Ford Elite

The Ford Elite was an automobile produced by the Ford Motor Company for the North American market for the 1974-1976 model years. The Elite was based on the Ford Torino, and was a two-door coupe intended to be, in the words of Ford's advertising, a "mid-size car in the Thunderbird tradition"—a more affordable personal luxury car than the Thunderbird, intended to compete with such cars as the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and the Chrysler Cordoba.

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In the 1974 model year, the Elite was considered a sub-model of the Torino; although advertised separately, the side script said "Gran Torino Elite" and the car would be titled and registered as a Gran Torino. In 1975 and 1976, the Elite was fully its own model. In all three years, the car sold well.

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The Elite vanished from the Ford range after 1976 because the Ford range was being restructured and downsized. The Thunderbird was reduced in size for 1977, being based on the old Torino platform; the Torino was discontinued, being replaced by the LTD II. In a sense, then, the Elite survived, but under the more-recognised Thunderbird name, the larger car being discontinued.

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Automobile: An automobile is a wheeled vehicle that carries its own motor. Different types of automobiles include cars, buses, trucks, and vans, with cars being the most popular by far. Earlier terms for automobile include "horseless carriage" and "motor car." An automobile has seats for the driver and, almos...

Ford Motor Company: The Ford Motor Company (often referred to simply as Ford; sometimes nicknamed FoMoCo, is an automobile maker founded by Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, and incorporated on June 16, 1903. According to Fortune magazine, DaimlerChrysler and Toyota Motor replaced Ford as the world's number two and th...

North America: North America is a continent in the northern hemisphere, bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean. It covers an area of 9,355,000 square miles (24,230,000 square kilometers). In 2...

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