I am considering buying a current body style Lincoln Town Car. Any experiences or opinions? Is a high-mileage car safe to buy? What are your thoughts?

I have no experience with them other than I still see way more of them around than caddy's on the road these days. I still think Ford shot themselves in the ass doing away with their rear wheel drive sedan platform

There is no current body style Lincoln town car, they were discontinued in 2011 iirc. And if you mean previous generation, they've been the same since the late 90s/early 2000s.

ETA: they're good cars if well taken care of. A bit underpowered though.

One of the best cars that rolls down the road. Few issues outside normal maintenance.        
 

This is correct.

They're tough, thirsty old cars with ponderous handling.

They don't have much value because most people want something more efficient, more capable, better handling, or some combination of the three. If gas prices don't spike, a Town Car can be an affordable and very comfortable way to cover a lot of miles.

I have an '84 marquis, and let me tell you what...you don't take shit from Prius's, those chevy trucks, other cars etc. THEY gotta give you the road

you get American luxury. These cars don't just drive, they float. hence the name landyacht. Yep, you don't feel big bumps-you just drive over 'em suckas
you got style, elegance and power all in 1 package. Only downside is bad gas mileage but that can you can do some mods like to the filter to increase airflow and better oil/some mixes to improve gas mileage

my opinion:you are gtg, you made the right choice. I really DONT get why there isn't a market for these cars, they are some of the best in the world. Yes , I said that.

get a black paintjob, (I got mine at Maaco but they did a great job), and you will be looking like a boss . My friends ask all the time to drive my car around and blast that radio

Old man car. If you get a black one people will think you're driving for a car service.

Lincoln Town Car in Florida?

Go for it, Gramps.  It should have plenty of room for your Rascal scooter in the trunk.

Towne car and Marquis are good cars. Reasonably priced for used ones. Plenty of power. Good mileage IF you keep your foot out of them. We'd get around 20+.

Great ride and very comfy. Really nice on hwy road trips.

The downside we ran into on 90s models is lack of parts availability. Gas neck was rusted and there were no new ones. Common problem, so none at junkyards either.

The Ford Panther platform (Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, Town Car) ended in 2011. The Town Car was built at a different plant from the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis until ~2007 then it was moved to the same plant. If you look for one try to get one that is at least a 2003 model year. They did some significant improvements to the frame and it got rack and pinion steering.

They're good all around vehicles. Pretty simple with a proven drivetrain and other features.


If you get one that has a single exhaust, put a dual exhaust on it. It's free horsepower. the nice thing is the catalytic converters for the other side are already there so all you're really doing is the H-pipe and other exhaust pipe and muffler assembly.

I had a 96 Grand Marquis.  Great car for a college kid until the intake manifold kaboom'd.  Then a year or so later I tried it shut the car off, the key came out but the engine kept running.  After that the exhaust fell off; I wired it back on with a coat hanger.  

I traded it for a Camry not long after.

I have an 08 grand marquis. I say go for it.


They're good cars as long as your expectations are in line with their capabilities.

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

If you're younger than 65, just say no.

I have a 07 Designer series that I really like.

My parents had one... They report no issues with regular care & service...

Are you over 70?

Awesome cars.

I bought a 2001 for 8000 with 60K on it in 2004. I put another 205K on it and sold it for 3500.
It got an easy 24/mpg. Actually got 28 mpg once on a 300 mile road trip running ethanol free gasoline and watching the pedal.

Also got called pops, old man, gramps etc  by friends and family. ..lol.

They teased but they always wanted to drive the grandpa mobile when we took road trips.

Very comfortable, easy to maintain and durable.

I miss mine.

Better one from the Nacho Punch guys

Speaking from the perspective of driving Lincoln's on a daily basis hard use for about 5 years as a limo driver. Also as an owner of several.

We had one on the fleet that had 500k miles on it. They are very comfortable and for the most part reliable cars.


The bad:


Headliners - they seem to become delaminated and droop after several years is my experience on several


Paint on some - fades and flakes on hood and top and trunk, (may be certain years)


Rear suspension - it's a fucking nightmare. They are ballast bags that wear out over time and leak causing your ass end to drag and look unsightly and need replaced, high dollar. We learned a trick to just replace them with Crown Vic springs to fix the problem permanently. The ride wasn't noticeably impacted.


A hard use car has the door opened and closed more than normal. The weight of the doors (heavy) wear and shear the pins that hold them on. Seen it on more than one but not as much as the other issues I'm pointing out.


Head light switch - wears out, starts becoming temperamental. Seen it on many, a bitch to replace.


Ignition actuator wears out - try to start vehicle and nothing. Hard problem to diagnose unless you're familiar with it. Take it to dealership they had difficulty troubleshooting it. Charged me for parts and labor it didnt need. Seen this on several vehicles.


Heater system - there's a flap that directs the air, it has an actuator that wears out under the dash. You have to take the whole fucking dash apart to fix it, fuck what a pain in the ass. Seen it a few times.


And the # 1 fuck you that drove me to Honda's was a plastic intake manifold that cracked, Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you... Total my town car over a plastic manifold, fuck you... Rotten cocksuckers, fuck you.


Ok so they went to the new body styles in 1998 I think... All of my experiences were with the older body styles. They may have fixed some of the issues and not others, I don't know.


I would consider owning another though. All in all I loved the ride, and for the most part they were dependable. I was able to get well over 200k miles on them before I started thinking about replacing them.

ST most of the issues were fixed on the newer platform. My first crown vic was a 96 so I encountered some of the same things you did.



The intake was fixed in in 2002 model year. But yes I got fucked over hard on that issue on my 1996 too. For had a recall for the 4.6L manifold on pretty much every 4.6L in the their fleet EXCEPT the non-commercial CV/GM/TC. It was pretty gay. They didn't settle the class action lawsuit until 2005.


I totally forgot about the rear air suspension on the Town Cars. I had that on my '96 CV and it was pretty nice. But the common fix, if/when it fails, was just to put regular springs back on it if you were on a budget. I didn't have a problem through ~180k miles on mine but for some reason they seem to fail more on the Lincoln Town Cars and Continentals. I dunno if it was the extra weight or they used a different part number.




I haven't seen a lot of issues with paint on the last generation of panthers '98-'11 but I know that was an issue on the previous generation. My '96 was black and it had the clearcoat aids that was common to almost any black ford in the 1990's.




Window regulators that go out are pretty common. It's not too difficult or expensive of a fix. I've done a couple.




crownvic.net is a pretty good resource.




For the price I don't think you can beat a panther platform vehicle. I've got ~122k on my 2003 CV LX and I plan to keep it for another 100k miles or so. It's been holding up to tons of abuse and lots of long trips all over the country. I think i put around 25k miles on it before I changed the oil last time. .




I really really really wanna get a Marauder but I don't have room in the stables for one right now. :(.


 

Great cars, take a look how many miles they can go on the forums . I had an "01 I sold a year ago, wanted another XJ...