1988 T-Bird Valuation


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Old 01-03-23, 01:02 PM
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1988 T-Bird Valuation

I have a rust free 88 T-Bird Sport Coupe with the 5.0 Liter engine. It has every option available in 1988 except a moon roof and graphic equalizer for the radio tape deck. It runs and drives with 80 thousand miles on it. I bought this car new from a dealer and have been the only owner. If I put new tires and mufflers on it I could drive it until they put me in a home. Before I do some calling to some online buyers. I thought I would get an opinion from some of you on its reasonable value.
 
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Old 01-03-23, 02:26 PM
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With the avg new car transaction at around $45-48K you might just want to keep driving it!
 
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Old 01-03-23, 02:47 PM
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With that year you are in vintage territory. I would start by going to an online valuation site like NADA https://www.jdpower.com/cars (Note Kelly Blue Book does not go back to 1988) and see what they value it at. Then you need to do some browsing around and find similar cars that are for sale to give an idea of what they are going for.

It is really going to come down to what somebody is willing to pay and what you are willing to sell it for.
 
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Old 01-04-23, 10:32 AM
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What color? I had a friend that had a (well used) 1988 Thunderbird many decades ago. It had the 3.8 V6 so head gaskets were always a concern.
 
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Old 01-04-23, 06:31 PM
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It is a very dark blue. I lost a head gasket on this one maybe 20 years ago, and it had some MAP and MAF sensors that went bad. It took a genius to diagnose the acceleration stumble problem they were causing lol (I took it to a Ford Dealer and they said they didn't have anyone there that could fix problems with the computer emissions control box because it was too old. Thanks for the tip on the website for a value search!
 
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Old 01-04-23, 06:48 PM
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That old, value is going to be in the mind of the buyer only. I do think this is the time to sell a vehicle if you don't seeing doing so creating the need for you to buy another - this is a seller's market. I would put it online for a ridiculous price and see if anyone bites.
 
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Old 04-22-23, 04:02 PM
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Before I do some calling to some online buyers. I thought I would get an opinion from some of you on its reasonable value.
Online buyers like We Buy Any Car will just send it to auction. They won't give more than $500 or $600. If it needs tires and an exhaust, list it on Facebook and Craigslist for $2995 and take the first offer over $2,000.
 
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