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Future Vehicles Future Crown Vic and Grand Marquis
152 messages, Last post on Jun 07, 2008 at 4:54 PM
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Replying to: ionosphere1 (Jan 04, 2008 7:24 am) The Town Car is NOT double the price of the Grand Marquis. A loaded '08 Grand Marquis can sticker out at almost $32,000, while it's impossible to get an '08 Town Car to sticker for even $50,000. So it's priced more like 50% more. Even back on the '07 model Town Car, you'd have been hard pressed to get that car to price out at $53,000, and even that's on a car with Navigation System and THX Sound System. The Town Car is engineered to be significantly more luxurious than the Grand Marquis, much less NVH (Noise, Vibration & Harshness), and significantly more available toys (i.e.: Pwr. Open/Close Trunk, HID Headlamps, Climate Controlled Seats, Memory Seats, Dual-Zone Climate Control, 17" Wheels, etc.), and more. But value is in the eye of the buyer; there are some who feel the image boost of the Town Car alone is worth the extra money. Often Christmas/New Year incentive programs are extended a few extra day, because the bean counters need to assess the market conditions and the size of their marketing purse. Most often the extension is not more than 2 or 3 days. In this case, I guess they felt they needed more research time. Production capability has been reduced, especially since the Town Car allocation will be eating up some of the plant's capacity, so I doubt that you'll see the $7,000 rebate level again, if any time soon. But as I informed you before, generally Ford will honor whatever the incentives were at the time of your order, or at the time of your vehicle delivery, but not any of those in between. Talk to your salesman about that. But don't worry about it, whatever it is, it is. Just take what's there and enjoy your new car. Don't worry about what could have been. I believe the Audiophile Sound System is made by Ford itself, but I'm not sure. Ford actually has a very robust sound systems production capability. Audiophile was originally created by Alpine, which is a high end European producer of audio sound systems. Unfortunately, the audience for cars like the Grand Marquis, don't tend to be as brand conscious as the yuppier crowd. The Town Car is construed to be in the luxury segment, and branded sound systems are just part-and-parcel of those segments. Hopefully now you have enough extra ammunition to keep you busy researching.
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Replying to: peetiedog (Jan 04, 2008 5:17 pm) -mike |
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| Thanks for all the information. Regarding inventory, I myself recently looked on the Mercury website and looked at inventory of about 10 dealers in this part of the state: my dealer had 1 (the one I testdrove) and none of the oher 9 had a single LS and only 1 other dealer had 2 GS's. I checked this about a week ago so it's probably still the same. | |
| What part of Washington are you in? Must be western Washington, near Spokane and Coeur D'Alene, ID area. If so, the dealers out in that area that carry Mercury are usually smaller and are combo stores (Ford/Mercury or Ford L/M). Otherwise one would think that in the greater SeaTac region (from Bellingham, WA down to Salem, OR, and from Aberdeen, WA over to Walla Walla, WA), there would be more of a selection available. There are multiple times more than 10 Mercury points in that region, and the dealer can run a regional locate as quickly as a cross town locate. For a customer who's anxious to have his car sooner, I would. If the exact car exists, maybe the customer would be willing to pay $100-$150 more in transport charges, to have the Seattle dealer trade to get the car from the Portland dealer. Then he could have the car within a day or two, rather than in 3 or 4 months. Also the dealer can have the sale today, rather than months from now; and take the chance that the customer becomes disillusioned and changes his mind on the whole purchase. Maybe it would be worth the dealer splitting the transportation charges, as a smaller bird in the hand may be worth more than a larger bird in the bush. Besides, customers shouldn't have to search out surrounding inventory, not when dealers have the tools to search more efficiently. But, that's how I think; maybe my thinking is warped. I'm just an old factory trained guy who thinks that customers still appreciate service. | |
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I looked at the inventory of all the dealers Mercury's website included for my Seattle zip code, which showed dealers near the coast and Canada too. Is a rare car in these parts. My dealer didn't even have a model for me to see when I went there. I had to wait a few weeks them to have one and they said it took them a few months to get it.
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Replying to: ionosphere1 (Jan 05, 2008 4:10 pm)  -mike |
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| As predicted, at exactly 9:00 Pm my time (midnight Michigan time), they changed the special offer deal, as they had to, as the date passed. Interestingly,they significantly decreased the interest rate for the Grand Marquis, but they did not change the dollar amount of $5,500 ;-(. Wonder why they did not increase the dollar option with it. Also strange that for the Sable, the interest rsate is a lot higher. And now the date's been changed to 3/31/2008. I still figured out that even though the interest rate is much lower, I'm still better off to take the cash reduction instead, even for 60 months. | |
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http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/editorials/ford-death-watch-40-mercury-rip/ If what he says is true, everyone better buy a Grand Marquis like me while you still can!!!! Don't know what he's talking about though regarding questionairre and only 4 vehicles. He's wrong on both counts. |
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and the recently enacted 35 mpg by 2020 law are what will finally sink the CV/GM/TC. I'd be really surprised if production continues beyond the '09 model year. By then, there will be enough late model, low mileage used ones on the road to satisfy the ever diminishing demand. For proof, look at resale values for the '03-'07 models. Not very good, and proof that demand is declining. Think about it; expensive gasoline will make these cars, rugged as they are, uneconomical for law enforcement and taxi service. For limo-type service the Taurus/Sable/(new for '09) Lincoln MKS will be better overall choices in the expensive gas era.
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Mar 05, 2008 11:31 pm) That gas is expensive is no more true than it was 40 years ago when it was .35 a gallon. If your income has not risen at least 10 times in the last 40 years, it is not the price of gas that is the problem. Everything else has gone up. Why should gas be exempt from price increases? 
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