The Exploding Crown Victoria

[Ornery]

Ford Motor Company has been victorious in law suits regarding these post-collision fires.

• ...Juries have found that Ford does not have a design problem as alleged. In some cases, agencies that have not even experienced a post-collision fire have brought suit against Ford in a "jumping on the bandwagon" type of action.
  
  But Ford also is now refusing to sell their Crown Victoria to agencies who have brought suit. Dallas Police Department is one of those agencies...

I find this to be VERY interesting!

 

[jtusa]

Good for Ford.

 

[beer]

That whole 'defect' is bullsh!t. You hit ANY stopped car at highway speesds from the rear, it is GOING to explode. That is not a design flaw, that is matter of physics.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Cameros, and Pintos, and Crown Vics Oh my !

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears . . .


Dallas converted some 175 of their Rolling Bombshells over to LPG to reduce thier impact on the
environment . . and those within the ground zero blast range.

They also quit buying Fords and are getting Dodge Intrepids
Fort Worth is adding some SUV's into their mix . . . hope they don't choose the Ford Exploder.

 

[SuperSix]

Originally posted by: jtusa4
Good for Ford.

 

[no0b]

The whole fire in a rear end collision for Crown Victoria's is exagerated.

 

[MacBaine]

Nice. Maybe I'll be able to pick some more up cheap at auction

(<-- owns 2 CV PI's)

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: MacBaine
Nice. Maybe I'll be able to pick some more up cheap at auction

(<-- owns 2 CV PI's)

How cheap can you get them at auctions?

 

[MacBaine]

Originally posted by: jtusa4

Originally posted by: MacBaine
Nice. Maybe I'll be able to pick some more up cheap at auction

(<-- owns 2 CV PI's)

How cheap can you get them at auctions?

Got a '94 for $3000 w/ 6000 mi (real good find) and a 2000 for $4000 w/ 100k mi. This is all plus tax title and crap. Most of the ones you find are either beat to hell, look like crap, or need lots of repair. Every once in a while you'll find one or two that are in real good shape.

 

[jtusa]

Originally posted by: MacBaine

Originally posted by: jtusa4

Originally posted by: MacBaine
Nice. Maybe I'll be able to pick some more up cheap at auction

(<-- owns 2 CV PI's)

How cheap can you get them at auctions?

Got a '94 for $3000 w/ 6000 mi (real good find) and a 2000 for $4000 w/ 100k mi. This is all plus tax title and crap. Most of the ones you find are either beat to hell, look like crap, or need lots of repair. Every once in a while you'll find one or two that are in real good shape.

Sweet, I've always wanted a police cruiser as a toy. I'll have to look into the auctions around here.

 

[Pocatello]

The cops should buy the Chrysler 300C, that should make a statement.

 

[meltdown75]

the cops here still all drive Crown Vics, with the exception of 1 Pontiac Firebird and 1 Ford truck. Oh wait there are quite a few Impalas too.

 

[Ornery]

Originally posted by: Pocatello
The cops should buy the Chrysler 300C, that should make a statement.

Now you're talking! No fvckin' way I'd want to see our cops stuck in new Impalas or Intrepids.

 

[shimsham]

Originally posted by: CaptnKirk
Cameros, and Pintos, and Crown Vics Oh my !

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears . . .


Dallas converted some 175 of their Rolling Bombshells over to LPG to reduce thier impact on the
environment . . and those within the ground zero blast range.

They also quit buying Fords and are getting Dodge Intrepids
Fort Worth is adding some SUV's into their mix . . . hope they don't choose the Ford Exploder.

theyre going to regret that. dodes cars are POS, ime. cant speak for their trucks.

 

[Pacfanweb]

I can't blame Ford for getting pissed about being sued over something that is complete B.S. However, business is business, and pretty much the only full-size car left for cops to buy is the Crown. There are no competitors.
They have a captive market. Maybe they should just continue to sell them to the offending departments for a higher price. That is a LOT of units to give up sales for.
And other than law enforcement, mostly only old people buy Crowns....not like they're hot sellers to the public.

