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Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis

3292 messages,  Last post on Mar 24, 2013 at 8:46 AM

You are in the Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis Forum.

What is this discussion about? Ford Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis, Exterior, Sedan

Messages Page 269 of 330

#2677 of 3292 Fire cause solved ? Pinto still alive ? by rodut

Aug 28, 2005 (11:39 am)

Does anybody know if Ford fixed the gas tank in 2005 Crown Victorias / Grand Marquis ? If you search on Google "Crown Victoria fire" you get lots of articles like:
 
http://www.crownvictoriasafetyalert.com/purchases.html
http://www.crownvictoriasafetyalert.com/
http://www.autosafety.org/getcat.php?cid=34
 
where you can read awful things about these cars exploding and killing anybody inside, when hit in the back. I'd like to have an old style heavy car, but these articles scared me from buying a Grand Marquis.
 
Does somebody have some official Safety data, not from Ford, and not just feelings like "my CV/GM is the greatest of all and I love it" ?
 
Thanks.

#2678 of 3292 Rear Fires by jsylvester

Aug 28, 2005 (12:55 pm)

Carefully read the stories on those accidents - typically involves someone rear-ending a stationary Crown Vic at speeds exceeding 60 mph. In a morbid viewpoint, the fact the driver of the stationary Crown Vic even survived the collision for fire to be an issue tells you about the stoutness of the car. Typically in these accidents the tank is pierced by something that penetrates the rear wall of the trunk and into the gas tank (that is why there is no folding seat option). Storage of objects to prevent this has reduced this effect.
 
Statistically there the Panther platform is no more likely to catch fire in an accident than any other platform. In fact, if you go to the Insurance Institute of Highway safety website and check out the injury ratings for vehicles, the Grand Marquis is the 3rd lowest of any four door sedan sold in the United States.
 
The reason you see all the media attention about this is lawyers look for any feature that makes a car unique, and tries to make that the cause of any injuries. The Panther is the only body on frame sedan sold in the United States, and they think they can persuade a jury using that fact.

#2679 of 3292 Re: Rear Fires [jsylvester] by turbo301

Aug 28, 2005 (3:54 pm)

Replying to: jsylvester (Aug 28, 2005 12:55 pm)
Nicely said. The fact that CVs/GMs have had their gas tanks in the same basic spot since '79, and yet these allegations of poor design have only recently surfaced, is further proof that there are some individuals and police departments looking to make some quick money. What is ironic is that, if all of this bad press costs the life of the CV, those same police departments that sued will probably the first to whine about a lack of a good replacement (let's face it, the Charger really isn't well-suited to police duty).
 
Physics tends to dictate that ANY vehicle hit at a high closing speed will suffer pretty catastrophic damage. Because police duty tends to involve more dangerous situations, it should come as no surprise that their cars are involved in so many terrible accidents. The same would be true regardless of the cruisers they use, but you can't tell me that an Aveo cop car would fare better than a CV if it was whacked in the butt by a transport truck .

#2680 of 3292 Re: Rear Fires [turbo301] by esfoad

Aug 29, 2005 (5:25 am)

Replying to: turbo301 (Aug 28, 2005 3:54 pm)
All true. In fact, everybody knows the reputation of Mercedes Benz. Unfortunately and tragically n MB E class sedan was rear ended on the George Washington or Tappan Zee bridge within tha last year, caught fire and the family of 4 inside were burned to death. Physics is still the determining factor. There are some events that cannot be engineered out, no matter what the lawyers say.
CV's and GM's are still amongst the safest vehicles on the road. Period.

#2681 of 3292 Rear fires by rodut

Aug 29, 2005 (7:14 pm)

What makes the CV unique is not the body-on-frame, which is definitely an extremely good thing (for me). The unique feature is the fact that the gas tank is in the crash zone BEHIND (not in front of) the rear axle. And those bolts who punctures it.
 
The car looks extremely nice (and it will look the same for eternity). Still, both my wife's Chrysler Pacifica and my Honda Accord have the gas tank shielded between the axles.
 
jsylvester, I cannot find the injury ratings for vehicles at IIHS. Can you please type the web address and the links I should click on ? At:
http://www.iihs.org/srpdfs/sr4003.pdf
The Mercedes E class look to have the overall driver death =10, and the CV&GM have 53+83 = 136, which is not far from the Hyundai Accent !
 
Thanks

#2682 of 3292 Death Rates by jsylvester

Aug 29, 2005 (9:17 pm)

Very good find of information. I was using the link below for injury rates in making my statement:
 
http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ictl/ictl_4dr.htm
 
Hard to say why the death rate is different between the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis. One could hypothosize, but it would be conjecture. With identical vehicles, could it be the drivers?

#2683 of 3292 Re: Fire cause solved ? Pinto still alive ? [rodut] by spotbearsd

Aug 29, 2005 (9:48 pm)

Replying to: rodut (Aug 28, 2005 11:39 am)
http://www.cvpi.com/NHTSA.htm
 
***Above link is all you'll need to know about the fire issue**
 
NOTE- All 2006 Police Interceptors ONLY will have a fire suppression system as an available option for 2006. See link below:
 
https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/2006fleetshowroom/2006-CrVicPoliceInt.asp

#2684 of 3292 Re: MPG [jsylvester] by joe3716

Aug 30, 2005 (10:29 am)

Replying to: jsylvester (Aug 25, 2005 7:30 pm)
thanks for the correction. 3.27 is the correct final drive and not 2.75 or 2.73 for the handling package. tks to turbo301 too.

#2685 of 3292 Thanks by rodut

Aug 30, 2005 (6:56 pm)

Wow spotbearsd, that's great info. Thanks.
 
I would comment that the jammed door, after the gas tank explodes, is not too appealing.
 
Good luck

#2686 of 3292 Re: Fire cause solved ? Pinto still alive ? [spotbearsd] by turbo301

Aug 31, 2005 (3:22 pm)

Replying to: spotbearsd (Aug 29, 2005 9:48 pm)
Indeed, that was a very interesting read, thanks for posting that. It's interesting that there was the report way back in 1983, and then, what, 8 years until the next incident (at least in that jurisdiction)? They're all just freak occurrences, probably becoming more common due to more reckless drivers and yes, more reckless cops. They're just drivers like the rest of us, no better.

Messages Page 269 of 330

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