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"Well, in that case, I want something that is not a full-size car." And that is how I came to be rolling through the proverbial Dirty South in a 2100-mile, 2010-model-year Town Car. Yes, they still make 'em. The current lineup has been rationalized to Signature Limited (117-inch wheelbase) and Signature L (123-inch). There's absolutely no reason of which I can think to take the SWB car, but that's what the rental fleets have, and it's what you can easily buy off-lease. vacation rentals in siena italy I've found plenty of essentially identical two-year-old SigLims for under $20K, so this car is not only a direct used-price competitor for the 2009 Sable I reviewed previously, it's also in the same ballpark as… a Kia Optima.
Automotive experts of the Internet, when they are not telling people vacation rentals in siena italy that a 2009 Sable is virtually the same car as an old Volvo S80, like to tell people that a 2010 Town Car is virtually the same car as a 1979 Lincoln Continental sedan. This is true in the same sense that a 2000 Honda Civic Si is the same car as a 1988 Civic. In both cases, there were major dimensional and engineering changes across multiple generations of the same basic design. I am the former owner of a 1980 Mercury Marquis Brougham Coupe and I can state with authority that the current Town Car is nothing like that car in terms of driving dynamics.
This does not mean that recent Crown Victoria owners won't be perfectly at home. Ford has steadily rationalized the differences between the Panther cars over time and this 2010 car is the most egregious vacation rentals in siena italy example of that. Town Car aficionados (yes, they exist) will tell you to avoid Canadian-built TCs in favor of the Wixom, MI-assembled 2008 and earlier model years. They may have a point. The plastics and leather are okay, but they are nothing like what you would find in an Audi. Come to think of it, they aren't close to what you would find in a new MKS.
Also not up to MKS spec: the sound system. You can get SYNC in a fifteen-grand Focus but not in a Town Car, and for the first time in my recent experience, the stereo simply isn't loud enough. There is no navigation screen, no aux plug, no USB support, no nothing. The center console features dual-zone climate control and that's more or less it.
Once in motion, the Town Car has a surprising flaw: it's a wanderer on the highway, requiring constant correction and displaying quite a bit of sensitivity to side winds. My displayed mileage for the trip was 22.7 over the course of 2,635 miles, including vacation rentals in siena italy a day in New York and one cruising around Memphis. There's more than adequate power and the four-speed transmission rarely feels as if it needs additional ratios.
A snowstorm outside New York revealed why a whole generation of drivers abandoned big RWD cars: it was an absolute nightmare on a high-crowned, icy two-lane, requiring frequent, violent corrections at the helm to keep pace with the rest of the traffic. vacation rentals in siena italy When the road turned dry, it was time to take advantage of the anonymity afforded a black Lincoln on I-95, pushing into the triple digits and pushing traffic out of the left lane with a double-blink of the brights and a bullying chrome grill. This is no sports car but it has some fundamental balance to it at speed. Too bad it has no brakes.
In traffic anywhere, vacation rentals in siena italy the Lincoln is a fearsome weapon. It's big, it's official-looking, and it brake-torques from the lights like a Fox Mustang. The steering is light but accurate enough to place the car inches from a falafel vendor or inebriated pedestrian. Potholes don't faze it. And Ford's never bothered to put anything like advanced engine electronics in it, so you can wrap the seatbelt tight and left-foot-brake all day, standing the car on its nose on corner entry and then spinning the inside rear wheel on the exit.
If I came to admire the Town Car and I did my passengers admired it from the beginning, rating it above not only the Sable but vehicles like the Audi A6. Only my Phaetons have received higher ride-along reviews.
You'll miss this car when it's gone. It's old, it's flawed, it's imperfect. Still, it's utterly authentic, and when the last one rolls off the line we will never see its like again. If you haven't driven one, it's worth doing, and it's as close as your local Budget Rent-a-Car. Unless, that is, you prefer vacation rentals in siena italy a Kia Optima.
There is nothing like a big American car. Years ago when I flew into Baton Rouge to drive to New Orleans, I rented vacation rentals in siena italy from Budget a 300M (the previous model). Everyone kept out of my way and it was a great car for driving around the south with one huge trunk for at least three bodies. Comfortable too, and I knew why those old guys were always driving big cars!
