America's Work Horse Put Out to Pasture

Ford motor company has sold 10 million Crown Victoria's to fleet buyers to be used as police interceptors and taxi cabs. Anyone who has been pulled over by the police knows what a Crown Victoria car looks like as they stare into its menacing grille from the rear-view mirror. The Crown Victoria was popular due to its large wheel-base, tough as nails reliability, and dirt cheap maintenance costs which was perfect for the car abusive worlds of police and taxi work.  All good things must come to an end, in September of this year the last Crown Vic rolled off the line at its assembly plant in Canada. 

Ford Motor Company announced that the assembly plant was to be shut down for good. This decision came from poor sales records unable to maintain the assembly plant running and the demand for smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles, the Crown Vic could only get 24 mpg highway. This comes at a blow for fleet buyers who liked and depended on Crown Vic cars as there go-to car to get the job done. The Crown Vic's cousins, the Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Car, were also shut down in 2010. These three cars were the last "Big American" cars left on the road today and like all the others, they have been casted away into the highways of history.

One of the reasons why the Crown Vic was built like a tank was its Panther Platform, which is a body-on frame design, much like a pick-up is built with a body being placed on top of a steel chassis. The design, while heavy and somewhat expensive, makes for strong car that can bounce back from any abusive driving. The Crown Vic was the last mass production vehicle to have that design, and now all cars have "unibody" construction. Unibody meaning that a car depends on the roof to keep the car rigid instead of a chassis, this construction is cheaper for auto makers.

Ford is trying hard to push the replacement vehicles for the Crown Vic and Town car, but fleet buyers are still fateful and are doubtful that the replacements will be the same. Most people who ask for a car to pick them up from a business meeting or airport have become used to just saying "Town Car" instead of car since that was the most common car used for "black-car" luxury transportation . Fleet buyers, as well as the public, will have to take time to get used to not seeing these cars on the road anymore.

Texas A&M International University currently operates with at least one Crown Victoria police interceptor so this shut down will affect them once their car reaches the retirement age of 100,000 miles, who knows what car will replace it by that time. Along with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors are furiously pushing their own police/taxi versions to win over the fleet buyer market. 

The Crown Victoria is on the roads of history as an American Icon, along with the Jeep Wrangler and Chevrolet Corvette, but hidden in trunk the Crown Vic takes with it the last auto part of Old America. The old America when big cars meant big social status, nobody cared about mpg only horsepower and Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors were number one in American. Only time will tell what next car will be in our rear-view next time we get pulled over, but we know the only Crown Victoria's and Town Car's we'll see will be on used car lots and junkyards. It's a shame how a car that has served America for over 30 years can be just shut down and left for pasture like an old workhorse.

The automobile industry is growing during the last twenty years, and now we already know a Crown Victoria is a good option for each and every one of us to get a car.

(Ramiro Hernandez and Jesus Garcia may be reached at hig200@dusty.tamiu.edu and jgarcia@dusty.tamiu.edu)