Yeah, it's functional plain and not Toyota's level of dullness.
If it's at or close to 100k, $3k engine out headgasket job is imminent. Also, if it has the 4 speed auto, runaway.
Sister sent me a link. It has 96k on it and the 4 speed.
Guess the 2012 soul she linked is better.
I reckon that if that six-window design had been given to the Crown Vic, we would still have it to this day.
Thinking about my last two rentals. If I had to choose one to buy, I'd much rather have the Charger R/T than the Jag XE.
That's because the guy that designed the VW B5 and New Beetle, setting VW's entire design language, went to work for Ford as their design chief.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Mays
The Aero-body Crown Vic had a not-dissimilar six window design. People were unconvinced.
Also, the CV exited production because the US introduced new, almost ridiculous rollover safety standards for cars and Ford couldn't justify the money to redesign the car and the chassis yet again. They also thought the new Taurus would take over from it in terms of sales... which appears to have been in error.
Until they have a proper RWD big sedan again, I don't see Ford doing well in the full size car market for the forseeable future.
Also, the CV exited production because the US introduced new, almost ridiculous rollover safety standards for cars and Ford couldn't justify the money to redesign the car and the chassis yet again. They also thought the new Taurus would take over from it in terms of sales... which appears to have been in error.
Until they have a proper RWD big sedan again, I don't see Ford doing well in the full size car market for the forseeable future.
Also, every idiot who says that a RWD sedan won't sell and a FWD/FWD-biased/based-AWD car is the way forward should be pointed at the Chrysler LX cars. Those are still selling very well despite the idiots at Ford and GM who've been saying a rear driver won't sell since before the CV went out of production.
I had this conversation with a friend not long ago, Ford is basically running a bespoke RWD chassis for the Mustang that they pretty much aren't using anywhere else. Why not use it as a platform for a big RWD sedan perhaps made by Lincoln?
I get the feeling somebody at Lincoln, Acura, or Volvo has a poster of Audi sales figures on the wall and tries to convince themselves that you can make it huge in luxury without dedicated RWD.So what does Ford have on the Mustang platform? Just the Mustang. What do they have in their luxury brand? A bunch of FWD and FWD-biased/based-AWD cars. And despite doing something really stupid by rebranding all their cars Q/QX a few years back and destroying their brand equity, Infiniti is still eating Lincoln's lunch. Every other volume luxury car brand has RWD vehicles and of the non-new ones (like the Genesis brand) only Volvo and Jaguar don't outsell Lincoln. Hell, even ACURA, which isn't a real luxury brand, is eating Lincoln's lunch.
Being Acura Lite isn't working for Lincoln. The new Lincoln Continental, if it's supposed to be a volume seller, isn't selling for shit - it will be doing well to crack 16K sales in the US this year. Lincoln needs RWD cars *bad*.
And there the Mustang platform sits, unused. Along with the last Falcon platform from Ford Australian.
That is the bit that I don't get. Fleets would buy six digits of these every year across their two brands. It's as guaranteed an income stream as white Ford F-150 XL's. By 2010 or whenever the rollover standards were announced, the Formal-roofed vic would've been in production for 12 years. I find it very hard to believe that the tooling wouldn't have been paid several times over. Hell, one source that eludes me right now tells me that bits of the floor were still from the 1979 LTD Crown Vic.
The conspiracy nut in me remains skeptical.
I get the feeling somebody at Lincoln, Acura, or Volvo has a poster of Audi sales figures on the wall and tries to convince themselves that you can make it huge in luxury without dedicated RWD.
If this is so, I would like to know what drug that person is taking so that I can avoid ever having contact with it. Most of the people that are going to buy FWD-based/biased-AWD sport/luxury platforms are going to buy Audi, and they're not likely to buy anything else.
Then again, just like our community's Ford engineer can't seem to understand why the standard gearshift on the Mustang's M82 manual transmission is garbage and needs to be replaced by a good aftermarket shifter to get an acceptable driving experience I have read that Ford/Lincoln planners do not understand why their FWD sedans aren't selling as they find them acceptable in their market spaces.
See also: Lexus RX, Lexus ES. Is the market really that saturated? Maybe in terms of brand perception.