Five Hundred may spawn Town Car; Ford considering awd, V8 sedan

Joeychgo

Joeychgo

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I found the following news item on the AutoWeek website. The text of the article is:

Five Hundred may spawn Town Car; Ford considering awd, V8 sedan
RICK KRANZ | Automotive News Posted Date: 8/23/04

CHICAGO -- Ford Motor Co. will decide within 12 months whether to replace the Lincoln Town Car with an all-wheel-drive, V8-powered sedan developed by stretching the platform for the 2005 Ford Five Hundred.

"We have a number of alternatives we are looking at, and that is one of the alternatives," said Paul Mascarenas, executive director for medium and large front-drive and all-wheel-drive platforms.

"We are not scheduled to decide until probably around the third quarter of next year, when we have to have a firm decision and an approved program," Mascarenas said. He was interviewed at a Ford event here.

The mid-sized, fwd 2005 Five Hundred sedan and Ford Freestyle sport wagon, and the 2005 Mercury Montego sedan, are based on Volvo vehicle architecture. All three go on sale next month, and each will offer awd.

Mascarenas did not reveal all of the alternatives. But he said keeping the Panther platform on which the Town Car is assembled is an option. That platform dates to 1978 and is shared by the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis.

Suppliers familiar with the company's plans expect the redesigned Town Car, and possibly the LS replacement, to be developed on the platform shared by the Five Hundred, Freestyle and the Montego.

The new Lincolns are expected to be assembled at Ford's Atlanta assembly plant in 2007 or 2008, they say.


Longer wheelbase

A Lincoln model could be differentiated by extending the wheelbase and front and rear overhangs.

"I would think (the wheelbase could be extended) 100 millimeters (3.9 inches), 125 millimeters (4.9 inches) before you would need to start widening the vehicle to balance out proportions," Mascarenas said.

The three 2005 vehicles share a 112.9-inch wheelbase.

Mascarenas said a V-8 would fit the engine compartment.

While General Motors and the Chrysler group are expanding their lines with rear-drive models, Mascarenas said: "I'm not sure the customer needs rear-wheel drive."

But he said Ford will closely monitor response to the awd option on the Five Hundred and Montego.

"That will help us gauge customer reaction to the front-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive alternative, relative to a rear-wheel drive offering, and that in turn, strategic planning for the next generation of products," he said.


Tough competition

The Five Hundred and Montego will compete against the popular rwd Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum. Both offer awd.

But the mid-sized, rwd platform used by the Australian Falcon will not be adopted for Lincoln.

"We get better economies of scale, better manufacturing efficiencies, better engineering synergies by working with our available design architectures, our available power plants, our available cross vehicle line commodities," Mascarenas said.

For the Lincoln brand, he said the company is focused "on what is the best we can do with what we've got as opposed to looking for yet new, more different design architectures."
 
Man if they replace the Town car with something else, I will lost the rest of my respect I have for Ford.

That is wrong to replace a classic you know?
 
This Is An Outrage!

:mad: To qoute from the above article:While General Motors and the Chrysler Group are expanding their lines with rear-drive models,Mascarenas said: " I'm not sure the customer needs rear-wheel drive" :eek2:
WHAT THE :q ?!?!?!?! Quotes like that are what make me very angry with this "NANNY-NATION" of a country we live in today! I'd love to see this as- :q -le make a comment like that around, oh let's say the heads of police departments, highway patrols, and other governmental agencies that depend on rear-wheel drive vehicles to fulfill their duty requirements.
Who does Macarena, Mosca-moco, (whatever the hell his name is) think he is?!?" I"m not sure the customer needs rear-wheel drive."
OYE! Mocha-mecco! You're already forgetting about the subject before you even finish the *pinche*statement! WHAT ABOUT WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS?!? *puro pendejo*!
If y'all have ever seen the Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego you'll notice that they look like a 2005 (mis-)interpetation of a 2000 Taurus/Sable
If you haven't, when you do see one, you'll know what I mean.
Finally,if Lincoln decides to go through with this injustice to the Town Car,
name-change or not, I will find a way to legally change my Lincoln Town Car into a Cadillac Town Car! And Lincoln will have lost one more of their aspired target (30-40y/o) customers.And that would be a shameful thing to happen to such a beautiful marque! Let's hope they play their cards right, if they do,they could have me(and others like me)as new Lincoln buyers for the next 35-55 years thus ensuring continued success for possibly generations to come. However;if they screw-up, Cadillac could benefit greatly.
:L may soon be :C Town Car if FORD isn't careful!
Just call me Benedict Arnold then durn-it!
-------------------------------------------------
1997 Town Car Sig Series
 
Why doesn't Lincoln use the LS's chassis for the next Town Car? Does it cost to much to make it? Will the LS get a 4.6l V-8 from the 05 Mustang GT in a few years?

