Thunderbird is effectively gone...again. A final date has already been set for its discontinuation. It's in the summer sometime, May or June I think. This means that the Thunderbird nameplate is officially up for usage on a new car in the future. My personal guess is that we'll hear something significant well before the end of the decade. Actually having a car built before the end of the decade is a much greater stretch but is still very possible, though something would have to be heard within the next year or two. As for what that car might be, my guess is as good as anyones' but I see three distinct possibilities.
One, the most likely possibility I think, the Thunderbird goes back to a design formula like that of the '80s Fox body and '90s MN12 Thunderbirds. Something a little more luxurious and roomier than a Mustang but not without noteworthy performance. GTO-esque in a way maybe. Base it on a stretched Mustang platform but give it an IRS. I know Ford's people decided that an IRS wouldn't have given the Mustang a great advantage in handling over going without but this is for the
Thunderbird. A smooth ride is just as important as handling and the added feature gives something major to differentiate the car from the Mustang, just as it was from 1989 to 1997.
Two, the Thunderbird goes back to the formula of the original, and no, not in styling. The Thunderbird becomes a true sports car again, being a competitor to the likes of the Corvette. It almost isn't a real stretch of the imagination to use the fruits of those high performance concepts (Cobra, GR-1 concepts) Ford's been working on as a basis for a new Thunderbird. Someone could say "it wouldn't look like a Thunderbird" but then what does a Thunderbird look like? Throughout the decades, the only thing that has remained consistent on the Thunderbird has been RWD, a two-door coupe design, some kind of upscale look or set of features, a performance element, often in the form of an available V8, and, perhaps above all else, some kind of version of this symbol:
The Thunderbird has had no truly consistent styling theme and many fundamental features have changed in availability over the years. Overall, the Thunderbird seems unlikely to become an all-out sports car for one reason or another, but, at the same time, I feel like I shouldn't rule it out.
Finally, possibility three, the most simple possibility to describe, the Thunderbird takes on a totally different form becoming something no one would expect (as in something that isn't a coupe, RWD, etc.).
All of these possibilities work on the assumption that another Thunderbird will be built to begin with. One can never truly say what will happen but I think another Thunderbird is imminent. The name has a rich heritage and has brought Ford success on many occasions.