Wheel Deal: September

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T-Birds Shooed From Showroom

'05 Mustang Is Hot; Hyundai's Quality Fix

By Art Garcia

Overall, retro models have done well, including Volkswagen’s new Beetle, which created a stir in 1997 but has seen sales drop to less than half of what they were at their 1999 peak. One retro that has gone ballistic is Ford’s restyled 2005 Mustang, all new but with lines that recall the 1960s and1970s models.
    Chrysler’s PT Cruiser, built on the Neon chassis, has been a retro success with yearly sales of 100,000 or more since its debut in 2000 and is on track to repeat that number this year. Due out in a few months is the 2006 Chevrolet HHR, a small five-door wagon that seats five, reminiscent of a downsized 1949 Chevy Suburban.
    But it is Ford’s revived Thunderbird — former 2002 “Car of the Year” courtesy of the Detroit Auto Show and Motor Trend magazine — that’s been retroed to no return, partly because it had too few features and too much of a drive-away price at more than $40,000. Ford has said T-Bird production is scheduled to end with this calendar year.
    The T-Bird has had a long and checkered history; it’s a car in search of an identity. From the 1955 classic, introduced to compete with Chevy’s Corvette, to the design variations that at one time had it the size of the Queen Mary, Ford didn’t seem to know what it wanted the T-Bird to be or for which market.
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