1985 Ford Thunderbird

2.3 Liter, 4 cylinder, turbocharged 2 DOOR

4 cylinder, turbocharged

T5, 5 speed manual

1FABP46W1FH189717

Clear

Normal 0 0 1 355 1530 26 1 2490 11.0 0 0 0 Normal 0 0 1 10 43 1 1 70 11.0 0 0 0 Normal 0 0 1 434 2476 20 4 3040 11.0 0 0 0 Normal 0 0 1 3375 19242 160 38 23630 11.0 0 0 0 Normal 0 0 1 3380 19268 160 38 23662 11.0 0 0 0 1985 Ford Thunderbird, turbocharged, 2.3L, 4 cylinder Normal 0 0 1 230 1313 10 2 1612 11.0 0 0 0 Search on the internet “10 Most Collectible Fords from the 80’s.” There is a reason this car is #1 on that list. This is a classic, collectible car in demand. SUMMARY on this car. This write-up will show how this classic, collectible car would also be good for a family car, or a car for just anyone. This four cylinder car is rather fuel-efficient, this write-up having a website reference where EPA says this car gets 26 miles per gallon on the freeway. This car is SAFER than many other cars for two reasons: (1) It has extra turbo power boost when needed to get out of a pinch. (2) It is big enough that it will not get squashed so flat like so many small economy cars in an accident. While a muscle car buff may well end up buying this car, this car would be a suitable fun car for just anyone. You could pay a Lot More for a 2008 car with the same less than 65,000 miles that is in as good running condition. But when you would years later go to sell that car, it would not be a classic, collectible car that keeps its price up. This car is priced low to sell. Car restorers searching for this exact car to later sell for a profit may only be willing to bid a fraction of this car’s actual value, which explains why so few bids. But anyone who wants to buy this car actually to drive it – like a classic muscle car buff, or just Anyone, can get a good price on this car. If none of the numerous Watchers to this auction makes a bid, I may just take this car off the market, because I am not going to sell it at a fraction of its value. End of Summary. Here are two other articles to learn more about this car. Search on the internet “Lost Cars of the 1980s - Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe” which includes some race track results. Also, in “Hooniverse Obscure Muscle Car Parking Garage - The Ford Turbo Coupes (Mustang SVO, T-Bird Turbo and Merkur XR4Ti)” you will see a photo of my black T-Bird on that page 4, where right under that photo it says “The Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe was the top-of-the-line model, . . .’ Turbocharging this 4 cylinder car makes it a muscle car. But when you are usually not pressing the accelerator hard for big acceleration, this is rather just a 4 cylinder economy car, getting about 26 miles per gallon. So here is a way to save money on gas, and still have lots of emergency extra power when you need it to help get out of a pinch. This is a big enough car that in a crash, it will not be squashed as flat as some economy cars. The available extra power and larger size make this safer to drive than many economy cars. But maybe all you care about is to have a true-to-life classic race car that is fun to drive. While this write-up is rather long, one of its purposes is to be complete enough, that you will feel that you already know what this car is about, perhaps without needing to take a test drive. Because I prefer that no reckless driver wrecks this race car in a test drive. Later in this write-up I will refer to the program eBay has to get a professional inspection done of a car, where they could inspect the car for you. Using the turbocharge, this car growls. This is rather like a Clark Kent – Superman thing. When you are not pressing the gas pedal hard, this car acts nice and polite. When you ARE pressing the accelerator hard, this car growls, all of a sudden it becomes bad-ass, and no one should mess with you. Back in ’85 this car in races beat cars with much bigger engines. Here is a quote from the first paragraph of the Hooniverse Obscure Muscle Car Parking Garage article referred to above: “Instead of using V8 power, these cars were equipped with a snorting, growling, turbocharged 4 cylinder engine, with outstanding handling, and monochromatic good looks.” This car is polite and has fuel efficiency when you want it, and is able to turn on a dime and immediately give you bad ass power when you need it. Normal 0 0 1 2583 14724 122 29 18082 11.0 0 0 0 Heading: NadaGuides.com to start telling us what this car is worth If you put the details of this car into the nadaguides.com website, this car at average and high condition is valued at $3,273 and $5,844. The paint and upholstery, a few other minor tweaks, etc. are below average, but the less than 65,000 miles and running so well are well above average. $3,500 is a very good price for this hard-to-find collector’s car. My Reserve Price is $2,800.00. Feel free to contact me, if you are seriously considering buying my car. I will mention that I do not keep close watch on whatever emails come in, and may get behind on emails. The best way to contact me is to phone me at my home phone at: (510) 835-1230. I do not have a cell phone. I may well be out when you phone, so kindly leave a message, and I will get back to you. Some people even leave me a phone message to look for their email, but I would have to know the email address in case my spam filter likely tries to hide that from me. Talking about the nadaguides.com high price of $5,844 three