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Ford Crown Victoria Laid to Rest

By Jason Davis | September 16, 2011
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Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.- Dylan Thomas Ford finally retired the Crown Victoria this week. Time was not graceful to the venerable land yacht. Its ancestry dates back to the 1970s, but in its heyday, the Crown Vic was celebrated for its tank-like versatility and everyday attitude. The Crown Victoria was a legend of mediocrity, a relic of American industry, when things were built to last. Alas, poor Crown Vic, forever was never meant to be. Some people believe the Crown Vic was a cultural phenomenon, that its very fabric was interwoven into the lives of millions of Americans. It was the defining police vehicle for a generation of criminals and drunkards on the road, whose paranoid rearview twitches scanned for the familiar bloated shape. And its taxi incarnation was the closest an average New Yorker would ever come to vehicle ownership. The Crown Victoria’s Panther platform began production 32 years ago—a remarkable but comic offense. In that timeframe, Ford only saw it fit for two noteworthy revisions. But for the most part, it was durable, fixable, inexpensive, and large. Its body-on-frame chassis and live-rear axle was once the pinnacle of passenger-car comfort, and variations of the V-8 made as much power as modern four-cylinders, but with little of the big-engine benefits. The Crown Vic has thus existed as a productive, red-headed step child, revered by cheapskates and feared by delinquents. Despite its numerous shortcomings, the Crown Vic represents a peculiar phenomenon: When was the last time someone other than Halliburton owned an entire market? Chevrolet and Dodge have not been able to come close to matching the market that Ford controls, and in its last months of production, sales of the forlorn, fleet-only Crown Vic soared. Thus, the Crown Vic is a car we likely will not see again. Like Superman or Martha the passenger pigeon, it is the last of its kind, an eager and big-hearted retiree, shuffling its tennis-ball tipped walker into the Everglades. And while the police and taxi industry will complain, it was time. Source: Ford With assistance from Associate Editor Blake Rong
  • 2007 Ford Crown Victoria Exterior
 
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Carl
Carl

Ford starved this car to death. It's a tragic loss because this car represented the last traditional American sedan. Every year I hoped Ford would redesign or modernize these cars, I’m 28 years old and I would love to own a long traditional sedan like this with all the modern high tech features and 412hp 5.0L V8 with 6 speed automatic! These cars only weight between 4,006 – 4,517 pounds(source wiki) the midsize CTS-V weighs more!

Carlos Daniels
Carlos Daniels

It is sad to see the end of The Crown Vic but it had to go.It only sold 80,000 models per year compared to Chevy selling 250,000 Impala's.If had an idenity problem being only used as a police cars and fleets of taxi's.When the public goes out to buy a brand new car,nobody is going out to buy a car that reminds everyone that it is a police car or a taxi.Ford also left it pretty much unchanged since 1999.Then they left a very week 4.6 v8 in it.GM and Chryler has v6 engines that would blow the doors off of the 4.6 engine.250hp compared to a Cadillac CTS V's 554 hp.Sad as it my seem that car is out dated.Thank you guys.

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