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In the wake of the just-passed Thanksgiving weekend, it seems appropriate to give thanks for the tasty holiday meal (our thoughts are with you Mr. Turkey), and also give thanks for the return of another fine feathered icon, the 2002 Ford Thunderbird.
Scott Jensen, Ford Motor Company's Midwest Communications Manager personally dropped off a Bird (the car, not an over-stuffed fowl with trimmings) 10 days ago at the Daily Herald when Chicago's unseasonably warm temperature was conveniently stuck around the 68 degree mark. This burst of seemingly tropical weather provided an ample opportunity to test the sleek new Thunderbird with its canvas convertible top down.
Thunderbird first entered the publics' consciousness in 1954 at the Detroit Auto Show. Ford was "inspired" to develop a sporty two- door coupe shortly after rival General Motors introduced its own two- door sports machine, the Chevrolet Corvette. Thunderbird's best sales year was in 1977 when 325,153 copies rolled off the assembly line. Twenty years later, production limped in at only 79,721 units. The 1997 model year was the last year of production for a brief time until Thunderbird production cranked up again this year as an all- new, yet nostalgic model.
The 2002 Thunderbird is now a low-production, highly visible, image-building, retro car for Ford;...