Ford has announced the end of the Panther. Again.

I think they really mean it this time.
Ford has announced that they will finally be ending production of the Crown Victoria and all of its its siblings, known and loved by police and fire departments, limosine and taxi drivers, as well as old farts like me.
This will mean that after the next model year, it will be the end of a run of 27 years for the big, traditional cars.
Actually, the platform goes back even farther than that, all the way to 1979, IIRC.
Production of the rear wheel drive, body on frame Panther platform cars, ie: the the Crown Vic, Grand Marquis, and Lincoln Town Car will end in August 2012
The next time you see flashing lights in your mirror, the cop car will likely be a Taurus.
Sigh. The end of another era is here.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-police-car15-2010mar15,1,7227510,full.story





Apparently, unless something changes, the London, Ontario plant won't be re purposed to build other Ford vehicles, it'll just close.

 

Oh boy, that is clearly the end of an era. I can't believe they're actually going to do it, but they have been threatening to do so for a few years now. A cop car ain't a cop car unless it's a Crown Vic. Plus, how can they even think of discontinuing the Town Car? I guess not too many private owners are buying them anymore; just liveries and rental car fleets.
Such a shame.
Oh, btw, I couldn't get to the article; ;something about the server being down.

 

They'll do like the commercial Astro vans and have outfits that rebuild fleets of them from the ground up.
The Astro Van was a great vehicle, nothing comparable to it now, and they were titled as station wagons.

 

Funny thing about them running the new Impalas and Taurus, they are slugs from zero to top end. How do they expect the police to stop speeders or run in high speed chases (which they should not even attempt to do anyway IMO) in a car that has a 17 second 1/4 mile time? Ontop of all that, they keep cutting back on Police funding, so less officers in slower cars = bad news for lawful citizens.

 

There will be two versions of the Taurus police vehicle - one with the 'regular' 3.5 V6, and a persuit version with the SHO motor and handling package - twin turbo V6. I expect a lot of police-cooked turbos.

 

with this!
http://www.superchevy.com/features/...olet_caprice_police_patrol_vehicle/index.html



jump a curb with a FWD car and watch axle shafts snap!

ask any cop, NOTHING! holds a candle to a Crown Vic.

 

A1A, ya just can't beat a solid RWD car for the kind of abuse police cars live with every day.
Caprice, Crown Vic, Maurauder, even Mustangs are hard to kill.

 

And that's because GM stopped making b-bodies in '96.
And it must be a new cop that never had the pleasure of driving a 9C1.

 

That is such a sad end of an era of real cars. When I worked as a limo driver in college, ALL the limousines where Town Cars. Most had well over 300k miles and still truckin, with no rattles or strange noises. My personal '96 Town Car had 166k when I got rid of it in 2004, still felt and looked like it had 30k miles on it.

And you guys are right about the duty and use of these cars. The FWD car will never see the longevity like the RWD cars do. Yet the lemmings of the world keep humping that idea the FWD is the greatest thing since sliced bread. :confused:

 

True story:
My wife teaches in a high rise downtown with a view of the parking lot.
One day she has a retired cop as a student, and of course she mentions she's driving an ex-ghost car, and points it out in the lot. He relates his affection for the model, and a story of how when he was giving his wife a ride and got a call. While blasting out to the call at 120+mph she complains "how come our car doesn't ride nice and smooth like this?"

 

Well this is a big screw up for Ford. They just boosted Dodges sales of the rear wheel drive charger. No way are police going to touch a front wheel drive after the impala mistake. The first things departments look for are rear wheel drive and a v8.

Ford had a good thing going ever since chevy dropped the Caprice. Notice the lack of Chevy police cars. The front wheel drives do not hold up well to the abuse of a police vehicle. Chevy even knows that they screwed up and they are planning to reintroduce the v8 rear wheel drive Caprice again for 2011!

 

next thing ya know...they'll be like GM and stop making RWD cars

 

First we used Dodge Diplomats as police cars. Then they used Ford Crown Vics as cop cars. If I had a need for a 4 door id buy a Crown Vickie. They are sharp cars and good runners. especially now with all the bankruptcies and bailouts. Ford is hot now as far as car sales. Toyotas recent accelerating problems have only boosted Ford car sales. I personally think its a HUGE mistake to drop the Crown Vick line.

 

Makes you wonder if Ford figures that Government Motors will get more Cruiser business. I'll stick with Ford.

 

Yea, even though I was born and raised GM, if I needed a sedan I would get a Crown Vic or Grand Marquis.

I don't understand what they are thinking. All of the equipment and tooling has to be paid for by now since the body style has remained pretty much unchanged for 12 or so years. All it has to cost ford to make them are labor and materials. They had a perfect proven design and they are just going to scrap it and start over. They could have easily updated the look by changing some of the front sheetmetal. At least they didn't disgrace the Crown Victoria name and put it on the taurus.

On the other hand at least Chevy has half a brain and will reintroduce the Rear wheel drive v8 Caprice in 2011! This is just the opertunity that Chevy was wating for; wait until Ford screws up and drops the crown vic so they can regain some of the police market with the new caprice.