geko29

Never has there ever been a "luxury" car that is so obviously a taxicab/cop car with leather seats and wood trim.

mmarshall

Not sure I agree. A credible case can be made for the 90s-vintage RWD Cadillac Fleetwood, essentially the same platform/drivetrain as the Chevy Caprice Police Cruiser/Caprice Taxi.

SW17LS

The point is what do you define as "falling apart"?

Sure these Town Cars will run, but they creak, squeak, rattle, the interior materials fall apart and get terribly worn, where an LS430 takes miles much better. Drive an LS430 and a Town Car each with 200k miles and you'll see the difference.

tex2670

"Fall apart" may be an exaggeration. But the tolerance that a law enforcement officer or taxi driver may have for squeaks, rattles and other gremlins does not translate to the owner of a Town Car.

I used to work at a firm that provided car service home if you worked late. 99% of the time, it was in a Town Car. Sure it had a very large leather appointed "comfortable" back seat. Big deal--why is it more comfortable than a big back seat in an MB, Lexus or any other large lux vehicle? Car service companies liked the Town Car (vs competing cars) because of the price. Period. And fleet sales allowed Lincoln to boost their sales numbers.

Och

iTrader: (3)

They had large seats that were absolutely not ergonomic, just big and plush like an old couch.

Stroock639

how insecure are you all to compare the pinnacle of modern automotive engineering to a mushy slow ancient wallowy cheaply built taxi cab barge that is the town car... of course the two aren't in the same league, but if i had to pick one of them to be my permanent taxi to the airport vehicle it'd be the town car long wheelbase

the space in the back to just completely lounge out is like the best there is, the seats are just big cushions that you sink into, and the ride is perfect for the totally unsporty task of taking some passengers to the airport and back

idk how many of you have driven / owned a panther platform vehicle, but they really do have a certain something about them where they find a way into your heart and make you like them, and with the frame they really just plow through bumps and road imperfections... my P71 model with the 'caap shocks' could take a rough road like nobody's business, and repairs are generally always quite cheap, also don't forget how many bodies you can fit into the trunk of a panther car lol

mmarshall

Although the MKS, which originally replaced the Town Car, never did equal the Town Car's riding comfort (it was a shorter wheelbase, lighter weight, and lower-profile tires), it did offer a couple of things the Town Car never did......better handling and an AWD option for bad weather. The Town Car, without chains or studded tires, could be a handful on slippery roads. But the Town Car, IMO, did not really have a suitable replacement as Lincoln's sedan-flagship until the latest Continental came along.

tex2670

Exactly. No big deal.

Stroock639

oh that thing's a joke... the MKS will never be the town car

mmarshall

......which is basically what I previously said. But that doesn't change the fact that, even with its faults, it had two assets that the Town Car lacked....handling and an AWD option.

AJT123

The 4.6 in those Panther cars was decently smooth but they moaned like crazy because they weren't powerful enough, or at least just adequate at best. I still can't believe police used Crown Vics with only 250HP all those years. You could outrun one of those in a minivan or just about anything with decent pickup these days.

Re: limo service I have ridden in a Town Car LWB from the airport before, the legroom was beyond ridiculous. But I hated the way the engine moaned and there was gear whine.

Stroock639

a town car shouldn't have any 'handling' lol

Stroock639

my friend after going in my crown vic for the first time was like did the car really need to make that much noise to only take us up the block? yes it does lmao... such a pos but in an awesome way, the police models also had a high stall torque converter so they basically always rev to like 2500 just to get going, and the high revs also somewhat compensate for having too few gears for the power

Fizzboy7

My only experience with TC's were in limos. And both had broken air suspensions that groaned and bottomed out going up driveways. Not the greatest impression, but of course comfortable inside.
The rest were all taxi rides, where the CV's were so beat up, they howled and made gear whine so loud you had to raise your voice to talk to the driver. Great entertainment.

oldcajun

My last company car before retirement was a 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis which was mechanically identical to the Town Car. Instead of leather, I had velour seats. The car was intended to provide comfortable transport for customers and for VIP's picked up at the airport. It was, indeed, smooth and quiet. The quality was much better than many expected. The doors closed solidly, the interior fit was excellent, and the paint job was very good. In a little over a year, I had exactly zero mechanical issues. For its mission at the time, the big Ford, Mercury, Lincolns were unmatched. My personal car at the time was a Lincoln LS which was a much better driving car even though it was much smaller.

The Town Car was good at its job for the time, but times have changed.

By the way, on my last trip through the airport, there was a Genesis G90 in the limo pick-up area. Times are really a changin'.