AutoMuse®

I walked into the office the other day, and smack in the middle of the lobby, like some piece of art deco, was the black hard top to a 2004 Ford Thunderbird. The hard top is still proudly occupying space there, and I have to admit it’s beginning to grow on me as some weird form of performance-meets-modern art.

This car is a delight to drive with the top down. It has the retro-T-Bird design with a toothy grille and deeply set luminous orbs for lights. Once you’ve seen the prominent front, the body slims down and glides away like a fish moving off for more interesting waters.

Once inside, the ride gets better. This particular car has a black exterior and continues the theme with a black dash and silver door accents, settling into a tan leather interior and tan soft top. Detail is everywhere in this car. It’s seats are lush and comfortable, the steering wheel and shifter knob have padded leather grips, and it has lots more leg room that the smaller, sportier SLK, Boxster, and TT.

Although it remains true to the retro look, the Thunderbird offers the modern conveniences, like CD, heated seats, and adapter outlets. It also combines the dial gauges using turquoise indicators with digital dash information, and provides a digital read of which gear the car is in. I found the last particularly helpful as D5 and D4 are very close together, and it is hard to distinguish by looking at the floor shift. I did not, however, really need the car to display “Top Down” when I got in — although I imaging that could be helpful if the convertible top did not latch properly. Speaking of which, the convertible top is fully automated and only requires human intervention to secure the two catches and latch it down.

I have to admit that I find rag tops irritating. They always look dirty, no matter how clean the car is. And then there is that irritating someone-slashed-the-top-open-to-try-to-steal-something effect. No matter how you slice it, I’ll take the retractable hard top any day.

Other than the soft top issue, my only other real criticism is the lack of visibility when the hard top is (off our lobby floor and) on the car. The hard top has these fun round fish bowl windows that compliment the car but don’t really help with viewing.

All said, I like the ‘04 Thunderbird. It has wonderful pickup from the V8 motor and it soars effortlessly down the road. My neighbors liked it too! (They were probably as thrilled because the car is a beauty as much as these were pleased that I came home in something small and quiet rather than big and noisy. I’ve been driving diesel trucks lately, and I doubt I am very popular when I get home late from work.)

Attributes:

Black out (body and hard top)
Tan leather in
10,000 miles
V8
CD
Heated seats
Traction control
Power pack
Power tilt
Wheel media/cruise controls