That would be awesome if the next Town Car had the LS's chassis! Put in a more powerful V-8 than the Mercury Grand Marquis and the Ford Crown Victoria. Or even a V-12 like the Lincolns of the 1930s!!

The market is clearly going back to rwd. The new Chrysler 300 is selling like hot cakes and the new Dodge Magnum looks like a hot rod, imo. Cadillac sedans are going back to rwd.

Lincoln SHOULD NOT abandon its LS chassis.
 
I read on another forum that Ford will make a new Town Car in 2006 it will run the same drive train, same chassis, and the 4.6 motor, has anybody else heard anything. :cool:
 
That 4.6L is very out-dated. They should make a new 5.4L 330HP for the new lincoln TCs and please update the interior, PLEASE. the 02s interior looks just like my 90 interor, although the older one were layed out better with the Digital speed stuff on the dash.

They should push the TC to the limit and put a new Digital dash that streches the hole front seat, and instead of just being the digitas it could be like a total color screen just like the new color screen cell phones, that would be very cool.

But my opion is usally useless to automakes because they wont lisent to me :(
 
Hey D-ICE i agree with you if the automakers would listen to those of us that drive the cars and use our input they could produce an awesome car. :cool:
 
If I had the money to hook-up my Lincoln tc with 18in wheels, that cool color screen dash (that I said before) and everything else I want, I would get started asap! :L
 
Since the 500 is basically the ford version of a volvo - the duratech and the fact that the car is quite a bit closer in all aspects to a taurus I doubt it is going to be a replacement for the towncars gm's and cv's. If law enforcement and taxis wanted fwd and awd's espically with most likely quite expensivly repairable trannys they would already be buying them more than the cv which they aren't. Every new car ford has you hear oh its gonna replace the cv, but its all pure speculation. Besides that all the mfgs are heading back twords rwd and further into awd. Most likely the cv gm and tc will be built fairly simply for a car at least as they currently are and redesigned somewhat in 06.
 
The fact is the law enforcement and taxi industry DON'T want FWD cars. They like the RWD cars just fine. The problem is that these cars are NOT big profit lines. They are big VOLUME lines but that's it. The reason is that the vast majority of these lines are not sold to retail customers, most go to fleets at huge discounts which cuts up-front profit while at the same time still being covered by full (and sometimes extended) warranties.
If Ford does change it's bread and butter RWD lines over to a more expensive, and less durable line, it will suffer the same problems that GM did back in '97 after they dumped the RWD Fleetwood & Caprice which at the time, were the most popular livery/fleet cars in the country.
 
ford doesnt know what their doing! its like the jag S-type your still buying a lincoln LS, same chasis, but with a few more goodies!
 
Actually cars like the cv are fairly profitable to the company as cars go make a pretty good percentage of their purchase price back to the company. Though not a super exensive car they are less complicated and sophisticated to build and redesign. Also huge discounts doesn't always mean no profits. A good example is jewelry or furnature sales. Do you really think they could do sales up to in some cases 25-50 or more percent off and still make money if the items weren' marked up considerably relative to their overal cost to create. I mean fleet car pricing has been around for years. Are you saying that nobody has been making any money on them except on the replacement parts assuming they use ford parts. There are quite a few civilian tc's gms and towncars.

Katshot said:
The fact is the law enforcement and taxi industry DON'T want FWD cars. They like the RWD cars just fine. The problem is that these cars are NOT big profit lines. They are big VOLUME lines but that's it. The reason is that the vast majority of these lines are not sold to retail customers, most go to fleets at huge discounts which cuts up-front profit while at the same time still being covered by full (and sometimes extended) warranties.
If Ford does change it's bread and butter RWD lines over to a more expensive, and less durable line, it will suffer the same problems that GM did back in '97 after they dumped the RWD Fleetwood & Caprice which at the time, were the most popular livery/fleet cars in the country.
Click to expand...
 
Randeaux said:
However;if they screw-up, Cadillac could benefit greatly.
:L may soon be :C Town Car if FORD isn't careful!
Click to expand...

Welcome to the dark side.

The 2008 DeVille will be on the Sigma platform (meaning it will have RWD and AWD). Rumors even have it being based off the Sixteen concept.
 
Yeah, I heard that it will be "styled" like the Sixteen but I hadn't heard that it will be RWD or AWD. Cadillac is supposed to be working on an all new car to go up against the upper level cars like M/B S-class and BMW "7" series but I had heard that the Deville was pretty much staying as is as far as drivetrain etc.
 
I've heard the same myself, If the DeVille is styled anything at all like the Sixteen concept, Lincoln might still have a problem! That Cadillac Sixteen is WICKED!
(I'd trade in the Dakota though, I still love my '97 LTC.)
 
Future Towncar

D-Ice said:
If I had the money to hook-up my Lincoln tc with 18in wheels, that cool color screen dash (that I said before) and everything else I want, I would get started asap! :L
Click to expand...