paragraphs back, the next two paragraphs here show where people have paid much more than a nadaguides.com “high price” when the car has extra low miles. Apparently the nadaguides.com price is based on the average number of miles for cars of that year. But what happens when a car has maybe one fourth the miles of the average miles nadaguides.com is presuming? For instance, this nadaguides.com website says $6,227 is the high price for a 1987 Ford T-Bird Turbo 2 Door Coupe. But look up “Hemmings Find of the Day – 1987 Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe” and that will show you this ’87 car with 46,250 miles at $9,500, over $3,000 more than nadaguide’s high price. My also-low-miles car spruced up may likewise become worth more than nadaguide’s high price of $5,844. On the internet I also happened across another such ’87 that in 2013 sold on eBay for $10,500 – but this car had even lower 13,195 miles. You can find that by going to eBay.com and typing in “290964386404” in the eBay search box at the top of the page. This car was also a turbocharged T-Bird, 4 cylinder. That 1987 T-Bird was not all that different from my 1985, but enough different to be named the 1987 Motor Trend Car of the Year. Heading: The rather similar 1987 was Motor Trend Car of the Year That is a big deal to be Car of the Year. Being "Car of the Year" helps to point out the advantages these turbocharged cars have, helping to explain why that article “10 Most Collectible Fords from the 1980’s” had all these turbocharged cars (from 1983½ to 1988) in the #1 category. These turbocharged Fords really are classic and collector’s cars. If you put $1,500 into sprucing up my T-Bird, you might be able to sell it for maybe $8,000. I will explain below how that $8,000 might be possible. It seems that the fewer miles it has, the more it can sell for above the nadaguides.com high price. The following is speculative, has no guaranty, but might be worth considering : The $10,500 T-Bird had 13,195 miles, and was about $4,200 over the nadaguides.com high price of $6,227. The $9,500 T-Bird had more miles 46,250 and was only about $3,200 over the nadaguides.com high price. So my car spruced up with 64.638 miles on that basis might be the next step lower, or about $2,200 over the nadaguides.com high price of $5,844, namely sell for maybe $8,000. If you paid $3,500 for my car, added in $1,500 to spruce it up for a total of your paying $5,000 – if you could sell that for $8,000, you would be about $3,000 ahead. You will notice that the basic idea here is that the more miles it has, the less it can add to the nadaguides.com high price. As I say, there are no guaranties on this, but does that makes sense, and seem to be about how this is working out? Maybe you would not do this to come out maybe $3,000 ahead. Maybe you would do this just because you would enjoy to have this car spruced up for some years, and be able to get into this game, by having one of these #1 collector’s cars. It would not hurt if there was some likelihood that at a later time you could always get money back on this car, by just putting this car on eBay again. I am saying that maybe you are not presently a collector. But maybe you would like to be able to bust into this game, this club, and be one more person with one of these rare turbocharged T-Birds. How do you get membership in this game, in this group? You have to own one of these cars. Here is your opportunity to get into this game. Another alternative for a non muscle car buff is to buy this car, leave it completely as-is, drive it for two years, and then sell it on eBay for maybe about the same price. Because there is nothing about this car that definitely requires any fixing up, except it is time for new tires. You can play the game and try to save maybe $50.00 competing against other bidders. If you want the car, you can skip the bidding game and just end the whole thing by doing “Buy It Now” and get the car at a very fair $3,500 price anyway. It is not as if you can wait a few days and find a low miles rare car like mine any old time. Heading: eBay itself has financing and a way for you to get this car inspected. You will notice that eBay itself has a way that you might get financing to buy a car, which is mentioned on the first page of this listing, where it says “Get low monthly payments/ get an instant decision.” You can apply for financing there before you place a bid.You can order an independent vehicle inspection of my car. This way you do not need to take my word for the condition of the car. eBay has its own trusted outside company to do vehicle inspections. When you go to place a bid, you will see a place where you can put a CHECK on “Order a vehicle inspection.” That will take you to the “Inspect My Ride” page, where that company does a 150+ point comprehensive vehicle inspection. Not that I know anything about this, I am just reading some pages on eBay. I see that they charge $129.99 for that. I encourage you to get this inspection so that you will not have any complaints that I did not list every minor tweak that could be done. It is recognized and admitted upfront that my car is something of a fixer upper, mainly on looks, and I am not listing every minor scratch or minor imperfection on the car regarding bring this up to showroom level. This purchase is as is. It is your responsibility to verify the condition of the item as described prior to purchasing. I have some reservations about