Ford’s Personal Luxury Car
Ford, over the last half century, has occasionally introduced cars that are just a little different than what was being offered by the competition. The Mustang, for example, created the genre of “pony cars.” Recently, Ford introduced the Flex—not really an SUV, not a station wagon, certainly not a minivan—it’s, well, a Flex. In 1955, Ford reacted to the Corvette with a car initially intended to compete with Chevrolet’s sports car, but instead of creating a sports car, they created the “personal luxury car.” A look into the history of the Thunderbird gives some insight into how one major automobile company, Ford, plans and how it reacts to sales and outside influences. Over time, the Thunderbird grew from “Baby Bird,” to “Square Bird,” to “Round Bird” and finally to a car that had little resemblance to its origins.
The early idea for the Thunderbird actually came well before the Corvette. George Walker, an industrial designer and Ford consultant, was with Lewis Crusoe, head of the Ford division, at the Paris Salon in October 1951. According to Karl Ludvigsen’s article on early Thunderbirds in