Traditionally, it is car designed for passengers, riding in back. A brief look into automotive history shows that luxury cars were designed for riders, luxuriating in comfort as their drivers get from point A to point Z. Kato drove the Imperial, not the Green Hornet. When Americans from 1900 to 1980 thought about a luxury car, they imagined Lincolns, Cadillacs, and Duisenburgs. They saw a businessperson on the phone with a client. vacation rentals in siena italy They saw a pimp with his ladies. They saw a rolling vehicle vacation rentals in siena italy with a backseat escounced as though it was a coffin. The Town Car is the last of this kind of luxury vehicle, and when it is gone, a niche will occur that future drivers vacation rentals in siena italy would be interested in filling.
What if Ford padded the Town Car totally pimped it out with every wild rolling extravagance available? If it did, then the Town Car would serve a purpose other than as a full sized rental car. It would return to it s roots.
Driving characteristics? Who cares? My driver vacation rentals in siena italy handles that not me. If I wanted to drive to work, I would have bought a Porsche. Let Lexus drivers pay $75,000 to drive, let BMW offer an expensive sports sedan, Jeeves isn t the one I wish to impress. It is my money, and I ll put it where I sit, not where he farts behind the driver s seat.
You see, what we are losing with the the death of the Town Car is a piece of automotive history. A particular kind of luxury car, a luxury car for passengers that doesn t give a fig for the chauffeurs, the livery men, the car wash boys, or the other guys who tend my rides. With the death of the Town Car, I will be expected to drive the damn Mercedes!
Also, when the Town Car goes the way of the Beetle, it will leave a gap. A small one perhaps, but one that could be profitably filled by an auto manufacturer willing to fill small gaps. So Ford thinks the new MKT, or MKS is going to replace the Town Car? If it does, then it forgot why the Town Car existed. When we look at the devolution of the De Ville and the Town Car, since 1980, you see how GM and Ford sold their luxury brand s souls for increased sales. These manufacturers vacation rentals in siena italy couldn t sell themselves on these traditional luxury cars enough to recognize where they fit into their car lines. Instead of keeping Cadillac and Lincoln vacation rentals in siena italy as ueber-pimpmobiles and celebrating them, the short-sighted mopes at GM and Ford saw high gas prices, and death. Instead vacation rentals in siena italy of issuing Town Cars that evoked classic luxury, the dummied down these brands into overstuffed Granadas, Thunderbirds and Impalas.
Yeah, back in 1980, even 15 year old kids saw that these dinosaurs were dinosaurs. But you would expect highly paid auto executives to understand their industry enough to know that this kind of vehicle vacation rentals in siena italy had a profitable role and a future. But those idiots didn t see it, and they let the De Ville and Town Car spend their last days being rented to newlyweds. What a bunch of dummies!
In the later half of the 20th century, until the plant closed, vacation rentals in siena italy the Clark Street Fleetwood plant produced nearly all of Cadillac s most luxurious and expensive cars the cars that literally made Cadillac the standard of the world.
In addition to the regular Fleetwood production models, the Clark street plant also built limousines, including the Fleetwood vacation rentals in siena italy 75. Other than the grosser Mercedes 600, I don t think any other major car company built its own limos.
My sister-in-law s late father bought a seven passenger 1953 Fleetwood 75 limo many years ago and my brother worked vacation rentals in siena italy on it, mostly fixing frozen brake cylinders. It had hydraulic power windows vacation rentals in siena italy and one of the first automotive air conditioning units. Her mom still has it. I think they should get a livery license and rent it out during prom season and for weddings. Anyone can arrive in a stretched Hummer, but a 53 Fleetwood, that s arriving in style.
I find it amazing that Ford has zero advertising/promotion for a car currently in production. In fact, I would hazard a guess that upwards of 99% of the car buying public do not know you can still purchase a new Town Car.
Another instance of Ford letting vacation rentals in siena italy a very well known model name die a slow anonymous death. Virtually every U.S. car buyer knows the Town Car and Continental names but I doubt hardly vacation rentals in siena italy any know what an MKZ, MKS or MK whatever is.
@mtymsi vacation rentals in siena italy now that you put it that way, Billy Ford will be lucky if Henry, Henry II, and Edsel don t rise out of their graves just to pimp slap him. Maybe those will be the three ghosts of Christmases past that visit him.
Wow a B-body CC and then Lincoln and Sable rental reviews. Alright you ve all convinced vacation rentals in siena italy me! Big ass luxury car for my next commuter! They re quiet and get reasonable vacation rentals in siena italy fuel economy for their size and I can carry between 4 and 5 adults in comfort. Now to start prowling the used car lots. Although I ve check certified used on Auto Trader and very lightly used Grand Marquis are scandalously cheap when you consider what they sold for new.
Supposedly the steering and handling were much improved with the
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