potential buyers inspecting the car, if they are looking to take a test drive. I can not afford for someone to take a dangerous joyride and damage the car, perhaps while never really considering buying the car in the first place. I would rather a professional inspector come out, who is prepared for instance to buy the car if in a test drive he damages the car at all, buying the car at the “Buy It Now” price. I figure that if whoever takes a test drive Knows there will be consequences if damaging or wrecking my car, that a test driver will not feel so free to be reckless in a test drive. I think you can see that my concern here is legitimate, against any joyrider who thinks he could damage my car and then regard that politeness calls for me not to mind, as if he is my good buddy. Actually, never having seen him before, I do not feel any need quite yet to regard him as my good buddy. I realize it is a natural inclination, after reading my eBay ad, to want to see for oneself just what kind of acceleration and turbo boost this car is capable of. But I am not going to lose out because of that, my not even being willing to spend time to go out and get three bids to repair the damage, etc. I do not know anything more than that about the vehicle inspection program that eBay has available. So some professional inspector may well phone me and set up an inspection. I have never really cranked this car up. The problem is that I barely get started accelerating, and I am too soon approaching going way over the speed limit. I read on one part of the automobile-catalog.com website (shown in blue in the sixth paragraph down) that this car goes zero to 60 miles per hour in 8.5 seconds, and to 120 miles per hour in 56.3 seconds. I am quite willing for myself to do any test driving, with you or inspector along for the ride. But you too likely may think I am not cranking the car up enough. There is freeway 580 fairly close to where I live, but that is busy enough that I would usually fast overtake the car in front of me and have to stop cranking it up. There is no opportunity close by where I can show what this car can do zero to 60. There are race tracks in the area, but I have not inquired about their use. This car’s turbo acceleration may handle an emergency without taking the car to 100 miles per hour anyway. The first thing an inspector will notice is that people who want a showroom-pretty car will want new paint and some new upholstery for this car. I have waxed the car up pretty good, but when you get close to the car, you can see some rough surfaces in the paint. The paint is somewhat rough on the hood, on parts of the top of the cab, on the trunk, and on the driver’s door. Though even these rough areas still look rather shiny with the wax. If repainting the car, the present paint should be removed with paint remover or whatever. Because new paint should not be painted over that existing rough paint. So even if a muscle car buff intended to repaint this car anway with his own choice of color, repainting this car would have the extra expense of removing the present paint. But that is not all that big an expense. On the other hand a non muscle car buff who does not care that critically about the looks and mainly wants a car that runs well - - may decide the present waxed paint looks good enough as it is, and not repaint. An inspector would also notice the problem of the present upholstery not looking all that great. But this problem is just the very outer leather covering of the seats. The seats’ inner foam support will probably be recognized as fine. By putting new leather seat covers over where the leather covering below is damaged – this problem is basically handled. So an inspector may not get that upset seeing the leather is missing right where on the front seats a person sits down, because those areas can easily enough be covered once again with new leather seat covers. For the time being I have installed some inexpensive new cloth seat covers for the front seats, which makes it look a lot better. There is no upholstery on the ceiling, though the previous owner gave me some tan-brown vinyl for the ceiling upholstery. So the above is a fuller statement about paint and upholstery, if you really want to spruce these looks up closer to showroom standards. If you do not care that much about achieving showroom beauty, you might just get new seat covers, leave the paint as is, and the car will still drive as well. The following website says that the EPA says this car has 26 miles per gallon on the highway, 19 miles per gallon city, with combined 21 miles per gallon - - www.automobile-catalog.com/car/1985/875360/ford_thunderbird_turbo_coupe.html So you can see how the EPA generally presumes a lot more city driving. If you drive a lot more on the highway, your combined miles per gallon would be higher than this stated 21 miles per gallon. Heading: Previous owners I bought this car back in February, 2014 from about a twenty-year friend of mine. When this previous owner had the smog done, this car passed at a fraction of the maximum measurements allowed to pass. I have driven this car very little. The person who sold the car to me said that a cousin of his previously owned the car, where this car sat for about ten years. I personally repaired the two power windows, installing the new plastic pieces, and removing the broken plastic pieces, in the gears connected to the power window motor. The internet shows