Ford Thunderbird (fifth generation) Ford Thunderbird (fifth generation) The fifth generation of the Ford Thunderbird is a large personal luxury car that was produced by Ford for the 1967 to 1971 model years. This fifth generation saw the second major change of direction for the Thunderbird. The Thunderbird had fundamentally remained the same in concept through 1966, even though the styling had been updated twice. The introduction of the Ford Mustang in early 1964 had, however, challenged the Thunderbird's market positioning. It, like the Thunderbird, was a small, two-door, four-seater with sporting pretensions, but it was more affordable. The Thunderbird's sales suffered. Ford's response
Puma (car manufacturer) increasingly import-friendly regulations of the mid 1980s and turmoil in the company are widely considered to be among the main factors that ended the production of the first generation of Puma's Brazilian produced automobiles. During this era, Puma sourced engines from DKW (3 cylinders), Volkswagen (4 cylinders) and General Motors (4 and 6 cylinder) and mounted them on their own chassis and Fiberglass bodies. A select number of cars were exported to US markets during the 1970s to the 1980s, but a more cost effective Kit car option was responsible for the majority of US models. The Kit car variant