Stored Underground: 1981 Ford Thunderbird Heritage
Just like Rodney Dangerfield, the Fairmont based Thunderbirds of 1980-1982 didn’t get much respect. I was a new owner of the previous more popular generation of Thunderbird (1977-1979), but I still liked these. I very seriously contemplated trading my 1978 Thunderbird for a new 1982 Thunderbird, but I was about to be married in a couple of months and decided it was not the best choice at the time. This 1981 Ford Thunderbird Heritage is for sale here on eBay in Surrey, British Columbia.
The Heritage is the top of the line Thunderbird with so much standard, there are few options left to check. Three options this Heritage does have are leather seats, flip-up sunroof, and two-tone paint. The interior appears to be in excellent condition. One reason may be little exposure to the sun due to the car being stored in underground parking from 1994 to 2017. In 1994 the original owner had a stroke and the car was driven very little after that time.
The standard engine in the Heritage was a 255 cubic inch V-8, but this one has the optional 302 cubic inch V-8. The seller bought this car from the original owner in 2017 and changed the belts, hoses, and fluids plus did a brake job on the car when purchased. Accessories such as air conditioning, power windows, power seats, and AM/FM radio are all working. The car was judged second best in a Thunderbird show this past summer.
Maybe our Canadian readers can help me out here before I assume too much. The car is currently in Canada, but the seller doesn’t mention if the original owner resided in Canada. He mentions that the car has a little over 61,000 miles, but the odometer is reading “01173”. I’m making an assumption here that it is originally a Canadian car and the odometer is showing kilometers. Also, in the picture below it appears the car has a plug for an engine block heater which is typically found in colder climates. What is your take on this?
This is a very nice 1981 Ford Thunderbird Heritage. It is for sale at a Buy it Now price of $4,700 which seems a great price for a car in this condition. For those who show love for this generation, I hope this is a good candidate for your garage.
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Comments
That’s a beauty, I loved that generation Thunderbird. Nice find, Bill!
I just bought this car Sept 3rd 2022,as the wrinkles in the seat right down to the last detail are like a finger print. Classic Car Auction Billing MT.
Really nice, but too far away from me (maybe a good thing).
That’s what shippers are for! They do it every day!
This is the car that caused Ford to rethink their entire product lineup. It represents the deepest despair: the rock-bottom that turned Detroit back from the malaise. Don Petersen realized it looked nothing like a T-bird, and set about righting the wrongs of the previous 10 years of development. For that reason alone, it’s historically significant, and should be preserved.
This gen went “backwards”, because it lost its hidden wipers, racing mirrors & frameless glass that the prev gen HAD. Oddly, the ’79 mustang as well, lost the same(excluding hidden wipers), plus lost the sleek lower roof the ’78 stang hatchback had. The door mirrors on the ’79 stang look like they came from JCW – awful, & plastic too, i believe.
Not my favorite vintage Thunderbird either. Otherwise, there is no denying it being a nice example. At least it has the evergreen 302 instead of the lackluster 255.
I just want a 1981 very well keep 302 eng , no rust high Milage new timing chain and water pump alternator battery all the belts hoses very good running condition it is a landslide with a sunroof and a track And air conditioner has been all rebuilt 8 track player AM/FM and gauges are digital …And original paint asking 4000
If that got 2nd place at a car show there must have only been one other car ,carpet looks kind of crappy 👎
101,173 kilometres equals 62,866 miles, so yes, the odometer is almost certainly in kilometres.
And also yes, here in the great white north almost all cars come with block heaters which, when plugged in, heat the coolant in the water jacket to assist with starting the car in cold weather. The advent of good fuel injection systems has lessened the need for block heaters, but you still see many cars with a plug in hanging off through the front of the car somewhere.
If this car was originally from Surrey (average low winter temp of 3C), I question the need for a block heater at all, but I zoomed in on the rear 3/4 view to see a Dominion dealer sticker. If i’m correct, that may be a Ford dealer in Saskatoon, where a block heater would prove vital lol. No way would the car stay in that nice a state driving over 100,000 km, winter and summer, tho.
