn’t come off as distinctive as the T-Bird.

GM didn’t begin to outproduce the Thunderbird until 1966, when the Riviera was substantially redesigned and Oldsmobile got its own personal coupe (go here for a discussion about the Toronado). Then, a year later, Cadillac unveiled its own entry, the Eldorado. The Spanish Armada had arrived.

GM dominates the personal coupe market — for a while

GM captured a peak of 59 percent of the personal luxury coupe market in 1969. This was the same year the Riviera managed to edge past the Thunderbird in output. That would turn out to be the only time.

Ford fought back with the Continental Mark III, which was the first Lincoln that was able to compete with Cadillac on an equal footing sales-wise. However, the GM trio inched back up to almost 59 percent of the market in 1971. This was probably due to GM introducing brand-new designs while Ford made few changes to the T-Bird and Mark III.

Also see ‘Did Wayne Kady screw up the 1974-76 Buick Riviera?’

The tables were turned in 1973, when the Thunderbird and Continental Mark IV together outsold the GM trio. This was partly the result of the T-Bird surpassing 87,000 units. That was the nameplate’s best year since 1964 — and its third-highest volume up to that point. Just as importantly, the T-Bird’s output was almost as high as the Riviera and Toronado put together.

Personal coupe sales soar despite escalating prices

Total production of personal luxury coupes soared 74 percent between 1971 and 1973. This occurred even though output for individual nameplates was closely grouped, mostly in the 50,000-to-70,000 range.

One exception was the boat-tailed Riviera, whose volume hovered around 34,000 units from 1971-73. In contrast, Toronado production rose by 84 percent to almost 54,000 units in 1973, making it the best-selling GM personal luxury coupe. This makes sense because the Toronado arguably received the most tasteful styling of the GM trio.

Meanwhile, output for the Mark series and Eldorado soared despite list prices that were upwards of $3,000 higher than premium-priced entries such as the Thunderbird.

Gas shortages lead to changes in big personal coupes

An oil embargo in late-1973 and early-74 knocked the wind out of the full-sized personal coupe market. Over the next half decade both GM and Ford would significantly restructure their lineups.

The Thunderbird was losing its luster. It was inordinately big and lumbering at a time when Americans were shifting toward smaller, nimbler and more efficient cars. And whereas the T-Bird once had unique features, now looked too much like a decontented Mark IV (go here for further discussion). Not surprisingly, the T-Bird was outsold by its more expensive corporate sibling in 1975 and 1976.

What happened next is a story for another time. But for now, let’s give Ford — and particularly Robert McNamara — credit for recognizing the extraordinary potential of the four-seater Thunderbird.

NOTES:

This article that originally posted on Sept. 4, 2016 and expanded on Dec. 1, 2019, Oct. 1, 2021 and Nov. 17, 2023. Market share and production figures were calculated from base data from the auto editors of Consumer Guide (2006) and Gunnell (2002).

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RE:SOURCES

• Auto editors of Consumer Guide;  2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, Ill.
• Bonsall, Thomas E.; 2000. More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
• ——–; 2002. Disaster in Dearborn: The Story of the Edsel. Stanford General Books, Stanford, CA.
• Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised 4th Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
• Langworth, Richard M.; 1987. The Complete History of Ford Motor Company. Publications International, LTD, Skokie, IL.

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