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Wow, what a car, I hired one of these in LA when I visited just after the 1992 earthquake. It was great to drive, but massive - espcially as I was alone. Plenty of boot space for my suitcase!
It's just as well OP is in USA, this car is just too large for UK roads, parking bays etc.
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Why did Ford pull the town car?
Any chance of a return?
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As you are in Las Vegas I should think in summer the car's engine will fully warm up, even in such short a journey as the temperature outside is likely to be over 100F and you will no doubt be running the aircon giving the engine something extra to do
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Why did Ford pull the town car?
Any chance of a return?
And what about the spares ?
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Ford pulling the plug on the Town Car and its brothers the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis was, I think, a big mistake, especially as Ford hasn't replaced them with anything. They sold nearly 10 million Panther platform cars from the late Seventies to 2011, and here in Vegas they're everywhere------not just the civilian cars, but countless police cars, taxis, fleet cars and limousines. Every major Vegas hotel has a fleet of Town Car stretch limos, as well as regular size Town Car "Black sedans" to ferry around the VIP guests. You also see white Town Car limos that belong to the Vegas wedding chapels. Even the occasional car converted to a hea***. Cops drive Crown Vics, taxis are Crown Vic or Grand Marquis (though one taxi company runs Town Cars) and limos are Town Cars since Cadillac gave up on rear wheel drive large sedans that were easily stretchable. What's currently left in the Lincoln lineup just doesn't measure up to the Panther standard, I'm sorry to say.
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The platform was ditched because body-on-frame can't hold a candle to monocoque construction for lightness and stiffness.
Body panel replacements are cheaper with body-on-frame and chassis extension is easier. But overall, the crown vics and their derivitives were getting long in the tooth compared to their competitors and battered taxi cabs wasn't really the image Ford wanted to portray!
I'm not kicking the Crown vic btw. Whilst in Chicago I would hail a crown vic with rather more enthusiasm than I would the dreadful bronze Manganese TX4. Awful vehicle.
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Body panel replacements are cheaper with body-on-frame and chassis extension is easier. But overall, the crown vics and their derivitives were getting long in the tooth compared to their competitors and battered taxi cabs wasn't really the image Ford wanted to portray!
That's all true. Those cars were popular with cops etc. for just that reason--easy and cheap to stretch them or do body repairs. The first Panther cars came out in the fall of '78, I think, so they were a bit behind the times by now, I suppose...but boy, are they easy to drive.
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Yes,
the body on frame is old hat but not a good enough reason why Ford couldnt have simply replaced it with a modern chassis and set up?
Are Ford making that much money from the F150's and other junk it sells stateside to not have to worry about the Lincoln car segment?
Slightly off topic, have the Chinese manufacturers entered the market in the US yet?
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Slightly off topic, have the Chinese manufacturers entered the market in the US yet?
Not yet. In 2007 or so, a couple of them were trying to get Stateside. One of them was called Chamco. At that point, the plan was for the dealership where I work to add whatever Chinese car Chamco would have brought over, plus Mahindra trucks and SUVs. We were planning to build a separate building for them on empty land next to our existing Kia/Mitsubishi/Suzuki building...then the economy crashed and all these plans vanished into thin air. So no Red Chinese cars, nothing from India on US roads. Maybe someday.
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the body on frame is old hat but not a good enough reason why Ford couldnt have simply replaced it with a modern chassis and set up?
Are Ford making that much money from the F150's and other junk it sells stateside to not have to worry about the Lincoln car segment?
The F150 is BOF! All vehicles designed for heavy towing duty use a a chassis construction.
But crown vic was designed as a passenger car. Taxi drivers are a conservative (small c) bunch and they'll moan about the end of the vic, but the fwd monocoque format will make much more sense. It's only the outdated notion that fwd=econobox that holds it back.
The Mondeo is over 600lb lighter than the vic, and the cabin space isn't much smaller. In stop-start driving, that 600lb equates to a lot of extra fuel.
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I'm seriously thinking of getting one myself, as a weekend-sort-of-car, solely for that purpose only. I'm in mainland Europe and generally fuel price is an issue here, but as I said, one weekend trip of 100-150 kilometers only. I use subway (underground) mainly and public transport. My only concern is that the Panther platform is no longer in production, so access to spare parts might be somewhat limited in the not so distant future, right ?
Edited by Piowolf on 06/05/2013 at 13:53
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My only concern is that the Panther platform is no longer in production, so access to spare parts might be somewhat limited in the not so distant future, right ?
I don't know about getting parts on the Euro mainland, but considering how many millions of Panther cars Ford made over the years, parts here in USA are plentiful--I think it will be a long time before parts availability is an issue.
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Yes, I realize it has sort of morphed from a car into icon and therefore will be supported for a long time, but you never know. Look at what happened to Citroen XM in Europe. The last year of its production was 2000 and you can barely obtain anything when it comes to spares for that model. Now, take a Merc E-Class, BMW 5 or an Audi A6 for that matter. You can order anything and anytime for those German cars and choose from a huge variety of OEM parts. But for Citroen XM ? No sir, sorry sir, we no longer support this model. Yes sir, even though we've been manufacturing it for 15 years or so. Yes sir, even though it definitely was an icon. Sorry sir.
Catch my drift ?
Edited by Piowolf on 08/05/2013 at 16:04
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