When I decided to write about the 1969 Ford Thunderbird four-door Landau, I suspected that Indie Auto readers would find my resulting article controversial. That’s because this body style has sustained a fair amount of criticism in automotive circles. And while I would acknowledge that the T-Bird four door was an idea whose time had not yet come, my guess is that it may have had promise if Ford had stuck with it.
Let’s start by talking about the importance of the 1969 model year. Ford got a wake-up call when the Buick Riviera outsold the Thunderbird for the first time. Perhaps most alarmingly, the T-Bird’s production was down 24 percent whereas the Riviera and its corporate sibling, the Oldsmobile Toronado, were both up by around 7 points.
General Motors was now handily outselling Ford in the premium-priced personal coupe field. This represented a sea change from 1967, when the T-Bird outsold the Riviera and Toronado combined.
This might have partly been explained by the Thunderbird getting rather old for a style-conscious “halo” car. The basic design was in its third year whereas the GM cars were only in their second.
Perhaps not so coincidentally, in 1970 the Thunderbird was given a partial reskinning that made it look more like a GM car, with a Pontiac-like beak and a semi-fastback roofline for two-door models. This was not coincidental because former GM executive Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen had been hired as Ford president when the cars were being developed.
The Thunderbird regained its No. 1 status in 1970-71 but sales were mediocre. Could it be that playing “follow the leader” may not have been so smart?
Four door’s decline was in sync with lineup until 1970
The four-door Landau was not the primary reason why the Thunderbird lost its sales crown in 1969 — on a percentage basis output was down more than with two-door models but not by much.
Even so, the four door received less of a stylistic update in 1970 and lower prominence in marketing. Output proceeded to fall by almost half. By 1971 the body style made up only 18 percent of Thunderbird output. That was a meaningful drop from its peak in 1968 of almost 34 percent.
The Thunderbird four door sold far better than the convertible ever did, but it was still a niche model. That was the opposite of the Buick Electra 225, whose four-door hardtop and sedan comprised almost 70 percent of total production in 1969.
In addition, the Electra lineup sold in much higher numbers — almost 159,000 cars left the factory in 1969 versus slightly more than 49,000 of the T-Bird.
Todd Duhnke (2024) has argued that the Thunderbird four door “created buzz on the showroom floor” but it was “a money loser as it had so many unique parts and its frame had to be lengthened 2 1/2 inches to accommodate back seat passengers.” However, the cost of the longer frame was shared with the Continental Mark III, “which did make lots of money for Ford.”
All of this is to suggest that the four-door Thunderbird was not a rousing success but hardly a failure. And while it lost altitude after 1969, one could at least partly blame that on Ford’s flagging attention.
I think that this body style had potential — at least if Ford had kept the Thunderbird from growing into a full-sized car with its next major redesign in 1972. A mid-sized, luxury “coupe sedan” plausibly could have carved out a decent market as more buyers grew tired of driving Detroit’s land yachts.
Four door was essentially a baby 1961-63 Continental
In a 1968 selling-points bulletin to dealers, the Landau four door was pointed to as a major reason why the Thunderbird had done so well in 1967 against the Riviera and Toronado. And with the addition of bench front seats in 1968, Ford expected new “conquest” sales from the Electra and Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight.
If that indeed occurred it was around the margins, because the four-door Thunderbird sold best in its first year — almost 25,000 units in 1967. Output drifted down to almost 22,000 in 1968 and then to under 16,000 in 1969. If that sounds bad, note that this steady decline was similar to overall T-Bird sales. And even in its peak year of 1960, the convertible never surpassed 12,000 units.
The Thunderbird four door was essentially a cheaper, smaller and somewhat sportier variation on the 1961-63 Lincoln Continental coupe sedan. Designers even threw in the Continental’s iconic clamshell doors. It looked more gimmicky, with its fake landau bars, but that arguably better fit the times than the Continental’s somewhat austere persona.
Whatever its charms, the Thunderbird four door only outsold its predecessor in its first, recession-plagued year of 1961.
Some have argued that giving the Thundbird a four-door body style was a fundamental strategic error that undercut the car’s image (e.g., Duvall, 2024). I doubt that. For one thing, Richard Langworth has noted that by 1969 Thunderbird buyers “continued to show a marked preference for the now-standard bench seat” regardless of which body style they chose (1986, p. 254). In addition, adding a coupe sedan body style was hardly a radical step for Ford given the iconic status of the 1961-63 Continental.
I would suggest that the biggest reason why Ford did relatively well in the 1960s was because it pioneered new market niches rather than playing follow the leader. The discontinuance of the four-door Thunderbird was just one indication that the automaker was losing its flair for innovation in the early-70s.
NOTES:
Specifications and production figures are from auto editors of Consumer Guide (1993, 2006), Consumer Reports (1970) and Gunnell (2002).
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, IL.
- Consumer Reports; 1970. “Auto Buying Guide. April edition (link unavailable).
- Duhnke, Todd; 2024. “A Design at a Crossroads — 1967 Thunderbird.” Dean’s Garage. Posted Jan. 12.
- Duvall, James E.; 2024. Comment in “A Design at a Crossroads — 1967 Thunderbird.” Dean’s Garage. Posted Jan 12 at 12:47 am.
- Flory, J. “Kelly” Jr.; 2004. American Cars, 1960-1972. McFarland & Co., Inc.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised Fourth Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Langworth, Richard; 1986. The Complete History of Ford Motor Company. Beekman House.
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I am perhaps very biased here: My wife’s late aunt and late uncle bought a new Thunderbird every three years starting in 1958, trading in their beloved 1956 Plymouth, their first new car. They both worked in management for R.C.A. at the Indianapolis Color TV manufacturing plant. The 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967 and 1970 Thunderbirds were trouble-free, but the four-door 1970 Landau was their favorite and their last Thunderbird as they did not like the successor 1973 and later Thunderbirds. A 1968 red Mustang joined their garage, but they kept the 1970 T-bird until 2006, when they donated it to a high school for restoration and sale. They also moved in 1977 to a Cadillac Sedan deVille and later added a 1981 Chevrolet Caprice. But of all the cars they owned, even the later Cadillacs (1977, 1984, and a 1994 Fleetwood Brougham), the 1970 four-door “Bunkie-beaked” T-Bird was their favorite car. They used it for very special occasions and kept it in good running order, although by the turn of the century, the Indiana winters had taken a toll as they had not had the car Z-Barted when the T-Bird was their daily driver. The aunt and uncle valued the quiet the fully optioned T-Bird offered given their long work hours hectic work duties. The times I rode and drove their 1970 T-Bird, it was undeniably a quiet, prestige automobile: Nicer riding and quieter than their 1964 and 1967 Thunderbirds. It is no wonder they loved the 1970 model.
I would challenge the contention that the Thunderbird was restyled that much between 1967 and 1971: Yes, there were grille texture and taillight variations year-to-year, but the 1970-1971 beak was the biggest change. Ford really did not have to spend money on sheet metal changes as both the Mark III and the Thunderbird were winners, so Ford, even though the T-Bird sales fell off after 1967, the cars (platforms) made profits.
Thunderbird sedan may have been an idea 20 years too early. I’ve seen pictures of a clay model of sedan version of the 1980 Thunderbird, which may have been a proposal to replace the LTD II sedan. The car looked similar to a 1981 Granada with the Thunderbird grill and tail.