If they made Panther cars again, to the last specification of the Ford Crown Victoria, Lincoln Town Car and Mercury Grand Marquis it would probably sell quite well.
The Ford Panther platformed in 1979 and got to its final evolutions in 2003 and lasted until 2011.
Ford: LTD / LTD Crown Victoria ; Mercury: Marquis (Later Grand Marquis); Lincoln: Continental (Continental Town Car then Town Car)
33 model years
It started as Ford downsized answer to the previous gas guzzlers and evolved into the immortal body on frame V8 land yachts we all know.
Started out with carbureted 302s/5.0 and ended up with a 4.6.
Key specs at the end
Displacement: 4.6 L / 281 cid
Valvetrain: SOHC, 2 valves per cylinder
Fueling: Sequential multi-port EFI - no direct injection (this is a feature)
Output: 239 hp 287 lb-ft torque
Transmission: 4R75E 4-speed automatic
Drivetrain: RWD
Block: Cast iron (truck-grade durability)
Why people still love this platform
Overbuilt bottom end
Timing chains
Ridiculously long service life
Cheap parts, easy to fix
Perfectly matched to the 'dont die' mission
What kills these platforms
- intake manifold failures, Dorman makes better than OEM upgrades
- transmission neglect - 4R75E will run 180-200k miles, then poof, goner. With regular fluid changes, 300k+ no problem.
- rear suspension air ride in the Town Car - most swap to coils if they fix it
- electrical rot, not failure - door wiring harnesses, window regulators, HVAC blend door actuators causing shit like stuck on full hot
- front suspension wear, ball joints, control arms, steering boxes - but most cars get this
- the real killer - rust. anywhere where salt hits the road this is what does them in.
These Panther cars can be fixed forever cheaply if the rust is kept under control.
If Ford re-ran the 2011 Panthers today in 2026 only changing the anti-rust coatings, they would sell every car they made and make money doing it. No bullshit. No faggot ipad replacing the gauge clusters. No renting features from some kike to turn your heated seats on. No complicated bullshit transmissions with no dipsticks.
Why Panthers are cool, and the list on why new cars are gay
1 - iPad glued to the dash interiors
giant tablet slapped on with zero integration, blinding at night, hard to see in the day, laggy in cold, software ages faster than the car, when it dies car is functionally crippled
used to replace a radio for couple of hundred bucks. now its a $3000 infotainment module coded to the VIN
2 - turbo engine faggotry
3 - buttons deleted, climate controls buried 4 menus deep, seat heaters behind touch sliders, volume controls that dont work with gloves, HVAC resets after software updates
Crown Vic: reach down, turn knob, done
Modern car: tap tap tap wrong screen tap swear
4 - renting your own damn car. now even TesFag is not doing lifetime FSD anymore. Heated seats: subscription Remote start: subscription Adaptive cruise: subscription Extra horsepower unlocked by software
You paid for the hardware, but now its got car DLC like its a video game.
5 - everything is a computer now and they argue with each other
30+ ECUs, CAN bus errors kill unrelated systems, one bad module can turn into a nightmare, a burnt out tail light can have downstream affects, random 'limp mode' triggers
6 - minor accident = total loss, this also drives insurance through the roof.
Radar in bumper, camera in windshield, sensors behind every panel, calibration costs more than the cars value
Fender bender in 1999: $800, Fender bender in 2026: insurance write off
7 - overengineered nonsense nobody asked for, electronic door handles, motorized vents, popout headlights (only this time it sucks rather than being cool as before), auto start/stop that causes engine wear
8 - dealer only diagnostics, locked ECUs, encrypted CAN bus, software updates that are hard for end users to obtain and update, parts married to VIN
Crown Vic: socket set + beer
Modern car: laptop + dealer + prayer, wait months for parts.
9 - batteries everywhere, all dying quietly
10 - engineered obsolescence by design
plastic oil pans, integrated exhaust manifolds, timing components buried behind engines, lifetime fluids (lol), nothing is meant to be rebuilt just replaced.
11. reliability sacrificed for fake MPG gains and marketing, tiny turbo engines stressed to death, CVTs pretending they work, cylinder deactivation failures, start/stop wear nobody wants
Panther V8 loafed along at 1,800 RPM forever
Modern engines live on the edge at all times.
12 - fleet durability is gone, no true body-on-frame sedans, no heavy-duty cooling, no idle-all-day design, no “will run after abuse” tolerance
13 - cars that nag you constantly, beeps for lane departure, beeps for speed, beeps for seatbelt, beeps because you looked at it wrong (now the fucking thing checks to see if you are looking where it thinks you should)
The Crown Vic trusted you to drive.
Modern cars fuck you in the ass digitally and sell your data to insurance jews.
I wish there would be a real car sold as new again, like a Glock version of a car. Simple, Does its shit like its a tool, lasts a long time, easily fixed.
What did I do to avoid a lot of issues with modern cars because all the new ones a fucking gay?
3 Toyota Camry hybrids, Sienna hybrid, A25 engine isnt a firebreather, but getting 45-50mpg is a nice feature and its not a slow piece of shit either. Enhanced with the Comma.ai openpilot self driving hardware. Its basically an electric car that has a gas motor in it and they never break. That planetary gear transmissions with motor/mg1/mg2 is pure genius, it takes profound retardation to break that transmission.