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Morning News

Ford Resurrects the T-Bird

Aired August 18, 2000 - 11:39 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The Ford Thunderbird evolved over the years from an ultra-cool coupe to what some considered a stodgy sedan. That was until Ford finally put the T-Bird on the extinct list. Today, Ford resurrects the American classic.

And Ed Garsten, our bureau chief, up there in the Motor City, brings us up to date on what's happening on this car.

Hey, Ed, good morning.

ED GARSTEN, CNN DETROIT BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning to you, Bill.

You know, could I be a car salesman for a minute?

HEMMER: Please, sure.

GARSTEN: I'm going to be a -- I see you in this thing. I see you in this thing.

HEMMER: Come on, well, let's see what it looks like first.

GARSTEN: It's a cream puff. And at a sticker price of only $41,995, I'm sure we could work out the payments.

HEMMER: Look at that thing.

GARSTEN: That's right. Well, the version you're seeing is a concept version of the production model that everyone will be able to buy that can afford one next spring. But what Ford also revealed today out in Pebble Beach, California, is a special edition. They're actually going to offer this new T-Bird, 200 of them, through the Neiman-Marcus Christmas catalogue. So you might want to dog-ear that page. They'll start becoming available on September 25 for that price.

HEMMER: The price?

GARSTEN: The price for the production model hasn't been set yet.

HEMMER: One could probably log on the Internet and pick it up. Convertible, model here, is that right?

GARSTEN: Ah, well, this -- the red one you see is a convertible. The Neiman-Marcus is... HEMMER: Yes, this is a yellow one we're seeing right now.

GARSTEN: OK, you're seeing the yellow one, that's also a concept version of the production model. Pictures of the black one haven't been revealed yet in video form. There have been some little slides and little photos. But it's black, it's got a silver top, it's got silver leather. It has the -- though, 99 percent, we're told, I talked to the designer within the last hour, he said about 99 percent of that concept version is in the production model.

There'll be egg crate grill port-hole windows, after-burner taillights, removable hard top, all reminiscent of the original, real cool, T-Birds from the '50s and '60s, nothing like those stodgy boats that came out near the end of its life.

HEMMER: Let me ask you something, Ed, I mean, you've followed the motor industry in Detroit quite closely, why is there this desire to go retro? why do they think it sells? I remember the PT Cruiser, when it came out through Chrysler, very popular, especially on the West Coast.

GARSTEN: Well, it's funny, you just said the dirty word here in the Motor City: "retro." They said: do not call this retro, it's just art, and we're updating, basically, art. They said: do not call this retro, although obviously it is. It looks like an old car. But they feel that there's a backlash against the SUVs, against, you know, these big, trucky things that baby boomers want to look back, and those beyond the baby boomers want to look back at the cars that were important to them when they were younger. They had their memories. They came of age in those cars, and now they want an updated version.

HEMMER: Are they getting a gauge, or giving you an idea what they expect for sales on these models?

GARSTEN: Well, when I talked to designer Jim Hayes (ph), he said, basically, we expect to sell everything we make. The production levels haven't been set yet, nor the price. But he said, we do not expect to have any backlog of these things at all, they're going to fly out the door.

HEMMER: All right, we'll track it, Ed Garsten, from Detroit, thanks, Ed.

GARSTEN: You bet.

HEMMER: Interesting look there.

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