Arrival at the Dealership

[Gobird]

Setting here and wondering. When my Bird arrived at the dealership from new. I told them to find a box and take every piece of white plastic what was covering the body and any plastic on the interior along with any and all stickers on the car and put them in that box. I also told them they could check the fluids but NOT wash the car. I didn't want some part time teenager washing my car, dropping the sponge and possible scratching the paint.

Any other original owners do this?

[FUN X 3]

No. Mine was already at the dealership, had my pick of 3 exact same cars. They were in a special building that used to be a roller skating rink.

[Gobird]

No. Mine was already at the dealership, had my pick of 3 exact same cars. They were in a special building that used to be a roller skating rink.

This was after I ordered mine and waited 13 month for it to come in. I got the first Thunderbird Blue the dealer ever saw.

[007Cruiser]

No.

[yelobird2002]

Railhead was only 3 miles from dealership, so my wife drove my salesman and me to the railhead and I drove the T-Bird to the dealership with salesman riding shotgun. Didn't want to wait two days for car to be delivered by truck. Drove it with the white plastic film still all over the car.

[FUN X 3]

This was after I ordered mine and waited 13 month for it to come in. I got the first Thunderbird Blue the dealer ever saw.

I didn't even know about the Retro Bird until I saw a neighbor drive by my house in one. That was in May 2002.

[DavidA]

I have all the stickers and labels in a folder. My intent was to eventually put them all back as delivered, but 180,,000 miles later, tat thought is folly. I also forgot to photograph where the were on the car as I yokk them off. Oh well ... the best intentions!

[5bird7]

We were able to get all the stickers soon after our car came in. It arrived at the dealership around midnight so we were at the dealership when they opened the next morning, 7:30am. Our salesman was also there. We had told him that we wanted to see the car before anything was taken off the car as I wanted photos. He let us in their holding yard and I took the photos and they saved every thing for us from prep while I watched. I have that stuff in a binder unless it was too large for the binder. Didn't save much of that white plastic covering though. Then we went home for a few hours while they checked out the car . Ended up coming back in the early afternoon as some work had to be done on the car as the AC was not working correctly (wouldn't shut off as I recall). Then we worked on getting the paperwork done with the salesman during which time I had to run home and get the check book which I had forgot, so the deal could be finalized. Then more pics with us with the car and George got to drive the car home. He was thrilled. I followed.

[EllisonCal]

Railhead was only 3 miles from dealership, so my wife drove my salesman and me to the railhead and I drove the T-Bird to the dealership with salesman riding shotgun. Didn't want to wait two days for car to be delivered by truck. Drove it with the white plastic film still all over the car.

Wow, that's impressive.

[BLACK BEAUTY]

Fun to read stories..thank-you all! I didn't even know about the retros until 2012! But I was EXCITED when I first saw Black Beauty

[007Cruiser]

OCD

[Gobird]

To add to my first post. We drove to the dealer knowing when the car was coming. The old members will remember the phone number and wixem poo at the time. We dropped of a throw away cameras and told them to give it to my salesman at the time to take pics of the car when it came in. We then drove back to the other side of town where we lived. Within 1/2 hour we got a call from my salesman saying the car was already in the night before and parked out back in with the pickup trucks. We drove back to the other end of town about 3 hours later and my salesman had pulled it into the service bay where I started taking pictures. It was a great day after waiting 13 months for it to arrive at the dealership, picked it up the following day.

[4LOWBIRDS+7]

You want to talk about surprising an arrival at at dealer. One afternoon I ordered a new 1974 Thunderbird at the dealership and drove the order to the Ford District Sales office and put the order in the system. That night I called Wixom and my friend and he moved the order to the next day production. Two days later it was in the railyard on it's way to Atlanta. So after a total of seven days I drove the new 1974 Thunderbird home. I used to beat that time on my lease Thunderbirds, but that was cheating, I was building them myself and they were never shipped anywhere.

[Quickdraw]

You want to talk about surprising an arrival at at dealer. One afternoon I ordered a new 1974 Thunderbird at the dealership and drove the order to the Ford District Sales office and put the order in the system. That night I called Wixom and my friend and he moved the order to the next day production. Two days later it was in the railyard on it's way to Atlanta. So after a total of seven days I drove the new 1974 Thunderbird home. I used to beat that time on my lease Thunderbirds, but that was cheating, I was building them myself and they were never shipped anywhere.

A friend of mine at Chicago Stamping also had a connection with someone at an assembly plant (perhaps Wixom). I forget what car was just introduced and was in high demand... He pulled strings and got his lease car before the plant manager got his car and was in the dog house over that until the plant manager left...

[DavidA]

To add to my story, my car first came into the dealership in August 2001. I was there as they never unloaded it from the truck and drove off with it. It was involved in that first recall and was sent back to Michigan. It was finally re-delivered in October. The dealership had to lend me a car as I had sold my Jag in anticipation of that first delivery date.