So as some of you may know, my F-150 and Mustang were bought strictly as "toys" and my goal has been to keep both forever and to one day leave them to my son as low mileage, pristine examples of Fords from this era. However, lately I have been thinking that it might be cool to replace the F-150 in this equation with a late-model T-bird instead, since there are quite a few around with ultra-low miles on them for about the same money as a mid-sized new car would run.

So here are some options:

- Keep the F-150 & the Mustang and forget about the T-bird. Pros to this would be that I already have both and both are completely paid-off, leaving me money to mod and improve the vehicles the way I would like to.

- Use the F-150 to replace my daily driver Ranger when it starts to fail and use the money I would have spent on its replacement to buy the T-bird instead. Cons to this would be the gas mileage factor of moving from a 4-banger Ranger to a F-150 with the 5.4, plus the fact that I would lose the efforts I have already put into the truck to get it set-up the way I like and keep it nice.

- Keep the F-150 and the Mustang and put the T-bird idea on the "back burner" for awhile, purchasing it five or so years down the road after I have bought the replacement for my Ranger. Pros to this would be that I would now have three "toy cars" (instead of two) to enjoy over the years and eventually leave to my son. Cons to this would be that storage becomes a problem once I get to three "toy cars" (I'd have to rent a stall somewhere) and the odds of finding a low-mileage, pristine T-bird will go down every year as we move along.

So, given the three options above, what would you do....???

 

will you adopt me?


but to answer your question i would go with the first option, im not a fan of the tbirds and i think the money could be best spent elswhere

 

If you bought the vehicles as toys with the intent of keeping them for a long time, then I would definately go with the first option.

 

Forget about the T-Bird. They're overpriced, underpowered, and not that cool anyways. Anybody with a low mileage car thinks that they will be worth a fortune and will be asking a similar price.

 

i say option one cuz i freakin love your truck. Tbirds are iffy. A lot of them are in rough shape, and yes theyre collectible, but the muscle scene i think is growing a lot faster than the classic tbird scene. Option 1 i think is your best bet. You would be dumping a lot of money into an old tbird, and it would just be an old tbird. You can dump less money into either the stang or f150, and make it a lot more than just a plain ol f150 or stang.

 

Option #2 is the closest thing I'd do. I love the late model T-Birds, and what kid wouldn't want a unique two-seater? So, you use the F150 up...you get to enjoy it while gas is only $3.50 a gallon,(realistically, that's probably only a couple of weeks) plus it will be a lot easier to find a nice used F150 down the road to replace it if you had to. If I could swing it, I'd get a maroon Bird with the camel colored soft top.

MR

 

He doesn't want an old T-Bird, he wants one of the newer ones. 2003ish I think.

 

OH, in that case, definitly not a tbird

 

Recent T-Birds, the ones based off the Lincoln LS chassis, were junk. Avoid at all costs.

 

If you have a 4 banger Ranger for a DD, I'd run it till the wheels fall off, put the wheels back on, and run it some more. No way would I step up to a F-150 with a 5.4 for DD duties with gas doing what it's doing now. Keep it for a toy and for when you need a real truck to do something.

 

But he doesn't even use his F-150 as a real truck... It's an 05 with less than 1,000 miles if I remember right.

 

Wow -- there's not a lot of love around here for the T-bird, is there.......

Actually, I've never driven one, but have heard that one of the downfalls of the vehicle was the fact that the LS V8 that they put in it was pretty anemic. For me that wouldn't be a huge drawback, since I have the Mustang for when I want to go fast. The T-bird would just be a cruiser.

Personally, I'm leaning towards option #3, betting that the T-birds are going to end up being a lot like the '77 Vettes that everyone bought back in the day and tucked away in their garages thinking they were going to be worth big money in 20 years. If so, there just might be some pristine examples out there ten years after production that will be sold under duress because the guy's wife has finally thrown him out on the curb for the last time.......

 

77 vettes aint worth a ****.

 

Option one, mod away !!

PS: I just ordered most of my suspension stuff !!

 

Get the TBird. It's a wimp's vehicle. Fits you quite nicely!