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Old 07-15-2008, 09:17 AM   #19 (permalink)
wescoent
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Re: Is Huntsman Dead? Ford Rethinking It's RWD Future

Quote:
Originally Posted by igor View Post
I have heard none, and actually hope, FOrd leaves the large personal coupe market as dead as it is today - it will not come back - Mustang is the right size.

Igor
Here's the situtation with the Thunderbird.

Back in 2003-2004, Ford decided to junk DEW98 in favor of S197, and designed both a Lincoln LS and Ford Thunderbird for this new architecture. However, this is around the same time Lincoln decided it needed to get on board with AWD, and decided to design an LS replacement on D3, which later evolved into the MKS. With this development, there was no possible way to justify the volume needed to maintain a luxury-oriented S197 platform for the Thunderbird, and the plan was scrapped, leaving the Thunderbird a car designed, but without a platform.

I have heard that the Thunderbird is being revived on GRWD as a smaller and lighter 2-seat companion model to the Mustang. The design is done, and it's just a matter of tweaking it to fit on GRWD.
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