This 1988 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe is a nicely presented drive that the seller claims is fully dialed in and ready for regular use. He bought it not all that long ago on a popular auction site where he paid over $13,000 for the car; it’s now listed here on eBay where bids are sitting just over $7,000 with the reserve unmet. The Thunderbird features a turbocharged drivetrain paired to a 5-speed manual transmission, and it’s located in Houston, Texas.
When these Turbo Coupes do pop up for sale, they are typically seen in colors like black, grey, or white; this Thunderbird wears the rarely seen “Light Sandalwood Pearl Metallic” paint scheme that the seller (unfortunately) covered up with this custom cherry red wrap. Yes, you can remove a wrap any time you want, but I honestly wish this car was left alone. Sure, tan is not all that exciting, but given how few Turbo Coupes are left in that color, I hope the next owner brings the original finish back to life.
The tan-on-tan scheme, however, is not exactly sexy, so I can certainly understand the owner wanting to change things up. The cabin is in excellent shape with clean carpets and cloth upholstery on the nicely-bolstered bucket seats. The listing reports that he’s tackled numerous maintenance-related projects in his time with the car, from belts and hoses to fluid changes and an AC conversion. The tires were also replaced and a modern Bluetooth radio was installed.
Here you can see the remnants of the factory paint job still in the engine bay (which is another reason why I despise wraps.) The seller claims he drives this turbocharged T-Bird every day and that the reason for the sale is his better half wanting a modern ride. Hopefully, he didn’t pay too much when he picked it up so he can recoup his investment, but that custom wrap may hold back the price. Do you think he should remove it to get maximum dollars back?
The Turbo Coupe is always on my list of cars whose styling has held up, which still look good today. This is a nice example, which has had quite a bit of mechanical work. But I’m with you Jeff: the paint wasn’t an exciting color, but… a wrap? Even realizing one could take it off, it just feels strange. Maybe I’m just not ready to adopt this new-ish technology… specifically on an older car.
I’m with you, Bob. A wrap on a car like this seems very odd.
Hum, not sure about this one. I am not a fan of tan/brown painted cars but that cherry red wrap is kinda wild. Makes me want to go up to it and lick it, just to see what it tastes like. It’s a nice Turbo Coupe, fun to drive with the 5-speed. Maybe someone will have to have it. I’ll keep my 87 with the original silver paint with black interior. It’s my rat rod, runs great but don’t look perfect on the outside.
Put a USC Trojan decal on the back glass.
This reminds me of the song “Wrap It Up” by the Fabulous Thunderbirds…
Cool band 😎 Jimmy Vaughn 🎸
Had s new ‘86. Great car.
Strip it and deal with it. Pain in the a.. to get off if been on there along time in Sun.
Had an 88 in twilight blue. Great car and fun to drive with 5 speed. Sold it with 205k miles.
Yes. Remove the wrap.
Nice ford.
And dump the interior shot with the leg in it. That just grosses me out.
I thought that was part of the new seat stuffing 😄. Seriously, I didn’t see the leg until you mentioned it.
I had a 87 white with blue interior and it was an automatic nice car would like to own one today but not over pricey.
I’ve got at ’90 SC. I prefer the exterior styling on the Turbo, but like the engine in the SC. It seems to me that when you take a stock automobile and start changing things, you may like it better, but fewer others will do so. The more you change the smaller the group of your potential buyers.
We owned one: Ice blue, 5 spd, loaded except sunroof and leather. We liked the looks of the car, and the features. We didn’t like the performance, and some questionable reliability issues during it’s brief tenure with us. It seemed very sluggish without tipping into the turbo, which we attribute to a car weighing in close to four thousand pounds… with a 4 cylinder. Phenomenal gas mileage on the highway, quite pathetic around town.
I was working at a Ford dealer when these came out. Most won’t agree with this, but I preferred the ones with automatic transmissions. Here’s why. With the automatic, the torque converter keeps the boost up when accelerating. On the five spd. you lose the boost every time you shift. Regardless,really great road car. I liked the turbo XR4-TI better. Based on a Ford Euro model, it handled like it was on rails and was lighter than the t-bird by a bunch. I don’t think they were inter-cooled though.
Buyer’s remorse? Looks like he’s stuck with it or Al will eventually sell at a loss. Reserve Not Met @ just under $8k… that’s a wrap 🤣
He fell in love. He paid $13,250 on BaT in 8/22 and then proceeded to put a boatload into her by his description.
She bid up to $7,800.
So it’ll be a big loss if he really has to sell, as cars are wont to be. Barely had time to enjoy her.
At this point, tell the wife older T-Birds are better, buy some Bilzzaks for the winter, and drive the wheels off the thing! Get it all sideways and master drifting on the snow and in rain.
Color change without painting without damage = wrap. I drove it around for a while with the gold, and, while it shined up nice (see the Bring a Trailer ad), I just wanted to jazz it up. To paint it right (including doors, trunk, engine bay) was an obscene amount of money. This way gives the new owner all the flexibility s/he could want !!
We had an 88 in red on red with cloth and a sunroof. Automatic and it would haul. Always ran premium and never bothered with the regular/premium dash switch. Autodimmer was awesome except on a very dark Rd the reflection of big roadsigns would turn it into a disco. Autoclimate was really good and it could roast you! Large trunk for a coupe. Had lots of weird issues but fairly reliable. Good tires or you can forget it! Spun it around just easing onto a damp road with nearly bald tires. I used to call it the Turbo Poop or the Blunderbird just to annoy my ex! It was comfortable but definitely a tight cockpit for anyone “larger than average.”
What is that wrap hiding? The fact that someone took sooo much time to wrap an old classic has me asking, what are you trying to hide? Waste of a wrap. Otherwise, nice old bird