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Released
from plant May 21
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Story of our first day with our car... or ...the blue eagle has landed.
After making our order on March 3, 2001, our car
has finally arrived:
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| The night before we had held a short
vigil hoping to catch the transport truck delivering our 'bird - it was
not to be - we left before it arrived as George wanted some sleep, soo...
the next morning:
I arrived at Don Davis Auto Group - Ford - in
Arlington, Texas at 8:30 a.m. on June 6, just as the gates were being opened.
Bruce Jones (our salesman) had told them not to start prep on my car 'til
after I had taken my pictures. I poured over the car, getting pictures
of labels, dirt, etc... collecting labels, plastic, etc... sat in
the car... Finally left after 1 hour 30 minutes as I did want them
to prep the car so we could take it home that day!
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This is the odometer reading as it sat in the lot before prep. By the time we picked it up, it had 7 more miles on it as our salesman checked it out and gassed it up. In the next picture, lavender valve stem caps are being placed on the tires - lavender goes well with the Thunderbird blue - very "in" color combo right now. The cars come in with various cap colors but ours was missing one so decided to dress them up - took covers off of other cars in the lot to make them all match - sorry, I'm not a total purist but will document what we did. The originals were as black as the stems. Our new "baby" had already spent some time in the "hospital" by the time we arrived in the afternoon to finalize the paperwork. During Bruce's checkout, the air conditioner ran full blast & wouldn't shut off, seems it had a loose connection which was tightened by the service department so that's it's first service tag hanging in the window. We wanted to see if the soft top had water on
it so part of our orientation with the car included taking the hardtop
off and checking out the soft top. It had small puddles of water
on both sides. Remember to do this with your own 'bird. George
put the car's first CD in it. Nothing but Thunderbird songs.
George got to listen to it all the way home.
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We were there 3 hours and that's another story, too. I had forgot to bring our checkbook (had everything else we needed) so had to make a trip home (1 hour round trip). Meanwhile Bruce oriented George with the car and George took care of the paperwork with the financial officer, 'til I returned to make the final payment and sign, too. Bruce did an excellent job of familiarizing George with the car. He had been planning to take off on vacation late that afternoon but stayed with us 'til we left, never in any appearance to hurry us along. Wonderful job, Bruce! Hope you enjoy the Grand Canyon. |
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That's us with our new car. Of course, took several photos with Bruce in them. Finally left the dealership at 4:00 and were safely home by 4:30. For those of you thinking that "I" would be the one to drive the car home, you're wrong. You should have seen the grin on George's face when I told him he could drive it home. FYI - We paid MSRP & no more as did all their other customers for 2002 Thunderbirds. |
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Finally it was my turn to drive. I took off with it for my quilt bee that evening and of course offered everyone there a short drive. Don't think it's as much fun with the hardtop on but they all got to sit in the car on it's first day with all that new car & new leather smell. Don't know which they enjoyed more, the new car or my excitement over the new car. I did discover that the computer did not like my driving habits especially at the low speeds of a suburban neighborhood. It would confuse that transmission so hope it figures me out as I put more miles on it. Day 2: Today is June 7 and George is off showing it off at work. The VP offered him his space for parking there today - months ago-- and repeated the offer yesteerday. Wonder just how much work George will get done today and who gets to go to lunch with him?? |
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Sequence # is 8588 found in 2 spots, front lip of trunk lid and driver's side inner front fender. |
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| When George finally arrived home from work, he
had another saga to tell. First the prime parking spot that he was
offered has a resident mourning dove. After showing fellow workers
the car 3 times, and 3 times finding bird "gifts" on the top, he decided
to move it from under covered parking to a safer spot out in the hot sun.
When he left to come home, he discovered that his car had been "TP'd with crepe paper in white and turquoise. |
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| Day 3 - a Saturday. Took the car to the
Big D Little Birds weekly breakfast to show it off. Lots of oohs
and ahhs and the usual raising of the hood. I drove today, by the
way, as George had work to do at the office. It is a joy to drive
but it is different than driving the car that I've driven for the past
12 years. Loved the sound system and the blind spots aren't near
as bad as the reports by others have said. Both our 57 and the LeBaron
have much larger blind spots.
In the evening we decided to look for a car show we had heard about. Found it and decided to enter the car. Well... what do you know! - only 2 other cars in its class that we could find - 1986 and newer. We won so now the car has entered it's first show and won it's first trophy and received it's first dash plaque. It's rather embarrassing to take a brand new car into a show like that but it was spur of the moment. |
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| Day 4 - Sunday - Partied in the late afternoon with our Classic T-bird friends. The cars lined the cul-de-sac by our friend's home. Had two 2002 'birds show up, ours and a red with white top. Just about everyone came out to check out mine since it was the newest and most had never seen the blue color. Think I have another 'bird sold. There were about 8 classic t-birds and numerous other cars. That'll probably be it for getting the 'bird out this week. We were rained on going home and while at the party - short rains but wet none-the-less - the car needs a bath now. | ||||||
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© 2002 Dot Lang
Con tact
Web page Design/Photos/graphics by Dot
unless otherwise noted
NOT affiliated with FoMoCo
