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The Ford Crown Victoria (commonly nicknamed the Crown Vic) is a rear-wheel drive full-size car that was sold from the 1992 to the 2012 model years. Sold in two generations, it is the last of the rear-wheel drive Full-size Ford model line. Discontinued in the 2012 model year, its final incarnation had been in production since 1991 at Ford's St. Thomas Assembly plant. The Crown Victoria name (dropping its previous LTD prefix) was a reference to a two-door model sold in the North American market during the mid-1950s. While the Crown Victoria shared the Ford Panther platform and major powertrain and suspension components with the Lincoln Town Car, it shared almost no exterior sheet metal or interior parts; conversely, it was nearly an identical twin of the Mercury Grand Marquis. The Crown Victoria (along with its Mercury and Lincoln counterparts) was the only full-frame rear-wheel-drive passenger sedan being built in North America. It was also among the last vehicles still in production with features such as the column-mounted gear shift and a two-bench, six-passenger seating layout; a format which was dominant for US-manufactured vehicles from the 1950s into the 1980s. Today, this format has largely been abandoned in favor of the two front-bucket layout; consequently. After the 1996 discontinuation of the Chevrolet Caprice, the Crown Victoria held a near-monopoly as a police pursuit vehicle in North America. While newer front-wheel drive platforms may have been popular among consumers, they did not challenge the Crown Victoria's dominance as a taxicab, fleet vehicle and police car where durability, cost and performance are valued over fuel efficiency. The Crown Victoria remained popular for these applications due to its rear-wheel drive layout and V8 powertrain, both beneficial to police driving techniques. As one of the few remaining passenger cars with body-on-frame construction, it was rugged and enabled repairs after minor accidents without the need to straighten the chassis – an important benefit for a car frequently used by police forces for PIT maneuvers. As Ford began to phase the Crown Victoria out of the passenger car lineup, they originally promoted the Ford Five Hundred as its replacement, but as the Crown Victoria remained in production, it would outlive that model, which was replaced by the current generation of the Ford Taurus. |
