1958-60 2nd gen Thunderbird #dwwrenches #cars

the thunderbird to remember 1958-1960 2nd generation thunderbird and why it was great. Even when it was widely hated

#dwwrenches

[kdmag]

Hard to say beginning of the end when it had 39 more years as a personal luxury car. Oddly enough, going back to 2 seats in 2002 was the real end.

[nealsidor]

With its debut, Ford singlehandedly created the personal luxury segment .
The '58 'bird doubled the sales of the '57.
The '62-'63 version were, in my humble opinion, the best looking coupe/convertible of the early '60s. And the T-Bird continued to be a styling and perfomance trendsetter well into the early 70s...

[ms.sonshine]

My youngest daughter has a 1960 model in red with a white top and red and white interior. It came with a rare moon roof. The car is stunning, and wherever she goes the car draws a lot of attention. I own a '03 in robin's egg blue with a black and white interior. I get a lot of compliments.

[hemistyle]

I was conceived in the back seat of a 1959 Thunderbird. I remember riding in it as a young child. Fond memories.

[garybrinker]

I like the last T Bird with FINS, , 1963.😎

[gordonfischer]

I love the 60s t-birds, I know not everyone does but I am a fan of everything about them, inside and out. Not big into most other years of t-bird, but at the end of the day I love all old cars.

[thegreenerthemeaner]

Guy once told me that the 58 Thunderbird compared to the 57 is like getting married. You went on your Honeymoon with Rosanna Arquette and woke up the next morning with Rosanne Barr.

[tresfingeros]

According to my Uncle who worked for Ford Corp.( 1950 - 1985) and worked in R&D and spent 80% of his career driving around the states collecting Intel from dealers ....in the 60s Ford really only had the Fairlane on it's line for "family" luxury style in it's line and needed to keep up with Chevrolet... the 2 seater coupe was seeing sales drop slightly so reconfigured with a completely new body style ...according to Uncle Bill there was a lot of grumbling about it both in corporate and on the assembly line..guess they knew what they were doing because sales did exceed expectations.
He had some interesting stories about the mustang and cougar as well.

[tuckersbaby]

Both GM and Ford were developing their own American sports cars ever since the end of the war. Other companies beat them to the market like Kaiser and Muntz, but Chevrolet’s entry was the first to somewhat stick. That motivated Ford to hurry up and finalize their own entry, and that itself inspired Chevrolet to beef up the powerplant with a V8. Both cars were relatively equal up until 1957 when Robert McNamara decided he didn’t like halo cars and demanded that something sell tens of thousands or get the axe. Thus cementing 10 of the 11 Thunderbird generations into the new “personal luxury” lineup and leaving the Corvette with no competition for an American sportscar until the Dodge Viper debuted.

[haroldcarlson]

My grandfather had a green one 1959 I thought it was a cool looking car inside with the seats, with a 390 motor he said he could drive at 120 miles an hour going through Arizona all day long that was back in the early sixties

[pex_the_unalivedrunk]

Let's not forget the movie Flubber!

Those rocket style tail lights have aged well, and will never look outdated! 🚀💫😍

[jaredkennedy]

One of my "someday" cars.
If I was sufficiently wealthy, I'd have a collection of so many oddball cars and trucks, mostly just on display. Like my own auto museum.

[fordmustangfan]

I have a 58 thunderbird and it is the smoothest running car I have ever had

[bussin_buses]

I love the 4-door Thunderbirds of '68-'71.

[juanherrera]

If you told AI to design this, it would design this. Those design cues are bold.

[pugliesesspeedshop]

Four seater T-Birds are when I actually started to like the Thunderbird...

[A_Cowboy_called_JackRabbit]

Wow. The '58 was definitely a visual improvement over the '57.

[audieconrad]

Perhaps the commencement of the personal luxury segment...

[MidnightRoadGarage]

Those have really grown on me over the years. Really cool interiors :).

[williamhouk]

As Walter Cronkite said, " And that's the way it is" back in 58'