Looking at a 2002 Thunderbird. Price is somewhat low for a Bird with 38k miles.. Don't what to buy a flood car or one that had damage. VIN 1FAHP60A72Y114890 Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Norm
She will love one Norm, I had one and it's been one of my favorite 2 seaters I have owned. Comfortable, very decent performance and just fun to own. I loved traveling in mine. If this one doesn't work out I would recommend a 2003-05 as they had substantial HP gain, heated seats and select shift as well as some other upgrades although it is hard to beat a couple of the 02 only color combinations. The only issue with mine was a common one where to coil packs go, I had one go out and just went ahead and replace all 8 and then never had another issue. I sold mine and a couple of the other cars before moving to Florida as the cost of getting them down to FL and Florida's fairly expensive wheels on the road cost would have added up to enough it was cheaper to sell them and replace them. I had 38K on mine when I sold it and sold it for a hefty amount. I have been considering another one as well but it's a bit hard to justify a 3rd 2 seater lol .
Keith, this is one of the cars I've been looking at. I may contact you for some advice when I find one to consider ... the right mileage, color and options, etc.
I love the rarer color combos, I will either look for one exactly like I had or a 007, Pacific Coast or a Steel Blue with the special steel blue & black interior and top. I am not real fond of the color of the Cashmere Annv edition but probably would not pass one up. Mine was one of 295 Whisper white with the full red accent package out of 14,678 built in 2003, whisper white was not available after that.
The Bird had a dirty CarFax. No surprise. I heard they had issues with the coil packs. Still a very nice ride.
I read somewhere that one of their computer modules is very problematic and no new ones are available. UticaGeoff
There are aftermarket suppliers as well as refurbished ones available. I never saw it as an overly common issue
Between the 2002 & 203 editions of the t-bird, Ford made over 100 fixes, upgrades, changes. My buddy owns a 2003, red/red. It has the Jaguar powertrain. I drove the car when from London to Windsor and that car would fly! The only thing he changed was nicer wheels & better tires. He traded a '56 t-bird on this car at a Ford dealer almost 10 years ago. As stated above buy a 2003 or newer.
I added a K&N air cleaner and it really opened it up and sounded great. I drove a few 2002's when I first started looking at them as I wanted the Inspiration Yellow with the full yellow interior trim package, but when I drove a couple 2003's I was blown away with the difference in performance plus I really like the heated seats, when I travel it helps my back. The Select Shift was kind of fun as well.
First of all, it is best to dial a local dealer for this. The most important thing is a clean carfax. For the purchase I first find out the free vehicle history report by vin and if I do not have enough information then I am provided with full reports on used cars history . I think I was useful
