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Sedans Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis
3244 messages, Last post on Aug 25, 2009 at 8:13 PM
You are in the Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Sorry about not responding sooner. We haven't bought the GM LS Ultimate Edition yet as we're still looking at other brands & models. The sticker price on this particular model was about $27,000, which is not the invoice price. We liked its interior, general looks, and features but I gave it a limited test drive at that time. This Edmunds website has good advice on how to test drive a car and I'll follow what it says for my next time behind the wheel of the GM LS Ultimate Edition. BTW, for what-it's-worth for anyone interested, read the Feburary 2003 Consumers Report issue "Cruising For Comfort" on the Toyota Avalon, Buick Park Avenue, Lincoln Town Car, and Mercury Grand Marquis. The Grand Marquis was rated by CR at the BOTTIM of thisgroup and CR's comments on the GM has given us some second thoughts on buying this car after our initial impressions of the car. CR's comments and rating on the Lincoln Town Car has also influenced our thoughts on this car. The Executive model of the Town Car line was the one I drove, also in a limited course near the dealership. The wife doesn't want us to buy the Toyota Avalon, which was rated at the top by CR, and sitting behind the wheel during a short test drive, I found its comfort level not up to par with the TC Executive nor the Mercury GM Ultimate Edition. Comfort is a major feature that both of us want , as well as reliability and some other major features. Today we're looking-at / test-driving the Buick Park Avenue base model and Park Avenue Ultra. This would be something like a $10,000 step-up in price, but with mfg. incentives and the wife's Honeywell General Motors or Ford discount offered at her job, we might be able to live with the bottom line. The Park Avenue is longer than the GM LS Ultimate Edition, so we'll be measuring our standard-sized garage to see if it'll fit. Will get back to the Town Hall soon. Would like to hear from others about the Grand Marquis and other big-'an-comfy easy-riding new cars they've driven or bought . |
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| the RWD GM or TC. Having driven both, the rack & pinion steering of the TC is preferred and the automatic leveling system makes it just right. Dealers in the NW are knocking 10 grand off MSRP on all TC's "in stock". Remember the Buick is with an old 80's V6 engine while the TC has the 90's OHC V8 coupled to a much better transmission. | |
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Hey dinu, Not owning or having driven a 2003 CV or GM, I can't objectively state whether CR is accurate in their description of the car or if CR is missing a cylinder or two, but consider this: I've been a subscriber to their mag since the late 80's and have read all of the reviews of the CV/GM since their redesign for 1992. CR generally liked the car, especially with the handling and performance package, to "help control the wallow" - from one of their 90's issues. CR generally praised cars for having taut European ride and slammed anything that required you to actually slow down in a turn. Now, that Ford has stiffened the CV/GM frame and generally followed the blueprint that mags like CR keep preaching, guess what...IT'S TOO STIFF AND JIGGLY. I have a friend who is in the highway patrol, and they recently replaced his 2001 CV with a 2003 model. I asked him if he liked his car or thought it was worse, considering all the maneuvers he has to undertake that you and I wouldn't dream of (doing a 180-degree turn in the median and getting up to 140 mph to chase someone). He said that except for the tires that came with it being bad - and having to be replaced - he liked it better as it didn't seem to flex and groan as much as the old one did. Nor did he complain about the highway ride. Considering he puts about 40,000 miles a year on his cruiser I put that up against CR and their 150 mile test drives! Not going off on you buddy, but I get tired of CR and their Japanese bias. I certainly can't say Japan makes a bad car, all things being equal. However, CR does seem hell-bent on making sure that whenever they have the opportunity to preach to us, once again, as to why we should all buy Hondas, Toyotas, etc., that they will take that chance gladly. It would seem that on the subject of cars, they're as biased towards models from Japan as the French are towards Saddam these days. Happy hunting and I hope you find the right one for you. For the record, I own a 1998 Regal GS - a car CR has called everything except a car you'd want to own. I do have to buy premium fuel, but manage to get about 30 on the highway and have few repair expenses except those which you would call "normal and customary" for a car pushing 65,000 miles. I'm a lover of RWD cars and hope Ford doesn't do anything to close them out anytime soon. |
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Thanks to you both for your input. The wife and I went to a Buick dealership in the NW part of Phoenix, AZ , living next to Sun City as we do, and drove the Park Avenue Ultra on the 101 Loop and some city driving. It's a nice comfortable car, nice interior, lots more leg room for back seat passengers than some we've seen, and it has a classic exterior look. On the down-side, it's priced above what we think it's worth although it's likely that we could get the price down further below the incentives offered and the wife's Honeywell discount, if we were doing some serious horse-trading in the future. We'll check out the purchase plan at Costco which some or many dealerships participate. Cars can be bought at the invoice price plus a few hundred dollars, according to what we've heard. As for the Grand Marquis and other cars, we'll have to take some more drives in them....with the danger of getting to the point of being dizzily slap-happy, befuddled and confused! The wife suggested that we rent one or more of the cars we're interested in on a one-day use, to get an extended feel for each car. We may do that. BYW, yesterday we also took a second drive in a Toyota Avalon XLS with bucket seats at a dealership near the Buick one and had a more favorable impression of it this time around: very quiet, very comfortable bucket seats, nice ride, responsive handling, and lots of leg room in the rear passenger's seat behind the drive, even with the driver's seat all the way back for a guy like me with long legs. The wife likes it a lot now. (Seems though we like at the time we drive them and then later the next week can't remember enough of last weeks' impressions to use in comparing this week's test drives in other cars! Shopping for new cars 'taint essy for sure.) Price-wise the Avalon is on the high side and with no incentives, due I suppose in part to the high demand for this car. As I said we'll be going to the Grand Marquis dealership and giving it another, but this time longer spin. Thanks again for your input guys! |
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I am told all levels include Traction Control & a CD player. The most models have a 2.73:1 axle ratio. LS Premium: Garage Door opener Auto dim mirror Overhead Console Power passenger seat Leather seats LSE: 3.27:1 axle ratio Floor Console Handling Package 239 engine 5 passenger leather LS Ultimate: Single exhaust Digitale dash Rear Air White side wall tires As rear leg room seems to be an important factor to you, I suggest the Executive Towncar for $29 and change. Have fun shopping. |
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"We'll check out the purchase plan at Costco which some or many dealerships participate. Cars can be bought at the invoice price plus a few hundred dollars, according to what we've heard." Costco? How many cars do you have to buy to get that price? 
