I agree, Ford should bring it back. But how they would go about doing so remains to be seen.
One of the curious dilemmas ever since the Mustang came out in 64 1/2, is that Ford didn't want any car to compete with it in terms of a sports car oriented vehicle. The 55-57 T-Birds were Ford's answer to the Corvette, and though the 4 seater in '58 was a clear compromise to the Corvette's niche oriented market, I've felt that the late 50's and early-mid 60's T-Birds still had that classic blend of sportiness, luxury and prestige that put it in a special, but diverse category of vehicle. After the Mustang came out, it was why the late 60's T-Birds started getting bigger and more like a Lincoln, and why the 70's-mid 70's ones suffered from being a slightly sportier variant of a Torino or LTD.
Another way to look at it is that when the Cougar came out, it originally was an executive's, upscale Mustang, but it too suffered the same fate as the T-Bird, and the two became aligned with the same platform, where it was a junior Lincoln. In some ways, i'm kind of surprised that they may not have axed the Thunderbird somewhere in between '78-'82. The Aero coupe was a tremendous idea, as was the SC, but the SC's problem (as we've found) is that they're so ahead of their time, but also with that comes the added penalty of what happens when those complicated cars break down, start rusting, and as they start losing their value: the scrapyard unfortunately beckons all too often.
The other curious idea--if Ford were to reintroduce the TBird--would probably how they'd establish it as a luxury car, seeing as that most modern sedans have a high degree of luxury already (power everything, GPS, Bluetooth, etc). In many ways, a luxury-esque car probably wouldn't be a moneymaker in this day and age.....you'd have to compete with Lexus, Lincoln, Cadillac on a legitimate level of almost no compromise, and with it would come a huge pricetag. In that sense, if Ford did re-introduce the Bird, i'd like to see it as a very high end, very high powered car that would be 50 grand or more, with little compromise. It would have to be almost Corvette type fast, but offer high end luxury. To draw a parallel, I think that Cadillac had lost their way in the 80's, by diluting their brand (Cimarron, etc, not to mention the HT4100 was one of the worst engines of all time), and they've restored their name in the last decade or two. Their string of disasters could have easily followed the Thunderbird's demise, I think.