Dominion Motors, at Fort and Graham, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Any people from Winnipeg remember the TV and radio jingle from the 60s to early 80s, “Get your Ford at Dominion, see Dominion Motors, today”?
Dominion Motors, at Fort and Graham, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Anyone from Winnipeg remember the 1960s to early 1980s radio/tv jingle, “Get your Ford at Dominion, see Dominion Motors today”?
I just remember electrical problems from when they were new.
A dealer I knew had one that was a year old and he was pulling it out of his garage so the automatic headlights came on. That is all that came on. There were no running lights that came on with them.
I am sure that was an easy fix, but quality was not job 1 with these cars.
With that being said, it does have covered headlights, so it can’t be all bad.
This car is so far removed from the original T-bird I’m surprised they used the name on this boat
Boat ? This was downsized to the Fox platform from the previous downsized LTD II based T-Bird.
Ford must have been puzzled when these didn’t sell well since they probably seemed very “right” when they were being finalized around 1977, and when they saw how well the downsized Cutlass did in 1978, the probably thought this was a for sure hit and considering how well all the other downsized GM cars were received, downsizing the Thunderbird seemed like it was the right move.
Though by the time these came out in late 79 as 1980 models there had been another fuel embargo, the economy was turning downward, prices were up, inflation etc etc, and now combine that with the fact that in spite of Ford trying, these still sort of look like a Fairmont playing Thunderbird dress-up.
When GM downsized the intermediate cars it still kept touches like the hidden wipers and the proportions still favored that “long-hood-short-deck” personal luxury car look, where these Thunderbirds end up looking like they have too long of a trunk and that their wheels are too small.
I wonder if a Thunderbird based on the then still new Panther platform would have been better received, Ford bothered to make an LTD and Marquis coupe well into the 80’s when instead maybe it should have dumped those and made a Panther based Thunderbird instead, the Mark and the Thunderbirds were related in the past.
I think the biggest problem with these cars was that they simply looked like squished down versions of the previous generation. There were just too many styling cues from the old car but everything appeared to be three-quarter size. It wasn’t a good look.
Ford recovered nicely in 1983 when they restyled the Bird and Cougar to look more unique. But these were not a winner in styling or sales.
Good catch on the tires, LOL! Even at the time I thought they looked kind of ridiculous because the tires looked so tiny and tucked in.
Jim Dunne of Popular Science ( or was it Popular Mechanics?) predicted that the twin of this era T-Bird, the Mercury Cougar XR7 would be “sleeper” and a sales hit. It was not. I took a new 1980 Cougar XR7, base model, for a test drive at Landau Lincoln Mercury on Empress Street across from Polo Park. Never got off the dealer lot, the car was so out of tune, it stalled and would not start. Salesman shrugged, said new cars have issues.
Too bad you couldn’t have flogged that thing through its paces. I bet there would have been a lot of squealing tires and body lean! And hopefully some flying wheel covers too! As ugly as they were, something about them makes me want to beat the living snot out of one.
As a very small child I remember my parents having a really nice loaded blue one for a few days, I was really enthralled by it, I remember the digital dash and the door key pad, I also want to say it had the alloy wheels, not the wire caps this one has, but my parents must have not liked it as we ended up with triple brown 1980 Eldorado instead.
Figure, as much as dud as these were, they really stick in my mind as one of my first real automotive memories.
A friend of mine has the near twin to this car in Argentina. Only difference, and a big one is that it has the 250 L6 engine. Otherwise, same interior, no 2 tone. . He claims that it’s the only one in the country. Just rebuilt the engine and it runs great.
Thank you Bill for the post. I think the car’s design ins confused, and it seems to not be able to make up its mind about what product identity it is, which had the same effect on the public. As a transition vehicle it’s interesting and it looks to be a fine example so the price is right. I have a 67 which I enjoy so someone should jump on this car. Bring your sense of humor and an electrician.
