The 2000 – 2004 eleventh-gen Ford Thunderbird was never a widely appreciated vehicle, as everybody had some bone to pick with it. Nevertheless, it’s not an ugly car, although it was never the design and styling that plagued it.
It was the age of the New Beetle and the New MINI and while we do look back now with an uncertain grimace, these cars, including the T-bird got people talking. Even Nissan was trying a modern Mini interpretation, and it got much closer to the original than the Germans, with its 1993 – 2002 Micra.
But back to the Thunderbird, launched in 2000, it captured the stylistic essence of its long lineage and with a Lincoln-esque interior it even tried to be an American luxury contender.
However, as this NSFW review by RCR points out, it wasn’t really built to the highest standard and it somehow lacked a bit of substance, which is why we don’t hold it in highest regard today. They basically sum it up as an oddball statement model that can neither really be loved nor hated.