In 1979 Ford Motors Company introduced the Crown Victoria and now 32 years later and 10 million “Panther Platform” vehicles after the fact (which includes the Mercury Grand Marques and Lincoln Town Cars) the last Ford Crown Victoria has rolled off the assembly floor line.
Ford said in a statement that more economical demands due to increasing gas prices killed the line.
“Production levels at the [Ontario, Canada] plant have declined by 60 percent in the last decade as customer preferences shifted to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles.”
Wanting to keep their employees happy after their jobs were literally closed down ford is offering $100,000 cash payments or relocation offers to all employees who worked on the vehicles, a deal the company struck with the Canadian Auto Workers union in 2009.
The need to shut down the plant became apparent last year when Ford sold just 80,000 Crown Victoria and Town Car models combined, numbers that couldn’t justify keeping a plant open when it’s capable of producing 250,000 vehicles annually.
Speaking about the vehicles rugged panther platform which is mostly used in trucks these days Ford spokesman Octavio Navarro said:
“You couldn’t kill it no matter what you did to it.”
I remember when my family use to drive around in a Crown Vic, we called it the “tank” because of the huge body and strong steel design.
In honor of the last Ford Crown Victoria feel free to share your own personal memories with the car.
