Ford's stylists delivered a radical shape that in many ways anticipated the styling trends of the next five years. The 1967 design was radically different from what came before. New for 1969, the Continental Mark III coupe was built on the same four-door chassis. It remained in the lineup through 1971 but never generated substantial sales. The convertible, increasingly a slow seller, was dropped in favor of a four-door model that was 2.5 in (6.3 cm) stretched, featuring suicide doors, a signature feature of the Lincoln Continental four-door sedans of that era. The listed retail price of the two-door Landau coupe was US$4,704 ($38,228 in 2021 dollars ). An overhead console (that first appeared on the previous years Town Landau) containing illuminated indicators for emergency flasher use, low-fuel warning, door-ajar and seat-belt reminder light returned in a revised format. Ford decided to abandon the Thunderbird's traditional unibody construction for this larger car, turning to a body-on-frame method with sophisticated rubber mountings between the two to improve noise/vibration characteristics and reduce weight by a small margin.

They would share commonality again later from 1984–1998.įor 1967 the Thunderbird would be a larger car, moving it closer to Lincoln as the company chose to emphasize the ' luxury' part of the 'personal luxury car' designation. The new 1969 Continental Mark III was based on the four-door Thunderbird chassis, and from that point until the end of 1976, Thunderbirds and Continental Marks were related cars. The debut of the Ford Mustang in early 1964 and the subsequent introduction of the larger, upmarket Mercury Cougar to challenge Chrysler motors' similarly larger, more upscale version of a pony car, the Dodge Charger, began to erode the Thunderbird's sales and forced it even larger, including four-door models.

The Thunderbird had fundamentally remained the same in concept through 1966, even though the styling had been updated twice. This fifth generation saw the second major change of direction for the Thunderbird. The fifth generation Ford Thunderbird is a large personal luxury car that was produced by Ford for the 1967 to 1971 model years.

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