Word: thunderbird
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...vacant lot in northeast Philadelphia. Moments before, a homeless and dying man named Gary had vomited. The stench and nausea were dulled only by exhaustion and the cold. Gary, wheezing noisily, his lips dripping with puke, was the last to drink from the half-gallon jug of Thunderbird before passing it on, but no one seemed to care. There was no way to avoid the honor of downing the last few drops. It was an offer to share extended by those with nothing, and there was no time to think about the sores on the lips of the previous drinkers...
...most automakers were copying. Ford chose to jump way ahead, taking the risk that it might come up with another Edsel. Instead, Ford's roundish, so-called jelly- bean designs have enticed car buyers who had abandoned domestic makes for more voguish foreign nameplates. First came the restyled 1983 Thunderbird and Cougar coupes and the new 1984 Ford Tempo and Mercury Topaz compacts. When the Taurus (base price: $10,650) and Sable rolled out last December, they became instantly trendy among an important target group: young professionals and growing families. Ford expects to sell about 325,000 of the cars...
...hard-drinking hobo, fortified wines like Thunderbird and Night Train are the beverages of choice. On Jan. 1, the city of Portland, Oregon, with firm backing from Mayor Bud Clark, banned the sale of the firewater in the Skid Road area downtown. Trouble is, the street people began migrating to tonier uptown neighborhoods to buy their favorite drinks, unnerving well- heeled shoppers and merchants...
...company that appears to have capitalized most successfully on new buyer trends is Ford. It revamped virtually its entire car line in a risky bet that customers would respond to sensuously rounded shapes characteristic of European models. So far the gamble has paid off. The Thunderbird, one of the most radically restyled, is selling 61% faster than a year ago, and sales of its sister car, the Mercury Cougar, have doubled since...
...manufacturer hopes to claim an 18% market share in 1984, up from 16.8% in 1982. Ford, which held 22.8% of the domestic market as recently as 1978, unveiled a slimmed-down Continental Mark VII ($22,231) this month. The company has been betting heavily on its streamlined Ford Thunderbird ($13,093) sports coupe, introduced with its Mercury Cougar twin in February, and on the compact Ford Tempo ($7,557)-Mercury Topaz line that arrived last May. Ford said Thunderbird accounted for 2.6% of all U.S. auto sales in September. The Tempo-Topaz entry recorded an 88% sales gain...