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Car Of The Day: September 11, 2009; Matchbox '96 Ford Crown Victoria Fire Chief
Topic Started: Sep 11 2009, 04:43 AM (372 Views)
Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
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Today's car of the day is Matchbox's 1996 Ford Crown Victoria fire chief.

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Wikipedia
 
The Ford Crown Victoria is a rear-wheel drive full-size car first produced by the Ford Motor Company for the North American market in the mid-1950s. Its current incarnation has been in production since 1992 at Ford's St. Thomas Assembly plant.

The Crown Victoria, and its Mercury and Lincoln stablemates, are the only full-frame rear-wheel-drive passenger cars built in North America. As of 2008 it is only available for fleet sales.

The Crown Victoria was replaced as Ford's flagship with the introduction of the 2005 Ford Five Hundred. However, the 5,424 Crown Victorias sold in January 2007 far exceeded the 3,526 of the newer Five Hundred (rebranded as the Taurus in 2008) which was a more technically advanced full-size car with similar passenger space and better fuel economy. But while newer front-wheel drive platforms may have been popular among consumers, they have not challenged the Crown Victoria's dominance as a taxi cab, fleet vehicle and police car where durability, cost and performance rather than efficiency are top requirements. The "Crown Vic" remains popular for these applications due to its conventional rear-wheel drive, V8 power, popular with police driving techniques. As one of the few remaining passenger cars with body-on-frame construction, it is rugged, and enables 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: ramming a car to spin it out. The Crown Victoria is one of the few surviving US vehicles still in production with features such as the column-mounted gear shift and a two-bench, six-passenger seating layout, which has otherwise largely been replaced by the two front-bucket layout popularized by imports.

Retail sales dwindled to just 3,000 in 2006, compared to 38,280 of its stablemate Mercury Grand Marquis in the first nine months of 2007. Following its withdrawal from Canadian retail dealers, the Crown Victoria has been limited in the US market since the 2008 model year to fleet sales, which constituted 95% of its total sales in recent years. The Mercury Grand Marquis, as well as the platform-sharing Lincoln Town Car, will continue to be available to retail consumers. A longer wheelbase version is available for taxi use.

While the Crown Victoria shares its platform and components with the Lincoln Town Car, it shares almost no exterior sheet metal or interior parts. The current model has had a number of upgrades. Since the exit of General Motors from rear-drive full-size cars with the Chevrolet Caprice, it held a near-monopoly as a pursuit vehicle in North America, despite front-wheel-drive offerings such as the Chevrolet Impala. However, the Dodge Charger has started to challenge this dominance with some significant adoptions among police and taxi fleets since its introduction. While there has been speculation of replacements, some based on the slightly smaller Australian Falcon, no firm plans have been announced by Ford; however the similar Grand Marquis has since been replaced by the Ford Taurus as the sole full-size offering in Canada.


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For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Crown_Victoria

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I'm glad that the previous generation Crown Victoria still has a home in the Matchbox range- even if it has been relegated to five packs. This is quite possibly the nicest this casting has looked (outside of the Premiere range), and it's always nice to see it given another run. I know a civilian version will likely never be made from this tooling, considering the real car has long since been replaced by a newer model, which itself is about to be discontinued, but it would have been nice!

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Wikipedia
 
In 1992, along with dropping the LTD designation, the Crown Victoria sedan (production of the station wagon having ceased in 1991) was completely redesigned to the rounder, eight-window shape (which shared many design cues with its contemporary, the newly redesigned 1992 Taurus), and there was a new 4.6 L Modular engine.

Critics disapproved of the Taurus-like front end; consequently, it was given a front grille for the 1993 model year. Also added that year was a reflector strip between the taillights.

Another minor restyle followed suit in 1995, with a new grille, taillights, and dash. To accommodate the design of the 1995's new taillights, the rear license plate was moved from the bumper to the trunklid, fitted between the taillights. The restyle was better received than General Motors' more radical restyle of the Chevrolet Caprice which may have contributed to its exit and Ford's ultimate dominance of this segment.

The 1996 model year brought two trim levels: Crown Victoria (base) and LX. Dual front airbags and a single-key entry system became standard, along with a hidden audio antenna, rear window defroster and tinted glass. A Handling and Performance Package with touring tires, an anti-lock brake system (ABS), and traction control system were optional and radial-spoke wheel covers were available on the base model. Automatic climate control and a JBL audio system became available on the LX.

For 1997, only slight adjustments were made in anticipation of a 1998 redesign. They included increased responsiveness and improved steering control.


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James
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Mr.Bowtie
That casting just screams "DETAIL ME"
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ivantt
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New casting? Quick! Take it apart!
I expected this casting to be used for a taxi, but they used the newer Crown Vic tool for that. I agree with Swifty, nice to see this tool still active. The five pack duty is fine, we get reasonably good schemes when they use it. It can always be put back in the mainline as a private community patrol, school patrol, business sedan for a real estate or insurance agency (NO ONE has ever issed a casting like that, although it's quite common to see them!) and other ideas.
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
I quite like the idea of this car being used as an insurance response vehicle! Or mall security for that matter...

How about this for a five pack?

'96 Crown Vic mall security
'83 Blazer or '83 Jeep military police
'93 Camaro or '99 Mustang pace car (generic liveries, not as Indy 500 pace cars)
'06 Crown Victoria in gray, with no light bar (or perhaps a newly tooled 'Starsky & Hutch' style gumball on the roof), as a detective's car
One of the generic buggies as a beach patrol (every 5 pack has to have at least one generic to save on costs unfortunately, though if that rule were to go away the VW buggy would work fine)
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Sak
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Ezekiel 25:17
Crown Vic for mall security would be a good choice: Paul Blart would have easy ingress/egress.
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ivantt
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New casting? Quick! Take it apart!
I'm for the above five pack idea by Swifty.
Here's a few other possibilities for the mix:
Make the Military Police (Army or Air Force) vehicle the Chevy Impala or Crown Vic. And DON'T do them in camouflage!! They use white or light colors with graphics for those cars just like any other law enforcement agencies. TACTICAL vehicles use the camouflage schemes, and MP's use those, too, esp the Humvee's.
The Tahoe could be used for a State Park patrol car or one of the more rural county police dept.s
Use the Dodge Monaco for a retro local police department.
Any small SUV, could be used for a local security (generic) patrol
Tons of possibilities
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