(EXPANDED FROM 2/27/2024)
The 1974-76 Ford Elite highlights one of the Ford Motor Company’s bigger mistakes of the 1970s. The automaker was too slow in entering the mid-sized personal coupe field. The Elite was a cobbled-together design that had the smell of being rushed to market.
This new top-of-line Gran Torino was a disguised Mercury Cougar — which for 1974 was a fancier version of the mid-sized Montego. That was quite the come down for Cougar, a former pony car that previously sported completely unique sheetmetal.
The great irony is that Ford had been a consistent leader in personal coupes. Lincoln pioneered the field with the original Continental and Mark II. Then the Ford brand followed up with the wildly successful four-place Thunderbird and Mustang.
Commentator Stéphane Dumas (2024) wondered why Ford didn’t respond to General Motors’ popular mid-sized personal coupes by downsizing the Thunderbird earlier rather than creating the Elite. Instead, the T-Bird was upsized (go here for further discussion). The main goal may have to bolster the economies of scale of the Mark IV’s platform.
Ford doesn’t follow Chevrolet’s lead in 1972 redesign
Ford presumably decided that it had guessed wrong about the direction of the mid-sized market back in 1972, when it had given its lineup the biggest redesign in a decade. The automaker had emphasized luxury models but didn’t come out with stand-alone halo coupes like General Motors did with the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Pontiac Grand Prix.
This doesn’t appear to have been a timing problem. The Grand Prix was switched to a mid-sized model in 1969 and the Monte Carlo was introduced in 1970. That should have given Ford enough time to adjust course for 1972. Perhaps the automaker did not do so because of concerns about cannibalizing sales of the luxury-oriented Mustang Grande and Cougar XR-7.
In addition, the bean counters may have decided that giving the high-end Gran Torino a distinctive fascia would have been enough to provide adequate cachet. Another factor: Perhaps Ford wanted to place more emphasis on boosting the sales of its high-end four-door body style. That didn’t prove to be a terrible strategy — production soared from around 4,400 in 1971 to 102,000 units in 1972.
So whatever else you can say about the Gran Torino, it was hardly a flop. Indeed, this new series was the primary reason that total Torino production grew by 52 percent in 1972. Even so, the nameplate was still outgunned by the Chevelle and Monte Carlo (by roughly 575,000 to 497,000 units). The sales gap would only grow bigger in succeeding years.
Ford follows Cutlass Supreme rather than Monte Carlo
The 1972 Torino lineup tilted more toward Oldsmobile’s approach, which included offering a top-end notchback coupe as part of a broader Cutlass Supreme lineup. However, unlike the Cutlass Supreme, the Gran Torino coupe’s styling was shared with entry-level models.
Ford ditched the Brougham series in favor of the Gran Torino and gave it a massive fish-mouthed grille shared with a GT fastback and convertible. The car was available in a two-door coupe, four-door sedan (technically a pillared hardtop) and a wood-paneled Squire wagon.
Meanwhile, Mercury continued to field a full range of body styles for its top-of-line Montego, which was still called the MX Brougham.
That strategy worked well initially. In 1972 Ford’s share of the mid-sized market topped 26 percent, which would prove to be the highwater mark for the automaker. However, just one year later it fell by 4 percent in the face of a substantially redesigned GM mid-sized lineup. The General’s personal coupes sold particularly well. The Monte Carlo led the way with almost 286,000 cars leaving the factory.
Ford tries to take its mid-sized coupes upmarket
In repositioning the Cougar and introducing the Elite, Ford wasn’t just attempting to generate more sales — the automaker also tried to capture bigger profits. Both cars were priced substantially higher than their brand’s previous top-end mid-sized coupes. For 1974 the Elite’s list price was $4,437, which was more than $400 higher than a Gran Torino coupe — and $300 more than the top-end Monte Carlo.
For 1974 Ford’s mid-sized lineup did pretty well. Although output was down because of an oil embargo, the automaker’s market share was a respectable 25 percent. But then in 1975 market share fell to 20 percent and in 1976 to 18 percent. GM captured all of that market share largely due to soaring personal-coupe sales.
The Elite and Cougar simply couldn’t keep up. The Elite’s best year was 1976, when output surpassed 147,000 units. That was less than half the production of the Monte Carlo, whose output reached 353,000 units.
Perhaps the Elite’s price tag was too high given its less unique styling. Perhaps Ford was at a disadvantage because its basic design was a year older. And perhaps the 1975 introduction of Ford’s hot-selling luxury compact Granada and Monarch cannibalized some mid-sized sales.
Ford ditches the Elite in a drastic lineup redo
Ford’s panicked and gave its entire mid-sized lineup an unusually drastic revamping for 1977. The Elite was replaced with a downsized Thunderbird and the Torino was replaced with the LTD II. Over at Mercury all mid-sized models were now called Cougars — even the wagons.