This Style T-Bird still holds the NASCAR Record for the fastest lap. I’ve seen a few of theses with the 302 surprise a few people, but then again a 302 built the right way will move a brick
This is incredible to see. I don’t know how long it has been since I’ve seen one. While I was not a fan of this particular model, I can tell you that I have a sincere appreciation of any preserved vehicle, especially one as rare as this one. I saw many of these back when they were new. I was one of those kids that went to all the car dealers with his father, his grandfather, etc… I collected literature. I would walk the entire lot and showroom, sitting in as many as I could get into. I still recall the fragrance from the Ford/Lincoln/Mercury leather interiors. This was a really great throw back for me.
BTW, I’d never noticed this before but I can see a similarity in this to the Ford LTD coupe of the same age. My Aunt Rosalind drove one for many years but I never noticed the similarity (roofline, especially the side windows, landau top, etc..) THANKS FOR THIS!
Talk about not getting any respect…a friend of mine in high school had one of these, a hand-me-down in dark blue with a red velour interior. He hated it with a vengeance, but his father told him he couldn’t get a different car if the T-Bird was running fine.
Let’s just say this is NOT the sort of thing one says to a teenage boy!
That poor car got tortured. I’m talking “let’s put this into reverse while driving at 40mph and see what happens” torture. “Lets go jump this thing in the woods” torture. “Let’s make this thing suffer” torture.
And he couldn’t kill it. Even the ridiculous tranny drops didn’t cause any noticeable damage. Eventually the father relented, and my friend bought an ’85 Mustang GT that he loved.
Of course, the irony is that both cars, under the skin, share a LOT of similarities…
This car brings back a lot of memories. I am probably one of the rare people as I really liked this body style. I had an 81 Thunderbird with the two-tone paint. I don’t remember the size of motor but I don’t think I had the 302. But it sure got around good and I loved the stylish interior.
I don’t hate it as much as most people do, though I even kinda carry a torch for the too small 1986-1993 E-body GM cars, which sort of commit the sins this car does, to small and dinky for too many formal cues.
I remember the cool T-birds from when I was a kid in the 60’s and it saddened me to see what they morphed into from 1977 on. Once I became old enough to buy one, I didn’t want one.
I worked for Ford in this era. Remember, the oil embargo of January 1979 caused sales of the formerly wildly popular 79 T-Bird and Cougar to hit the wall; they were not exactly fuel economy champs. The economy was a disaster until spring of 1982 for car sales, too – remember 12% interest rates for car loans? The downsized versions were widely anticipated by the dealers, until they saw what they looked like. Had the proportions been less awkward (wider track, especially) these would have sold better as the styling was the primary criticism.
This is the car I learned to drive when I was 16 in 1982: my father had a 1981 model exactly the same 2 tone colors, I have good memories with this car and would love to drive one again! He didn’t keep it long as he changed it to a red T-Bird turbo coupe in 1983! Lot’s of good memories here too!
In 1981 my cousin owned a 1980 Town Landau T-Bird. Midnight Blue with light blue leather. The Town Landau was the top of the line for the first year model design until The Heritage. It was a very nice car, fully loaded and as a young kid of 15 years old I was amazed at the technology such as the keyless entry and the digital instrument panel like the gas gauge and the speedometer. There was so much criticism regarding this design but I really never understood why. When you look at the Olds Cutlass Supreme, Chevy Monte Carlo, Buick Regal, and the Pontiac Grand Prix the body style was extremely similar but the 1980-82 T-Bird just didn’t get a break and the top of the line 302 V8 wasn’t bad either. Nice car and worth the asking bid.
I have a 1981 Ford Thunderbird with only 50,000 miles on it. My wife & I bought
this Thunderbird in Canton Ohio in early 2015. It had 47,500 miles at that time.
I have no problems with my Thunderbird. It is kept in our garage which it keeps
out of bad weather. I take my Thunderbird to local & out of town Car Cruise-Ins
& have gotten several good complements.I am very pleased with the car.
Bob R.
I would really like to buy an 81 Thunderbird if anyone is willing to sell