Click Here To Watch Streaming Broadband Video Of Ford's Introduction Of The New Thunderbird, At The 2001 Detroit Auto Show
DETROIT, Motor Trend Magazine will announce that the Ford Thunderbird has been named Car of the Year for an unprecedented fourth time at a formal presentation today during the Motor Trend International Auto Show in Las Vegas.
Motor Trend Detroit bureau chief Jack Keebler said that "Ford did an absolutely marvelous job at capturing the essence of Thunderbirds."
``Emotionally, it's an easy win,'' said Jim Hall, vice president of automotive marketing firm AutoPacific. ``It's still a cool car.''
Another car worthy of the award, Hall said, would have been the popular but more sedately designed Toyota Camry.
The T-bird previously won the award in 1958, 1987 and 1989, but its image as a classic American sports car became tarnished in the 1990s when it was redesigned as a larger, family sized vehicle.
``It was a baroque four-door sedan that did nothing to polish the Thunderbird image,'' Keebler said.
Production stopped with 1997, but the Thunderbird was revived two years later when Ford design chief J Mays introduced a concept version that was a modern take on the vehicle's classic lines and styling cues.
It was a huge hit on the auto show circuit and among the automotive trade publications, bolstering Ford's decision to build a production version in low volumes -- about 25,000 -- to help maintain the car's cache.
The 2002 model began rolling off assembly lines earlier this year.
Fully featured, the car can cost as high as $41,000, which also limits the Thunderbird's customer base.
``We wanted to make the car right,'' said Jim O'Connor, Ford vice president and president of the company's Ford division. ``It's a real head-turner.
Some of the information for this story comes from AP coverage