how to do that. Elsewhere they can charge even $500.00 per power window repair. The second window I did still took me about eight hours to do. I also replaced the radiator fan bypass switch and the headlight switch, easily done. (In case you are wondering “What’s with the plastic pieces?” - - that is a preplanned safety measure where the plastic pieces are designed to break, like if a person gets an arm inside the window when it is closing, or a kid has his head sticking through the window. Instead of the window keeping on closing hard on whatever is caught in between, if the window being closed meets an obstruction, the plastic pieces break, and the window stops closing.) The car runs just fine. There are several tweaks you can do on this car, with the larger tweaks being on its looks, including paint and upholstery work on the seats and ceiling. I personally did not care that this car was not all pretty, and neither did the owner before me. I mainly wanted a car that ran well. The person who sold the car to me put in several new parts, like the starter and muffler, and other things I do not remember, his knowing much more about cars than me. He told me this car should run for two or three years without needing repairs. I personally can not vouch for that, my not knowing enough about cars. He did not care about the power windows not working for him, his living in a rather secluded area by a river in cooler-temperature Oregon, where he could leave the windows closed and the car would not get too hot for him. He also had other cars, and did not need to drive just this one. Heading: No guaranty, but this car may run for two or three years without needing any repairs concerning its running. I trust what the person who sold the car to me said to me. This presumes that you will not be driving this car 50,000 miles per year, or drive it heavy in races, etc. That is enough about who I bought the car from, and everything I know about previous owners. I am not a hot rodder, and never really cranked this car up. I also just wanted a car that would not need repairs for 2 or 3 years. Why am I selling this car? Because I am short on funds. Back to what this car is, partly verified by the three above articles on the internet. Where else are you going to find a fuel efficient top-of-the-line, 4 cylinder turbocharged classic race car, with low miles? This collector’s car is going extinct, many of these cars with about 300,000 miles if still running. This powerful car is fuel efficient even to some semi-politically correct standards. I personally like to buy things on eBay with “Buy It Now,” so that I do not have to spend more time on it, and keep coming up with last minute bids, where I may still lose out to someone else. If someone buys this for $3,500 with the “Buy It Now,” I may well wonder if this otherwise could have got bid up to $4,500 or $5,500. This write-up was written with non muscle car buffs much in mind, to let them know that they do not have to be muscle car buffs to gain benefits from this car. This car has large acceleration should you need it maybe to save your life, plus is a larger car than many economy cars that get squashed flat too easily. You would have these safety benefits at every moment, while this car is also rather fuel efficient. Keep in mind from before that my car having more miles than those two 1987 T-Birds, my car may not be able to add so much to the nadaguides.com high price. The way this is possibly going- - with the fewer miles the car has, the more gets added to the nadaguides.com high price - - if my car gets about $2,200 added to its nadaguides.com high price, if spruced up possibly later it might be sold on eBay for about $8,000. This car will probably end up being sold to a muscle car buff, which would be quite fine with me, being that I also have a lot of respect for them. A muscle car buff can also be interested in the fact that this car is more fuel efficient than many other muscle cars. I own this car outright. If you buy this car, it would be for you to get this car transported to where you live. Heading: Shipping the vehicle to you. I quote from a later page, after you click on the first page where it says “Shipping: Buyer responsible for vehicle pick-up or shipping | Vehicle shipping quote available.” A later page will say: Great shipping rates for eBay customers uShip & eBay have partnered to bring you the best shipping rates So that would definitely be convenient, if you can get the best shipping rates by using this convenient eBay-related service. Connected to this you will see: “Need help? Call 1-800-264-7447.” On a later page, as you provide information, it will give you these choices: “I will consider bids for the following service types: Enclosed Transport Open Transport Drive Away Tow Away” So you can get shipping bids for just one or ALL of these possible choices, like if you want someone to drive the car to you, or put it on an open truck, etc. I do not have any personal experience that these are the best shipping rates, but if they are anywhere close, this would definitely be convenient, and this includes a connection to eBay which helps guaranty high quality service. So why did I include this shipping information? Because one person who phoned me about my car wondered how the heck he was supposed to get my car to him. So I am just going an extra step to try to remove any headaches about all this for you. Thanks for looking at my auction!