At almost 19-feet in length, this 1977 Ford LTD sedan is no shrinking violet. This was the era when Detroit gave us gigantic expanses of sheet metal, sometimes seemingly for no other reason than for sheer size. The seller has this big brown sedan posted here on craigslist in Shakopee, Minnesota and they’re asking $9,000 firm. Thanks to T.J. for sending in this tip! Here’s the original listing.
This car has a pretty amazing history, at least when considering that it’s 45 years old, it only has around 22,000 miles on it (the odometer photo shows 21,411), and everything on it is original right down to having the same tires on it as it had when it was driven off of the dealer’s lot in 1977! I kid you not.
This is a second-generation Ford LTD, a four-door pillared sedan in Dark Brown Metallic and it’ll carry 17 people with no problem. Well, maybe not that many but we would have filled the giant trunk space on this car to sneak people into the drive-in back in the late-70s, not to mention having at least six people in the seats. The second-gen LTDs were made for the 1969 through 1978 model years and there were some significant design changes in that decade.
As expected with a 22,000-mile car, the interior looks basically like it did back in 1977. As GM was downsizing their full-sized vehicles in 1977, Ford wanted the traditional full-sized car buyer to have a big car so they didn’t downsize these monsters until the 1979 model year. Although, they did introduce the smaller LTD II for those folks who wanted a slightly smaller Ford. The back seat on this LTD looks perfect as expected.
The engine would benefit from a couple of hours of detailing and I bet it would look almost like new again. It’s Ford’s Windsor 351 cubic-inch V8 with a two-barrel carburetor, 160 horsepower, and 290 lb-ft of torque. The seller says that it runs great and this big LTD would bring a lot of big smiles to the visitors at any car show.
It’s amazing to consider that the T-bird ended up on this platform and looked strikingly similar.
Amazing is not the word that comes to mind.
The 1977 Thunderbird was based on the Torino platform, a bit smaller than this (not much). That would have been the same platform as the LTD II.
I used to have a car just like this . It came in second in the demolition derby .
Low mileage but (unlike the red VW) not so low you’d feel you were destroying it by actually driving it. Just gotta swap out those original 1977 Maypops before covering any distance at all.
Quite the unlikely survivor. She is a beauty for a malaise era car and good for the crank windows, less trouble. Remove the pollution junk, if possible, and enjoy.
Kids now days don’t understand the joy of dating and parking in a car like this. Many couples married today dated in cars like this
Best buy on this site. Never will be worth anything. Drive it and smile because you don’t have to deal with a computer they call a car these days and no $900 a month car payment. And you will would not have to have expensive collision insurance.
In the early 90’s when I attended the local car auction on a regular basis, these were $100 in beater condition and $300 in this condition, maybe with 75K miles instead. A lot has changed!
An ultra popular car at the time – nice to see one that is an example of what people were actually driving at the time.
Sometimes there is more to life than gas mileage, this car is one of those times there is nothing built today that rode as comfortable so after a long day at work you can relax on your way home and not feel all the cracks and pot holes in the road.
Same tires…& the same washer, brake & transmission fluids, motor oil, & really old gasoline.
Barnaby Jones would’ve never had driven this. He likes these in 2-door
+10 for a Barnaby Jones reference.
Ha Ha Thanks!
Who is (or was) Barnaby Jones?
Barnaby Jones (actor Buddy Ebsen) was a television show that began from 1973-1980 Barnaby Jones was a private investigator solving murders, missing person’s, etc. He consistently drove Ford LTD’s throughout the series but only the coupe version never the 4-door sedans. I never watches it as a child in the 70’s, I watch it now on late night television and enjoy it and I’m now in my 50’s Lol
Thank you Keith. I am in my 50’s too, but I have kind of lived under a rock & don’t know much about pop culture from back then. My childhood wasn’t bad, so to speak…just not normal lol.
Beautiful car. Engine is a 351M, not a Windsor.
David, this is where I got that info from after running the VIN to decode it as being a 351 two-barrel:
https://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/1977/851165/ford_ltd_4-door_pillared_hardtop_351_v-8_cruise-o-matic.html
I was looking at the Windsor not the Modified, thanks for the correction!
We had a ’76 one in blue, then during a winter storm my mom totaled it. So we then got a ’78 one in teal. Not the biggest boats on the road, but they took up a fair amount of asphalt
Ours was a ‘77 LTD Brougham, cream with brown vinyl top, AM/FM radio, cruise control and that same brown brocade interior. It replaced a ‘69 Torino GT, and while that was a bummer, we much preferred the cloth seats and air conditioning instead of the sticky vinyl on summer days. If you listen real closely, you can hear “Dance With Me” by Orleans playing on the radio.
Reminds me of my dads ‘78 Mercury Grand Marquis on which I learned to drive. Car floated and absorbed every imperfection in the road. Driving it was intimidating enough, let alone trying to parallel park it… Or worse, backing it into the garage with another car already occupying the other half. Ahhhh, to be 16 again.
How was the Mercury ride compared with the LTD ride?
First Ford I’ve seen with a GM a/c compressor and p/s pump! Weird but looks like it came that way. This is in really nice shape. Might be a great deal for someone who needed basic transportation or a good family hauler that would last them a few trouble-free years and have an affordable monthly payment and insurance. The price might be negotiable, too.
Sorry, Scotty, but I beg to differ on why Ford didn’t downsize their LTD until 1979. In GM’s downsizing of their full-size lines, Ford and Chrysler were caught napping, and Ford took 2 years to develop the smaller full-sized LTD to compete with GM’s full-sized offerings. And Ford didn’t design the LTD II for the reason you stated; it was just a reskinned and rebadged Gran Torino. Simple as that.