 

[Iron Woode]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
I can't blame Ford for getting pissed about being sued over something that is complete B.S. However, business is business, and pretty much the only full-size car left for cops to buy is the Crown. There are no competitors.
They have a captive market. Maybe they should just continue to sell them to the offending departments for a higher price. That is a LOT of units to give up sales for.
And other than law enforcement, mostly only old people buy Crowns....not like they're hot sellers to the public.

They are actually good sellers. CV and GM were out-selling Caprice and Roadmasters by a large margin.

Not just seniors buy them.

 

[Ornery]

Ford loves its big, V-8 cash cows

• Ford earns $7,000 to $10,000 on each Crown Vic and Grand Marquis, which sell for about $23,000, according to estimates from Wall Street analysts. Not bad for a car that hasn't had a substantial redesign in over a decade. Ford officials won't disclose earnings for the models but acknowledge they are very profitable.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: MacBaine

Originally posted by: jtusa4

Originally posted by: MacBaine
Nice. Maybe I'll be able to pick some more up cheap at auction

(<-- owns 2 CV PI's)

How cheap can you get them at auctions?

Got a '94 for $3000 w/ 6000 mi (real good find) and a 2000 for $4000 w/ 100k mi. This is all plus tax title and crap. Most of the ones you find are either beat to hell, look like crap, or need lots of repair. Every once in a while you'll find one or two that are in real good shape.

Awesome, I'm going to have to look into that one of these days.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: Ornery

Originally posted by: Pocatello
The cops should buy the Chrysler 300C, that should make a statement.

Now you're talking! No fvckin' way I'd want to see our cops stuck in new Impalas or Intrepids.

They are talking about that in our area here in GA too. They have been buying Intrepids to replace some of the Crown Vics....but the police have hated them because they are more cramped and the power isn't there like on the Crown Vics. They are now looking into the 300c's and Magnum.

 

[nakedfrog]

I'm pretty sure that around here, I've seen them in Intrepids, Impalas, and Camaros (in addition to the Vic).

 

[Pacfanweb]

Originally posted by: Iron Woode

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
I can't blame Ford for getting pissed about being sued over something that is complete B.S. However, business is business, and pretty much the only full-size car left for cops to buy is the Crown. There are no competitors.
They have a captive market. Maybe they should just continue to sell them to the offending departments for a higher price. That is a LOT of units to give up sales for.
And other than law enforcement, mostly only old people buy Crowns....not like they're hot sellers to the public.

They are actually good sellers. CV and GM were out-selling Caprice and Roadmasters by a large margin.

Not just seniors buy them.

Right, that's because the police buy them. They are NOT good retail sellers. Trust me, I worked at one of the largest Ford dealers in the country, and we stocked very few Crowns because we sold very few....other than the thousands we sold to the state/county/cities/towns, etc.

I'm sure they make a lot of money on them, because they've had the same body since 1992.

 

[SuperTool]

So does that mean they can move the GTO fuel tank back to under the trunk instead of in it?

 

[Pacfanweb]

Here are sales figures for the Crown for the last few years:
1998: 111,531
1999: 114,669
2000: 92,047
2001: 95,261
2002: 79,716
2003: 78,541

It's the worst-selling vehicle Ford makes, even with the government contracts.

 

[SuperTool]

Originally posted by: Pacfanweb
Here are sales figures for the Crown for the last few years:
1998: 111,531
1999: 114,669
2000: 92,047
2001: 95,261
2002: 79,716
2003: 78,541

It's the worst-selling vehicle Ford makes, even with the government contracts.

Well, even if they only make 5K instead of 10K profit with all the rebates, that is still huge for a product that doesn't cost them anything to develop. That is a 33% profit margin if it costs 15K to build and sells for 20K. It's very hard to come up with a product with 33% profit margin.

 

[Perknose]

P.O.'s should switch to Grand Marquis. They're unlikely to have this problem, as they are Mercurys.