1963 buick riviera and 1963 ford thunderbird

1963 BUICK RIVIERA AND 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD WINDOWS

Sales for 1969 reflected this miss: just 14,666 Marauders were produced, of which only 5,635 were the X-100 variant. Despite featuring a standard “handling suspension,” MT editors opined that the Mercury felt massive and not particularly “special” inside-a lethal combination for a Personal Luxury car. Motor Trend’s test car was the X-100 model, which looked like a bit like super-sized Muscle Car in formal garb, with flat black paint on the rear deck. The result was sort of a jumbo semi-sporty 2-door hardtop, with market positioning similar to that of the relatively slow-selling ’68 Pontiac Grand Prix. So for 1969, the division responded with the Marauder, a variation of the full-size line that combined Marquis styling and interior cues with the more aggressive roofline from the Ford Galaxie 500 XL SportsRoof.

The ongoing success of the Thunderbird in the “Upper Middle” market must have irked Mercury, especially since the division had nothing comparable to serve up in the booming Personal Luxury segment. With sales of 33,577 for the 2-door models (the 4-door accounted for an additional 15,650 units), the Thunderbird remained a key player in the segment and undoubtedly feathered Ford’s profit nest. However, the cocoon-like interior laden with gizmos was exactly on target for the segment, and there was no doubt that the T-Bird still came across as a unique suburban status symbol.

1963 BUICK RIVIERA AND 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD WINDOWS

Less desirable were the newly enclosed c-pillars on the Landau 2-door that eliminated the rear quarter windows and made for one of the biggest blind spots imaginable. For 1969, the most premium Ford available was in the 3 rd (and final) year of the 5 th Generation “Glamour Birds.” While the overall design wasn’t brand new, the Thunderbird Motor Trend tested did have a key new feature introduced for 1969: the sliding sunroof. The Thunderbird of course was the one that “started it all” in the Personal Luxury category, when the 4-seat “Square Birds” were introduced for 1958. Though both the Eldorado and Continental Mark III were highly successful, they were also noticeably more expensive, with base prices around 39% higher than the more “mainstream” personal luxury cars-equating to a $1,900 price bump before options (~$12,500 adjusted). Motor Trend put each of these through the paces in February 1969, and ranked the upscale Personal Luxury players.Ībsent from the comparison test were the “ultra-high-end” Personal Luxury cars from Cadillac and Lincoln. Detroit was more than happy to serve-up swanky, semi-sporty 2-doors to fill those desires, and 1969 welcomed back familiar faces from Buick, Ford and Oldsmobile, as well as a totally revamped entrant-the Pontiac Grand Prix, along with a new offering from Mercury-the Marauder. (first posted ) As the 1960s came to a close, ever increasing numbers of upwardly mobile Americans were looking to make a style statement with a new Personal Luxury car.

1963 buick riviera and 1963 ford thunderbird