Marking the end of an era that stretches back virtually to the dawn
of the motorcar in America, the last body-on-frame, rear-wheel-drive
sedan from an American car company rolled off the line last week in
Ontario, Canada.
Workers from the St. Thomas Assembly Plant documented the last Crown Victoria produced on September 15 on their Facebook page.
Although sales to retail consumers in the United States stopped with
the 2008 model year, fleet sales continued to police departments and
taxi companies, both of which value the cars for their rugged
durability.
Ford introduced the Panther platform in 1979 with the LTD, which
later became LTD Crown Victoria and later just Crown Victoria. The
redesigned Mercury Marquis debuted the same year and Lincoln models
followed for 1980. All Panthers had V-8 engines, varying over the years
with different displacements and valvetrain layouts, with the last car
equipped with a 4.6-liter overhead-camshaft V-8. The Crown Victoria name
itself dates back to 1955, when it was first applied to the hardtop top-of-the-line version of the Fairlane.
Previously, the last Grand Marquis rolled off the line on January 4
of this year and the last Town Car met a similar fate more recently on
August 29. As well as marking the end of the body-on-frame sedan for
American manufacturers, the end of the Panther platform also marks the
last American rear-wheel-drive sedan with six-passenger bench seating.
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