Love driving this fun car. Maintenance has been an issue and will probably only get worse... Item: Like most modern cars, there are no grease points in the suspension. So when the little rubber boots that cover the joints rot away, there's no way to lubricate the suspension, and the parts start to grind against each other. Out $4k to replace the front and rear suspension. Had them do the struts too since they had to take everything else out. Item: Many parts no longer available. The accelerator pedal switches failed. No Ford or aftermarket replacement to be found. Good news: found one at a salvage yard. Bad news: it's the same age as the one it replaced. Item: Crack in the windshield? Stay away from any chain that rhymes with "Chafe-Bite." Replacing the windshield means removing the frame. Very few of their techs are trained on how to do this.

Purchased our '05 retro bird from a seller on Long Island 3 years ago and took a 4,000-mile epic road trip home to Utah. It had 9,000 miles on it when we left the seller's house on Long Island, 13,000 when we pulled in the driveway at home. It performed flawlessly on the road trip. It was remarkably comfortable and roomy. It really is a pleasure to drive and travel in on a road trip. My wife, who is "a delicate lady," never once complained about the ride or comfort in the cabin on the 2 week 4,000-mile drive home. As we approached with our bag of groceries, a man standing next to the Bird in the supermarket parking lot in Martha's Vineyard said it as well as anyone, "I'm not a Ford man but I really like this car." This TBird is the first car I have owned where complete strangers have approached me and commented on it's good looks. I lost track of how many people did that on our trip home from Long Island. Our '05 is black on black and Ford only made about 5,000 of those that year. I've never seen another one on the road. It's truly a gleaming black beauty. Not a lick of trouble, runs beautifully and the factory exhaust note is magic. It's still 100% original except for the tires, the original tires looked fine with only 13,000 miles on them, but the tire store wouldn't work on a slow leak on one of the tires because of their age, so new Michelins. My only disappointment is that Ford did not offer a manual transmission on these, but I guess I'm in a small minority of drivers who cares about that. In good weather I try to take it out once a month to run some errands or take a Sunday drive, to make sure everything is working and keep the battery charged. Though it is fun to drive, it is also just a joy to look at in the garage. Like looking at a piece of art, a painting or sculpture. I put about 300 or 400 miles per year on it and after 3 years of ownership, so far so good. It goes to the dealer once a year for an oil change and service check. I've seen retro Birds for sale where owners have updated the sound system with aftermarket stuff that probably has satellite radio, nav, etc. I get the motivation to do that, but to me it's a sacrilege, defacing a classic. I have a gizmo that plugs into the lighter outlet and converts the Bluetooth signal from an iPhone to an FM signal the radio picks up and plays; that works fine. But mostly I just plug CDs in with classic 50's music, that seems most appropriate and adds to the ambiance. It never leaves the garage unless the weather is suitable for top-down driving.

I fell in love with this car the first time I saw the new retro styling. I procrastinated pulling the trigger on buying one and then heard Ford was discontinuing it after the 2005 50th Anniversary model. I thought I missed the boat, but luckily I spotted one still on the lot on a trip to Wisconsin. I immediately purchased it and I now have 22,000 miles on it. I keep it in a heated garage during the winter and only exercise it on clear days in the winter. During the summer it only leaves the garage when the top can be down. This is a terrific cruising machine. It's not high performance like some other models, but it has plenty of power to get around when called upon. I can't take it anywhere without people commenting on how cool it looks. I was six years old when it was first introduced in 1955 and I still remember how cool people thought it was back then. As the Beach Boys sang, this is the "T Bird that daddy took away!' Forever cool!