This 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe is equipped with a 5 speed manual transmission and turbocharged engine. We appreciate Rex sending it to us this week. The car is located in Longmont, Colorado which is just north of Boulder. It would make a great trip to fly in to Denver and pick up this car and drive it home. The seller has listed the car here on Craigslist for a price of $17,000. The Thunderbird is a one owner car with only 44,081 miles on the odometer.
The interior is pretty much a time capsule and appears to have very little, if any, wear on the seats, dash, steering wheel or carpet. I have always liked the Thunderbird cloth interiors. I had a girlfriend in college with a similar car and it surprised me how nice it drove. The dash has a cover over it but in the climate that it has survived in, the dash should not be sun worn. The seller states that the car might be one of the nicest in the country and was always stored in a garage under a cover. This car is said to start and drive like new.
The new owner of the car will receive all the original documentation shown above including the original owners manual, maintenance books, window sticker and service logs kept by the original owner. The car also has its original keys. The Ford inline 2.3 liter 4 cylinder engine was turbocharged and intercooled producing 190 horsepower with the 5 speed manual transmission. If you ordered an automatic transmission, the car was detuned to 150 horsepower. One issue with these cars is the adjustable suspension. When parts where out, it is difficult to find replacement parts for repair or restoration.
The exterior is said to be flawless and still showing the original maroon paint with no touch ups. The 1988 Ford Thunderbird rode on 16 inch V rated performance tires and, in top form, could achieve 143 mph. This car was bought new at Courtesy Ford in Denver, Colorado and appears to spent a pampered life in a low humidity climate. I am sure the buyer would consider a reasonable offer so a new owner could take this prime example of Ford’s grand touring vehicle home.
Appears to be the same car featured on CarWizards youtube channel last week. Certainly looks like a really nice one.
When parts WEAR out
When PANTS are worn out.
That’s either a weird camera angle or this thing has some serious positive camber! Assuming that’s just a visual trick looks pretty good. Rare to see these anymore.
I don’t think it’s the camera angle.You can clearly see it from the other pictures on Craigslist.
Yes I see. Usually, you see that where a car has whacked a curb but here it’s on both sides . Encounter with a low trash compactor?
I’ve owed a few of these. That dash mat is hiding cracks in the dash.
Dash is perfect. Watch the Car Wizards full preview of the entire car on YouTube.
Different cars. Odd that they are so similar including type, mileage and near by locations, but the Car Wizard review had a car with red interior.
All those pics but none of the engine. Strange.
I think the styling on the Turbo Coupe has aged very well. They still look good today.
These things were junk in the 80s no way it’s worth 17k today unless people are that desperate for a pile of junk!!!
What were you driving in the 80’s that was so incredible?? I owned one of these in this color combo – lots of fun to drive and really good in the twisties
I always wondered why people chose these over a same yr mustang coupe/sedan LX 5.O ?
same: “Y a Cougar? We gota stang.”& on & on &…
Having owned an 84 an 87 and a 90 I can tell you why. The T Bird was a great looking smooth sophisticated machine. The ugly Mustangs of that period were only coveted by high school droputs and mullet heads.
I like the shorter body look of the 84, 85 models…….
I agree my friend had an 84 that he swapped out the v6 3.8 I think for a 302 out of a late 60s montego . Did some other tweaks like beefier coils wider tires and it was a nice car comfortable and fast .I picked it up for him from the impound one day and you could barely pull away from stop signs without getting wheels spinning literally had to be careful with the gas pedal it had oodles of excess power to play with. Dont drive alot of cars like that . Was the same color as this one as well but looked much better being an 84 with 60 series tires all the way around
Survivor lower mileage cars like this are coming up in value I think the seller should send this to the nearest Barrett Jackson auction and probably get more money for it.
I had one like this – beautiful to look at, but one of the most unreliable cars I have ever owned. In three years it was on a flatbed three times…
I’ll drink to that. They did have some really comfortable seats. Mine had grey cloth and even 20 yrs later now I still miss that seat. That’s about the only thing I miss though.
I had a red 88, my parents ended up with a blue 87 and for some unexplainable reason my dad added to the flock with an 88 that looked just like this one except maroon/red/whatever interior. The red and blue cars were automatics and they were absolutely trash, mechanically speaking. If you bought a replacement part and could afford the Motorcraft cost it would last a good bit longer but otherwise I had to replace stuff about 3 to 4 months. My car dined on ignition modules, headlight switches, and TP sensors. Every year to year and a half it would eat an alternator and those cars had those expensive HO Mitsubishi alternators. It ran around $300 to replace which wasn’t easy money in the early 90s for a teenager working part time.
The transmissions though… ugh. I rebuilt mine 3 times and after the third time when I left work one day it didn’t want to shift. Being absolutely fed up with it I snatched it into 1st and floored it and turned it up to 5500 and when I pushed up into second it sounded like someone threw a handful of pennies under the car. I coasted into a parking lot and the car sat for some months before it was converted to a 5 speed. Didn’t have any more transmission troubles after that…
Whoever is silly enough to buy this car should do themselves a favor and never crank it up.
A friend of mine had one of these that he bought new. We would take it from Vermont to swap meets in CT and, for some reason, he always wanted me to drive. It was a nice driving car and had plenty of power.