Adieu, Victoria

[cosworth151]

Yesterday, 15 September 2011, at 12:30 EDT, the final Ford Crown Victoria rolled off the assembly line. The final generation of the Crown Vic debuted in 1992. That 19 year run equals the Ford Model T.  The model was first built in 1955 and 1956, than reborn in 1979.

Sales of the Crown Vic have been up 140%. The Crown Vic has owned the taxi and police car markets here in the States for a generation. Ford is now effectively abandoning the police market to the rear drive Dodge Charger and the new rear drive Chevy Caprice. Ford's only offering will be the totally unsuitable, front drive Taurus. Ford had been working on a rear drive replacement for the Vic based on a stretched Mustang platform, but it was cut during the recession.

This NPR story says that the Lincoln Town Car has also been stopped. Actually, I think it will continue in production through the end of the year.

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/16/140503972/a-beloved-car-of-cops-and-cabbies-meets-its-end

[Scott]

A 4-door Mustang would be been a pretty amazing interceptor!

Too bad the Crown Vic is gone - I knew that headlight configuration in my rear view from at least a km back (enough time to slow down before their forward facing radar could get me).   

[Canada Darrell™]

Too bad the Crown Vic is gone - I knew that headlight configuration in my rear view from at least a km back (enough time to slow down before their forward facing radar could get me).   

 

Ain't that the truth eh?!

[Jericoke]

As a point of interest my brother worked there for ten years, up until the end.

My father also worked there for a few years.

The factory is now closed, no more Crown Vics, no more Town Cars, no more Grand Marquis and no more Police Interceptors.  (The police car, technically, hasn't been a Crown Vic for about 5 years now.)

The margins on fleet vehicles are very low.  Most of the money was made by exporting to the mideast, but not nearly enough volume to update the design.  (I guess they made a Crown Vic that ran on leaded gas, and had a huge cooling system.)

I agree that giving up the police market seems crazy, but the Interceptor only had 260 horsepower.  It has less interior space and trunk space than any other police package.  The police departments want to seem 'new', and that means new cars.  Dodge sales of RWD cars are already slipping, and GM is going to discover why they left the segment over a decade ago, and why the Pontiac G8 killed the division a few years ago.

As a side note, while my brother has found other employment (and my father has retired to Panama), the region where the cars were made has the largest unemployment for any 'large' city in Canada.  I believe it's 9%.  (The factory is in St. Thomas, Ontario, but is considered part of London, Ontario for statistical purposes.)

[cosworth151]

The G8 didn't kill Pontiac. The Aztek did most of that, along with the way overpriced GTO. That and the fact that the geriatric Buick sells well in China. The G8 is returning as the Chevy Caprice. The RWD Dodge Magnum will return when the next gen Charger/300 debut in a year or two. There will also be a Lancia version of that RWD platform for Europe.

The Police Interceptor has been Ford's name for its police specials for as long as I can remember. They still retained their regular model names, i.e. Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Many, many years ago my parents had a 1958 Fairlane 500 PI. There used to be a Mustang PI. There are currently Taurus and Explorer PI's. I doubt that FWD cars will stand much of a chance in the police market against the RWD Charger Pursuit or Caprice PPV.

https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/2010fleetshowroom/2010-crvicpoliceint.asp

Back in the 80's, I had a Crown Vic that was the same color silver are the Ohio State Highway Patrol cars of the time. It was fun to watch to watch oncoming traffic suddenly slow down when they spotted it. 

[lkjohnson1950]

I think the G6 killed Pontiac, because it was not a significant upgrade on the Grand-Am. It was based on an Opel platform, but as usual GM dumbed it down for the US market. The Big 3 got the idea somewhere that Americans would buy anything, which is why 2 of them went bankrupt and Ford teeters on the brink. The G6 is the car that paid the bills, the others were traffic builders. I'm not sure if they have truly learned their lesson, but the Buick version of the G6 platform is a much better car.

[Jericoke]

The G8 didn't kill Pontiac. The Aztek did most of that, along with the way overpriced GTO. That and the fact that the geriatric Buick sells well in China. The G8 is returning as the Chevy Caprice. The RWD Dodge Magnum will return when the next gen Charger/300 debut in a year or two. There will also be a Lancia version of that RWD platform for Europe.

The Police Interceptor has been Ford's name for its police specials for as long as I can remember. They still retained their regular model names, i.e. Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. Many, many years ago my parents had a 1958 Fairlane 500 PI. There used to be a Mustang PI. There are currently Taurus and Explorer PI's. I doubt that FWD cars will stand much of a chance in the police market against the RWD Charger Pursuit or Caprice PPV.

https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/2010fleetshowroom/2010-crvicpoliceint.asp

Back in the 80's, I had a Crown Vic that was the same color silver are the Ohio State Highway Patrol cars of the time. It was fun to watch to watch oncoming traffic suddenly slow down when they spotted it. 

About 5 years ago the 'Police Interceptor' became a distinct model from the Crown Vic. It's basically the same car, of course, but for ordering purposes it stopped being a variant on the Crown Vic.  (Originally the CVPI would be built on the line, and then sent off for modification.  The PI was built to police specs on the line, with the search lights, reinforced seats and electronics hookups.  It really brought the price of the PI down.)

The reasons for the death of Pontiac are surprisingly numerous.  However, in the context of RWD sedans, the G8 was the last one GM made.  If there was American demand for RWD sedans, then Pontiac would still exist.

[cosworth151]

The G8 is still around. It's now the Chevy Caprice. GM also still has the Caddy CTS RWD coupes, sedans and wagons and DTS series RWD sedans. Of course, there are also the Camaro and Vette.

[Dare]

I have many fond memories riding in the back seat
of several Vic's,did you know there aren't any door
handles back there?