I think Lincoln could learn something by looking at my wife's 98 towncar. It has 18 inch wheels, a supercharged engine and about $35,000 in aftermarket goodies including the color screens front and back. At the car wash today someone asked if it was a 2005 model. (Look for the 98 supercharged Towncar on this board) I think Towncar owners would prefer a strong 5.4 engine, modern dash, bigger tires and wheels and leave the rest of the car alone. It's a winner for at least a few more years.

I have not driven nor seen a Ford 500 up close. It's pretty radical and I'm not sure if the Volvo designed Ford will be a big hit or not. Ford's going to be in a lot of trouble if it isn't.

John B
 
Allow me to rip that article to shreds!

I'm a blue oval man, really. But if they do this then they may just lose a loyalist.

We don't need RWD?!! Bull:q:q:q:q! In an industry where everybody under the sun is finally waking up and the trend is going back to RWD, Ford is talking about taking it's few RWD vehicles and slaughtering them! The Big F is making The Big F-up!

Also, there are a lot of people who would love to see a true Chrysler and Cadillac parallel to the Town Car, something which hasn't been seen in Cadillac since 1996 and in Chrysler since like, 1983 or so. Then of course Dodge and Chevy and Buick etc could come back too.

The current Panther cars are such good cars that even if Ford just shoves them off in a corner and forgets about them, then they'd still be good cars. But if Ford would put half a heart into their panther cars, then they would make them into spectacular cars and then that may pursuade the other big two to bring theirs back, but if ford euthanises the panther, then it puts to rest (probably forever) the boat car.

I for the most part have always prefered the Lincolns of the past to the Cadillac's of the past, but lets face it, this current generation of Caddys are so good that the current Lincolns just aren't holding up... the one and only reason I still remain loyal to Lincoln even now is because Lincoln has a true, honest, classic boat car and Cadillac does not... change this fact in either direction, and my loyalty will probably swing.

We need to speak out against this...otherwise it will happen......

did the article say anything about the supposed minor/moderate redesign of the panther trio for 06?
 
This is what Lincoln needs to do.....

Redesign the interiors on all of their cars

Either give the LS some balls a la maybe throwing in a detuned version of the
03-04 Cobra's motor or offer a Mark IX package that is a high performance version of the LS

All cars need performance boost across the board

STAY WITH RWD!!!!!

With everybody and their mother going RWD, and high power Lincoln needs to follow suit. Cadillac is going crazy with the V Series so where is Lincoln at to answer the call!?
 
I really think that Ford will never abandon the V8 RWD full-size car.
They want to keep that alive...
and gov't agencies like the long life of RWD powertrains, as do I.
true, an AWD option would be nice for those that are pansies and don't know how to drive RWD...hehehe
i do believe that the 5.4L engine would be nice, but not in the TC...just for the simple fact that it's a luxury car, not a Hot Rod....however, putting that engine in something like a mark9 or something would be great!
i'd also like to see a Crown Vic with these mods:
-5.4L 330+ hp engine
-5 speed auto/manual trans
-2 drs
that would really sell!
thank you for reading!
:steering

Furthermore...
I do believe that Lincoln's version of the 500/Montego will be the zephyr...
 
Or even a V-12 like the Lincolns of the 1930s!!.[/QUOTE said:
I think they stoped the V12, with good reason It leaked like a mofo and no power. But I see what your saying they need to keep up with outher car in the class. more power and RWD has neaver been bad for sales. I have trust in Bill ford, I met him once and he really likes the mustangs so he aint all bad.
Click to expand...
 
mrlandyacht said:
Furthermore...
I do believe that Lincoln's version of the 500/Montego will be the zephyr...
Click to expand...


Actually, the Zephyr is based off of the same platform of the Mercury Milan, and Ford Fusion. These platforms are a modified version of the Mazda Six. They simply modified the inteior to be more roomy.

All three will be offered with FWD and AWD option coming in 07 and the Milan and Fusion will be hybridized by 2007.

I think that these cars are great looking.

But I would not buy them unless they were AWD.


TownCar97 :L
 
A FWD Town Car would be gay. They need to keep the same fullsize car as it is now. No, they need to make it bigger, keep the Ultimate extended wheelbase as the base model, and stretch that for an extended model. They need more standard options. Standard HIDs and standard moonroof would be a start.

They should also resurrect the Town Coupe.
 
wtf they would b just crazy to abandon what sells so much and is on of the easiest identible car for them i personally cant c how they could get rid of the rwd tc i live in florida and i see them like everytime i turn around and yes a fwd tc would b gay

but what id love would b a ls wit a sportier maybe supercharged engine or even going back to the mark line
 
This is what Lincoln needs in my opinion

an LS
a Town Car
a Navigator
a Mark IX
a Continental
some sort of roadster or convertible
 
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