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Good afternoon "kinley" and "rea98d". My better half and I have been busy in the kitchen cooking up a storm and the Dallas - Sacramento NBA game on ABC finished a while ago so I'm back on line. Dallas won thanks to a great overtime performance by Steve Nash. Yes, our Phoenix Suns wewre the ones who shipped Nash to Dallas. The Suns ownership has made many a bone-head trade in the past. Thanks kinley for the info. The LS Ultimate Edition that I drove had leather seats and was the only model I've driven as yet. As I remember the GM Ultimate I drove also had Power passenger seat in the front too. We'll check out the LS Premium soon. As for the LSE it may be too long for our standard-sized garage. Would like to have anyone's take on CR's "negative" comments about the GM. Specifically, what things did CR say that you believe not to be true? In answer to rea98d, the Toyota sales rep we talked to Saturday told us about the Costco car-purchase program just before we left. He said that all we had to do was come back to his dealership when we were ready to buy and present our Costco card and we could buy our pick of Toyotas at invoice plus $300. Do you have Costco in your part of the country rea98d? Costco was once named Price Club. We also have Sam's Club here in the Phoenix area but we don't belong to it. Don't know any more than that until I go to Costco next week and check with them. Will ask Costco how many/which dealerships participate in this program. Will get back online to this Town Hall discussion group and let you know. Have to tell you a funny thing that happened at the Buick dealership we visited on Saturday. They ran an ad in the Arizona Republic that they were selling Buick Park Avenues "up to $12,000 off". During the time we were with the sales rep we didn't ask him about the ad but after we parted company, I asked another salesman near a Park Avenue in the showroom about the ad. He pointed to the PA near by and said that was the one the ad was refering to. I walked over and sure enough it had "$12,000 off " painted on its windshield. On closer examination, I discovered that it was a base Park Avenue not an Ultra, and the inflated sticker price they had on it was well over $50,000!!! Well, when $12,000 is taken off that sticker price, it still was over $38,000 for this base Park Avenue, which was higher priced than their Ultra. Didn't check what options were listed on it but it looked like a sales come-on to me. Would be interested to know about any sales-come-ons you two or others have encountered in the past. With Smetana's Moldau flowing in the background, I'll say 30 and 73s to all. |
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dinu - I would re-think any decision on that Buick Park Avenue even if they offer $20K off. The reason is that Buick's biggest available engine is the 3.8 V6 which is seriously undersized for a car that size. Buick compenstaes for this by offering it with a supercharger; what it really needs is a V8 like the Northstar that Cadillac has. I have a friend who has a Park avenue and the supercharger just went south to the tune of $2600. Who needs to start with that type of handicap. The 3.8 V6 was initially introduced in the sixties; I had one in a 77 LeSabre and didn't think much of it then. Ron |
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Thanks Ron. We've pretty much ruled out the Buick anyway. A question for you: If you were buying a new comfortable, reliable, quality 4dr passenger car with plenty of room, decent handling ability and sufficient power to handle certain conditions where the power was needed, what make and model would you pick? Low re-sale value is of no concern to us as we'll be keeping the new car we buy for ten or more years. Price is somewhat of a concern and the Lincoln TC Executive may be stretching us too much. We've narrowed it down to three cars thus far: the Toyota Avalon XL or XLS, the GM LS Ultimate Editon, and the Lincoln TC Executive. On paper, nothing in the Chrysler line seems interesting enough to look into, including their 300 model. Nothing else that Ford or General Motors makes catches our eye or pocketbook. Don't know about the Acura, the Mitsubishi or other makes. As for the GM and the TC, we have some reservations on the quality for long-term ownership based on some reviews we've read. Do you or others on this forum have any reservations on these cars? Others viewing this forum are welcome to voice their opinion in answering the question I asked at the beginning of this post. BTW, I'm wondering if any of the car makers anonymously post comments in the Edmunds' Town Hall forums and/or other similar websites. I don't see how Edmunds or other websites could screen out such posts. |
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