The Ford Thunderbird is an icon in American car enthusiast circles, but the ninth generation model hasn’t caught on as a legitimate collector’s item at the moment. That’s not to say it’s a bad car, but the nameplate suffered a bit with the eighth generation offering and the thoroughly revised model had a lot of convincing to do. The good news is you can still buy a thoroughly decent example for reasonable money as this 1983 Heritage Edition Thunderbird here on Facebook Marketplace goes to show.
The seller is asking $2,500 for this barn stored example that has 130,000 miles on the clock and has been parked here for the last five years. It sounds like the sellers used the T-Bird regularly up until that point, and it still looks decent from a cosmetic standpoint in photos. The Heritage Edition packaging was purely cosmetic in nature, with chrome side-view mirrors and wire-style hubcaps as standard equipment.
Now, this car really does appear to be loaded up for a Thunderbird, with leather seating surfaces, (fake) woodgrain on the dash, and full power options. It also has some sort of an axillary gauge cluster in the lower portion of the console, but I suspect that’s an aftermarket piece. The Thunderbird and its Lincoln-branded sibling had ridiculously comfortable seats and despite being used as an everyday driver, the buckets in this car look to be in fine shape.
Even better, you have a 5.0L V8 under the hood. You couldn’t ask for a better set-up for a cheap cruiser that is dirt-simple to maintain and won’t break the bank over the long term. Now, a Turbo Coupe is a smarter buy for long-term ROI, but if you just want a driver that will sound and look good going down the road, this Heritage Edition Thunderbird is worth a look – plus, you get to drag it out of its barn hiding spot, which will make for some great rescue photos!
Agreed, a turbo coupe would be more valuable and more fun, but at $2600 this Bird is seriously tempting. The under hood area looks pretty clean and some maintenance was done it seems. And the interior is lux. I’m tempted.
My brother recently bought a 86 turbo coupe runs really really good,oh yeah did I mention it’s 429,C6,4.56 9in.
fox bodied bent8? May B 1st of the merican executive coupes (“personl vehicle”)? Auto writers called them euro challengers back then, no?
If I was younger, hada city or office job there would B only a short hesitation period…
Not chrlsful today tho (no use or it).
These are excellent vehicles. Just drive one and you’ll know.
This Heritage trim in 83 was the only T-bird to ever wear an illuminated coach lamp on the pillar. These were a revelation after the cheap looking 80-82 models. If memory serves me correctly (it actually does at times) these 83 and 84 T-birds were the top selling coupes in California when they came out. I have a soft spot for these and the Mercury Cougar cousin with its quirky gremlin-esque windowed roofline. If I win the lottery, my garage will have a 77 T-bird and 77 Cougar, an 83 T-bird and 83 Cougar (loved the 83 Cougars grill, roofline, and hood ornament) and an 89 T-bird and Cougar. I’ve always been split on their rooflines and always loved both versions of basically the same car. Will say that with the refreshed 87-89 models, T-bird wins, Cougar went a bit too far out there with that refreshed side window roofline. the Turbo birds after the refresh were awesome and Motor Trends car of the year in 87.
Had a 83’ cougar same interior color and leather only difference inside was steering wheel wasn’t T-bird. Car was 2 tone silver/gray with red pinstripe very sharp car and rode like a Lincoln.