The late 1980s was the high-water mark for personal luxury coupes in America. Monte Carlos, Thunderbirds, Regals, and the occasional Grand Prix ruled NASCAR, and win on Sunday sell on Monday was still a thing. While all of these were still rear-wheel drive vehicles, the folks at Ford let you choose from three different engine options. This 1988 Turbo Coupe for sale here on craigslist out of Ashland, Virginia, rolled out of the factory with the most powerful choice: a turbocharged four-cylinder engine backed with a five-speed manual transmission. With just 9,650 miles on the odometer, this amazingly well-kept coupe is being offered at a hefty $24,000. Is it worth it? Thanks to Pat L. for the tip!
To justify the $24,000 asking price, some of us have to adjust our thinking as to what a collector car is today. Many of us grew up riding around in personal luxury coupes and they just don’t seem like collectibles just yet. However, times are changing. The eighties and nineties cars are appreciating in price and shows like Radwood are catching on all over the country. Restoring a car of this era doesn’t seem to happen much, so it is important to find a car in very good condition.
You would have to search far and wide to find a Thunderbird of this era in better condition. Never minding the amazingly low miles, the seller claims to have owned this car for 17 years. Even more amazing is the claim that it still sits on Goodyear Eagle tires. Looking at the pictures gives you the impression that this car just rolled off the showroom floor.
The car also appears to be well equipped. The Thunderbird Turbo Coupe was a top-of-the-line model with a lot of power equipment and many of the items that cost extra on lesser Thunderbirds came standard with the package. What also stands out is the black exterior with the red interior. The paint doesn’t show any damage in the provided pictures, and the interior appears to be immaculate.
The picture above gives us a glimpse at the 190-horsepower turbocharged and intercooled four-cylinder engine. With its heritage going back to the infamous Pinto in 1970, Ford’s Lima engine was produced all the way until 2001. While lacking balance shafts to smooth out vibrations, these powerplants were known to be tough to kill. An article by Hagerty Media on these Turbo Coupes mentions the ridiculous amounts of horsepower that some owners are putting down.
So, is this car worth the $24,000 asking price? Maybe to that enthusiast that wanted one of these when they were new but couldn’t make it happen for whatever reason. Or perhaps the person who wants to make going to Radwood shows their thing would see the value in this car. You cannot doubt its collectability. You may pay too much right now, but sooner or later I think this investment will pay off.
These Turbo Coupes were nicely done. The styling in particular has held up well. Clean and classy, this one looks good in black; I’m even fine with the red interior. Decent power for their day. Nicely equipped. The five-speed would be preferred by many.
I don’t follow Turbo Coupe prices, but given how high ‘everything’ is today, a very low mileage extra clean example like this should bring big bucks. Wish the seller would have provided some info.
Thanks Jeff.
Great lines, handsome Ford, comfortable cruiser with enough punch to be interesting. 5 sp is bonus.
Wow that’s red in there. Don’t know if that investment will come to the new owner anytime soon at that price, but I have been wrong before. These were good looking cars and performance was decent for the time. Just a bit slower than the 5.0 but these were built to handle like the European cars. That nose worked great for NASCAR, Bill Elliott set a couple of records with a T-bird that still stands today.
I traded 1985 Trans Am for one of these back in 1989. It was 1 year old with 30,000 miles, a factory officials car I was told. Had all options and automatic transmission. Loved that car. Heater core blew at 90 some thousand miles and I got rid of it then.
Nice car, but they are anemic. $12-15k would be ok for both parties.
Yeah I was thinking about 10-12 grand.
A good friend of mine had one with a 5 speed. I drove it many times and wouldn’t call it anemic at all, especially for 1988. It was a fun comfortable car.
This would have been one of my realistic dream cars back in ’88 when it was new. I still like it, a lot, and that manual makes it a near-perfect driver in my book. Like Bob_in_TN, I’m not real current on Turbo Coupe pricing, and without research, I have no clue if the cost justifies what you’re getting here. But I do dig the car, and whatever price the buyer pays the TC looks like a nice example that I’m guessing is going to make the next owner really happy if there’s no surprises.