The revamping had a desperate and confused quality, but market share went up to 22 percent and production reached over 746,000 units. The Thunderbird’s output more than doubled from the previous year’s Elite by surpassing 318,000 units. That was around a 100,000 units behind the Monte Carlo and Cutlass Supreme, but Ford was finally in the big leagues. And 50 years later not many people mourn the departure of the Ford Elite.
Also see ‘Ford did better than Chrysler in differentiating its 1970s mid-sized coupes’
So should Ford have downsized the Thunderbird earlier — perhaps even in 1972? The key question may have been what platform to use for the Mark IV. A stretched and heavily redesigned version of the mid-sized body?
As for the Thunderbird, it likely would have sold much better than the Elite — particularly if it had been given unique sheetmetal. Meanwhile, Ford would have avoided embarrassing itself with arguably the most forgettable T-Bird in the iconic nameplate’s history.
NOTES:
This story was originally posted on Feb. 27, 2024 and expanded on June 10, 2026. Production and market share figures were calculated from data published by the auto editors of Consumer Guide (1993, 2006), Flammang and Kowalke (1999) and Gunnell (2002). Product specifications are from the same sources.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 1993, 2006. Encyclopedia of American Cars. Publications International, Lincolnwood, IL.
- Flammang, James M. and Ron Kowalke; 1999. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1976-1999. Third Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Gunnell, John; 2002. Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975. Revised Fourth Ed. Krause Publications, Iola, WI.
- Langworth, Richard M.; 1985. The Complete History of Ford Motor Company. Publications International, Skokie, IL.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- fordheritagevault: Ford Thunderbird (1972)
- oldcaradvertising.com: Ford Torino (1974)
- oldcarbrochures.org: Chevrolet Monte Carlo (1974); Ford Elite (1976); Mercury Cougar (1974); Oldsmobile Cutlass (1974)
We could wonder what if Ford decided to “downsize” the Thunderbird earlier instead of creating the Elite?
I also thought of that, Stéphane. This might also have had the benefit of increasing Continental Mark IV sales.
Just who was Ford trying to reach with the Elite ? Did Ford really think the car would generate an identity like the Thunderbird, the original Cougar or the Mustang, let alone the Monte Carlo or Grand Prix ? It wasn’t that distinctive (like the eventual downsized Thunderbird) and was over-priced. This was another example of Lee Iacocca’s blind spot concerning marketing cars that were gussied-up rehashed versions of more pedestrian models. The car drove like a Torino because it was a Torino. (My neighbor had a yellowish-gold 1976 Elite like the one in the website pictures and drove it for several years.) The car did not look that up-market and certainly did not have the cache’ of the T-Bird !
Ford had a problem. The PLC was suddenly where the money was and Ford had nothing to offer. The Elite was a stop gap offering in a segment that couldn’t be ignored.
A high water sales mark of 1976 demonstrates Ford was on the right track. While no doubt the easing of fuel shortages played a role the fact is sales increased. Once the 77 T Bird appeared they were off to the races.
Speaking of Ford personal luxury coupes, Dean’s Garage just released an interesting article on Iacocca’s hand in the development of the Continental Mark III, with some new facts
Troy, thank you for the heads up on an interesting story. Here is the link.
Iacocca was pretty much right in his instincts about the Mark III. The Mark IV, not so much.
At the time I started driving, the Elites were 8-6 years old, but I’d never heard of them. “What’s an Elite?” was the first thing I asked. Looking at one, that front end, the whole thing from the hood ornament to the chromed and berubbered steel girder Ford hung there…it didn’t wow me much. I didn’t even test drive it even thought the dealer said it had a 460. I gravitated to a better looking ’76 Cougar XR-7 with a smaller 351M motor that ended up being both a college car and the family truckster for vacations.
I agree, Ford phoned this in because there was nothing else they could do, but it still felt as if their attitude was ‘they’ll buy it ’cause it’s a Ford PLC’ and it didn’t happen. Ford would have been better off doing Broughamified Torino Sportsroofs (Broughamroofs?) with a softer ride and the same style interior as the LTD and sending business towards the Mercury dealer, because in 1 year, the Granada appears and starts to steal sales.
I haven’t seen one in a decade or more unless it was on TV.
This car represents one of the few times that GM caught Ford off guard. Since the 1958 Thunderbird, Ford had regularly beaten GM in uncovering and exploiting new market segments. With the downsized 1969 Pontiac Gran Prix, GM turned the tables on Ford. GM had uncovered a hot new segment, while the pioneering Thunderbird looked increasingly tired and bloated after 1969.
Whatever one thinks of the 1974 Cougar, I believe it did score a nice sales increase over the 1973 model – which was an achievement, considering that it debuted in a market being buffeted by the first gas shortage and an economy that was sliding into a recession. It’s therefore no surprise that Ford rushed the Elite into production – which was probably done to placate Ford dealers as much as anything else. (The Elite didn’t debut until calendar year 1974.)
Ford would get it right with the “downsized” 1977 Thunderbird – which, in some ways, was even more over-the-top than the Elite. But it sported a nameplate that still resonated with buyers, and the Thunderbird’s styling actually worked – and it worked far better than the styling of the Elite, which had a cobbled-together quality.