Very oddly optioned 83 Heritage (mine) Reply #15 – February 03, 2017, 01:13:18 PM so here are the timeline parts i can easily verify:Car was Built 4/22/83Car was sold to the selling dealership 4/26/83Car was acquired "used" with 45 miles per original paperwork on 6/28/83I spoke with the original owner last night, the car was seen at the Mello Yello 300 on May 29 which changes the narrative of the story and now his story makes sense. I found a video of the actual race, featuring a 1983 Bird as the pace car.......not mine, lol.I do not think this was a retail customer order. I have a feeling the dealership was a high volume seller and was badly in need of a demo car, which is why it was hastily rushed off the line. Its the barest boned optioned Heritage/Elan i have ever personally seen. Quote Selected
Very oddly optioned 83 Heritage (mine) Reply #16 – February 03, 2017, 01:55:14 PM Quote from: MY83T;459091I do not think this was a retail customer order. I have a feeling the dealership was a high volume seller and was badly in need of a demo car, which is why it was hastily rushed off the line. Its the barest boned optioned Heritage/Elan i have ever personally seen.Notice the order type is "FLEET", which is customers(companies, munilities etc) that purchase at least five vehicles per year... That would account for the odd options, especially the digital dash delete as it would have given some credit... Maybe enough to pay for block heater? BUT note the heater isn't on the Marti report, maybe added at sale?(customers tend to "forget" these things) Since the dealership apparently still owned it original order must have been refused/cancelled...Vehicles are rarely "rushed" off the line, just about takes a home office(Dearborn) directive... Quote Selected
Very oddly optioned 83 Heritage (mine) Reply #17 – February 03, 2017, 10:43:43 PM Quote from: TurboCoupe50;459092Notice the order type is "FLEET", which is customers(companies, munilities etc) that purchase at least five vehicles per year... That would account for the odd options, especially the digital dash delete as it would have given some credit... Maybe enough to pay for block heater? BUT note the heater isn't on the Marti report, maybe added at sale?(customers tend to "forget" these things) Since the dealership apparently still owned it original order must have been refused/cancelled...Vehicles are rarely "rushed" off the line, just about takes a home office(Dearborn) directive...The block heater was added by the dealer for the original owner, so mystery solved there. I am going to theorize that per the old mans telling of the story, 30+ Birds were hastily pulled from the line to be ready for the May 28/29 racing weekend and sent to the dealer for sales and demo for the Ford Promotional weekend. The sell to dealer date does not necessarily confirm the actual date the dealership took possession of the car. The fleet order could have been Ford marketing sending a group of cars to be shown for the promo and to be sold from dealer stock right after the event as my car was. He claimed (and i believe) that Ford execs were all over Charlotte for that race weekend and the cars were driven all over locally by Ford VIPS and their wives to create "visibility" for the Thunderbird launch. I emailed a photographer with extensive archives of that era of racing and he is checking if he has any behind the scenes pics of the promo cars. It would be awesome if he had pics of the cars at the event. Quote Selected
Very oddly optioned 83 Heritage (mine) Reply #18 – February 04, 2017, 10:20:36 AM Well we'll probably never know the full story...My high option, but no power steering Cobra Jet was built in Oct '68, not sold till Dec '69 apparently set on dealers lot for over a year... The '03 Marauder I had was bought back by Mercury as original owner claimed it used oil(that as far as I could tell from oasis reports was unfounded) ... Was resold at auction when less than a year old sans warranty... That buyer had it approx five years till a tree fell on it... Was repaired by a unknown and sold to kid in Chitown that installed the supercharger... I bought it with 42K mi at approx 2/3 value as it had a rebuilt title, but approx $5K in supercharger upgrades... The car was better than average as most all had paint issues on roof, mine had been repainted... Only things actually replaced was hood, windshield and header panel... Quote Selected
Very oddly optioned 83 Heritage (mine) Reply #19 – February 04, 2017, 10:43:07 AM Weird stuff happens all the time in car sales. According to the Marti Report on my Thunderbird it was sold by Drew Ford out of La Mesa Ca. in March of 1988. However my dad's cousin bought the car new at Magic Ford located in Santa Monica, CA in July of 1988, according to the stack of paperwork I have. My car must have been a dealer trade. I have every receipt related to my Thunderbird (repair work, etc) going back to July of 1988. Quote Selected
Very oddly optioned 83 Heritage (mine) Reply #20 – February 04, 2017, 12:29:43 PM Quote from: thunderjet302;459107Weird stuff happens all the time in car sales. According to the Marti Report on my Thunderbird it was sold by Drew Ford out of La Mesa Ca. in March of 1988. However my dad's cousin bought the car new at Magic Ford located in Santa Monica, CA in July of 1988, according to the stack of paperwork I have. My car must have been a dealer trade. I have every receipt related to my Thunderbird (repair work, etc) going back to July of 1988.Yep, was a Talladega over in Portsmouth VA that selling dealer was Blythe Ford in Franklin, but was bought from Beach Ford in Va Beach... Story was buyer didn't want the blue 'dega at Beach(only one they received) but agreed to take a white one, Beach got the white 'dega from Blythe... I'll guess Beach didn't tell customer there was a white one in Franklin(about 40mi from Portsmouth & 60mi from Va Beach)... Quote Selected
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