The price only puts me off a little, considering the low miles.
But that red interior is a deal breaker for me.
I love this car. I remember these back in high school and wanted one but no cash. I love the interior also, it is so 80’s. Good luck to the seller.
I bought one new in ’88. Should have gotten the 5.0 A slug off the line. Sold it for $5k in ’92 with 49k miles. Bought a 911SC and haven’t looked back.
Almost new and almost collectible.
Ford T-bird lovers what more could you ask for. Black with red interior and its a Stick with low mileage.
When these were new, I had a friend that was a factory rep for Ford Motors Co. We were going out one night and he said he wanted me to drive this new T Bird. He didn’t tell me a thing about and I was taken back by the performance, and asked him what it was. When he told me a turbo 4 cylinder, you can imagine what I said, after that ,I pulled over and said SHOW ME. I couldn’t believe and still don’t. However, I don’t think, I would part with almost 25 K ,for this car.
When these were new, I had a friend that was a factory rep for Ford Motor Co. We were going out one night and he said he wanted me to drive this new T Bird. He didn’t tell me a thing about it and I was taken back by the performance, and asked him what it was. When he told me a turbo 4 cylinder, you can imagine what I said, after that ,I pulled over and said SHOW ME. I couldn’t believe and still don’t. However, I don’t think, I would part with almost 25 K ,for this car.
I had the 1986 version of this car from 1989 to 1994 when I was in my early 20’s. By the time I got rid of it, the turbo was going bad with 75k miles. My theory was that the car was too heavy for a 4-cylinder engine so the turbo had to work overtime to generate acceleration (and it had nice acceleration under boost). My young right pedal foot might have contributed as well.
Honestly, give me an 88 Cougar XR7 5.0 any day. Not to mention an 88 Mark VII
Ford updated the T-Bird body style the very next model year, 1989.
Had a new ’94 of what became the supercharged Super Coupe.
That car produced an incredible amount of torque at only 2200 rpm.
Both of these Birds had their engine problems and dealerships hated
seeing them come in for service. Or at least the mechanics did. lol
I had to replace the blown engine in mine in 1997 or 98. It never really
ran right after that….so I totaled it in 2000. Fin
Hagerty says $27.2K for concours condition and $17.9K for excellent. I assume they have some actual sales data to back it up. I’d bet you’d eventually spend the better part of $20K to get a $3-4K restoration candidate to the level of this 9K mile car…and it wouldn’t have 9K miles. And come on, 190hp out of 2.3 liters was pretty good 34 years ago.
In 1988 our Ford Dealership arranged for Bill Elliot to come sign autographs for the day. And since we had a little banked paved oval racetrack in town. Ford Motor Company had agreed to send us a Turbo Coupe for Bill to hammer around the track that evening. At the time, the Turbo Coupe was hard to get. (I think because the new body style was coming out soon, but I really don’t remember for sure) Bills arrival date was coming soon and still no Turbo Coupe for Bill to drive. Two days before he shows up a Turbo Coupe with no VIN shows up. It is an R&D test car and it is hammered! The tires are virtually bald and it has numerous scratches and minor dents all over the car. But it was OH MY GOD FAST! It was faster than any 5.0 Mustang or Hopped/boosted up SVO I ever drove. I stood on the loud pedal for just a second or two and had an issue stopping it before the intersection coming up. (No ABS on this baby!)
On Bills drive on the track, he had 3 passengers and it started to rain. He would broad slide it out of the corner and then do 360s all the way down the straight and then broad slide it around the next corner and then do the same 360 loops down the next straight. It was quite entertaining and the crowd went nuts. It was a very good day. Ford, picked up the car on Monday, so I never got the chance to “learn about it”.
Strange. 🤔 My ’88 had ABS. It handled well with the lighter front end (vs the 5.0), but took a while to spool up.
Might take awhile to find a buyer at 24K, but it could happen.
Marti makes reports for these things too – who would have think.