2003 THUNDERBIRD CONVERTIBLE MANUAL

I just saw the review and comments on the T-Bird! I find it interesting that I see truth in all the comments! I am 70 and I have wanted a Jag XK 8 for a long time, but rationality struck and I decided that a Jag was maybe a bit too much of a young man's car so I opted for the T-Bird. Quick maneuvers elicit poorly dampened yaw angular inertia. The T Bird rolls through the corners deeply from side to side AND up and down. At the same time it lacked the tautness required to be an athletic corner carver. It provided too little relief from road surface imperfections at low and moderate speeds to make a good boulevard cruiser. The Ford's suspension poses another conundrum that I could not resolve.

2003 THUNDERBIRD CONVERTIBLE MANUAL

The T Bird's ponderous shifting algorithm is even slow at processing manual inputs from the Tiptronic-style shifter. In reality, ugh.įord mated that delightful Jag powerplant to the most dim-witted five-speed automatic I have ever driven. Sprints from rest to sixty take 6.1 seconds. T-Bird when it engages from 3,500 rpm to redline. The engine features a two-stage variable valve timing system that really launches the 3700lbs.

From 2003, the powerplant was good for 280 hp and 286 ft-lbs of thrust. And the steering wheel of my tester moaned like a squeegee on glass with every turn.įor the last T-Bird, Ford sourced the 3.9-liter Jaguar AJ-V8 DOHC engine. Above 80 mph that same seam begins to howl in the wind. The seal between the top of the windshield and the front of the removable hardtop roof eeks like ten-year-old Docksiders®, especially at parking lot speeds. You'll want to turn that stereo up to obscure all the squawks and squeaks that plague this bird. Equally impressive: Ford's 180 watt, eight-speaker audio system. Turn the engine over and you are greeted with a rich V8 burble. The ‘Bird's foot well leaves no spot for the left foot to rest, and the elbow rest on the center console is too high. The T-Bird's switchgear and gauges are fashioned from cheap brittle plastic that could have been recycled from a bin of '88 Tempo parts, that were (in fact) shared with the already ageing Lincoln LS. But then you begin to notice that the Blue Oval beancounters wreaked haptic havoc. The dash is organized with elegant simplicity. Embossed leather seats comfortably coddle. Literally.įrom the first glance, the interior impresses. But the models were so stylistically removed from their classic ancestors that they defied comparison. During the eighties and nineties, T-Birds regained some lost ground. And then the seventies happened.īack when bottoms had bells, Ford sacrificed art for gargantuan proportions, crude boxy angles and shameless badge engineering. It is hard to argue that the 'Classic Birds,' 'Square Birds,' 'Bullet Birds,' 'Flair Birds' and 'Glamour Birds' of the fifties and sixties aren't momentous automotive designs. The history of the T-Bird is littered with hits and misses. Sadly, the 2003 Ford Thunderbird falls into this latter category. The human psyche doesn't like to be disappointed. The converse is also true: we reserve our most negative assessments for someone or something that we loved at first. After spending some time driving various Hondas, the brand earned my no-longer-grudging respect. Psychologists say humans develop their strongest positive feelings to someone or something if they hated it at first.

2003 thunderbird convertible