Marie asked if the person appeared to be in trouble. A person was hanging out the driver’s window. As we were headed to town (said town, Carbondale, Illinois, being fifteen miles away), we came upon a Volkswagen Jetta parked in a business entrance in a desolate area, positioned parallel to the road. On New Year’s morning, Marie realized she had left some item back at her place and needed a replacement. One trip was the five hour trip to my parent’s house in Alto Pass, Illinois, on New Year’s Eve in 1997. In the interim period, she and I traveled a lot in the Thunderbird for various wedding showers and such. In December 1997 I asked Marie a certain life-altering question. So back in 19 I traveled many evenings to her house in the small town of Linn, about twenty miles east of Jefferson City, where she had moved to teach middle-school science. Remember the brunette I mentioned in my Mustang COAL? Well, a lot had happened since then as we were quite the item Marie and I still are as she is upstairs while I type this. That was a large reason for why I purchased what I did when I did. Shortly before purchasing the Thunderbird, I sensed few would be the times in my life I would be purchasing a new car. My response was how my fuel mileage equalled or exceeded what I realized with that “economical” Mustang and how it was my money, not their’s. Why do some feel the need to inject themselves into other people’s business all while being judgmental? Some things I’ll never know. There was critiquing for not only getting a Thunderbird but one with a V8 and how eight cylinder engines are nothing but fuel-swilling mills nobody needs. It was the right car at the right time.Ī few family members critiqued my decision for purchasing the car. To the contrary I was 23 years old when mine arrived. I ordered it in black, and while it was often a bear to keep clean, I would choose black again.Ī few reviews about this era of Thunderbird claim no young person would touch these. In retrospect, I should have skipped the leather seats. For about the price of a pedestrian Taurus, I netted a new Thunderbird. So here is what I finally got, thanks to the efforts of those at the now defunct Courtesy Ford in Charleston, Missouri. While I didn’t want it, I soon realized it worked well to visually balance the car in the rear, as I felt the standard Thunderbird looked a touch droopy in standard form. Naturally, during my shopping Ford upped the price of the Sport Option to $450, but tossed a “no charge” deck lid spoiler into the mix. After a little more shopping, I found a dealer who was willing to order what I wanted – what really helped was it being a small dealer having no Thunderbirds in stock. This seemed like a screaming deal.Īt one point during my search, a dealer inquiry found the closest black Thunderbird with the Sport Option to be in Louisville, Kentucky – two states away. For such a relative pittance, one got the suspension, rear disc brakes, and 16″ wheels from the now discontinued Super Coupe along with the mandatory 4.6 liter V8. What I sought was a Thunderbird with the $210 Sport Option. Most of the few V8 Thunderbirds to be found had a moonroof I didn’t want a moonroof. Many of those had the standard 3.8 liter V6 with various other trinkets. I sought a Thunderbird, but not just any garden variety example as found on dealer lots and seen here. Too bad dealers didn’t keep the exact specimen on their lot. Looking around in 1996, choices were present but the ideal candidate was obvious. Having 2.3 liters of ecstasy erasing any desire for another Mustang, this new chapter of life called for something more sophisticated and mature.įurther, it was going to have seriously more motivational force. I knew what I wanted, had test driven two or three examples, and it was just a matter of acting upon it. The hankering had been growing for a while.
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