One of the most confusing car names, maybe of all time, was the LTD II. The Mustang II was a sort of confusing name, but not really since it was the second-generation Mustang. The LTD II wasn’t a second-generation anything. The seller has this first-year, 1977 Ford LTD II station wagon posted here on craigslist in Auburn, Washington and they’re asking $8,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Pat L. for sending in this tip!
That’s one unique kisser, eh? If you squint a little bit, I mean, more than you usually do when looking at an LTD II, you can see a bit of Monte Carlo in that front end. These cars were only made for three short years, right in the sweet spot for the disco era: 1977, 1978, and 1979. Although, I can’t imagine that too many Ford LTD II owners would have ever said, “Shake your groove thing, yeah, yeah.”
The LTD II was a mashup of the Ford Torino, Gran Torino, and Elite, although the Elite only came in a two-door version, never a wagon as with this car. The front clip can also be seen in a Ranchero of the same era. We can see that this white station wagon here isn’t perfect by any means, but it isn’t said to be. It does look very nice, however, and it only has only traveled 44,500 miles.
Growing up, my best friend’s parents bought a brand new, shiny red with white vinyl top LTD II two-door Brougham: “Bro-Ham”, as my friend pronounced it. Brougham was the top trim level. They traded in their Mercury Monarch sedan, and I remember the bright, showy, floaty LTD II Brougham being a great car. It floated like what I imagined riding on a cloud would be like, with almost zero road feel or noise whatsoever, and true one-finger steering. Not to mention the touchiest power brakes ever.
The seller says that they found this one-owner, nine-passenger wagon at an estate sale, parked in a garage where it had been comfortably resting since 1997. The original owner bought a new Ford Expedition and parked the LTD II, and subsequently, an unknown number of years later, proceeded to pass away. His son sold this car at the estate sale and it needed work because of being dormant for so long. The radiator was rebuilt, as were the carburetor and the steering box, and the gas tank was refurbished. There are new shocks and “swapped out” (does that mean new?) whitewall tires.
The standard engine would have been a 302 but this white wagon has an optional 351-cu.in. V8, which would have had around 150 horsepower and 291 lb-ft of torque when new. It sure looks clean and it “runs and drives great”, according to the seller. It would draw a crowd at any Cars & Coffee-type event. Have any of you owned an LTD II? If so, what was it?
Good write-up Scotty. Full-size wagons, with woodgrain sides especially, have gotten popular in recent years. Here we have a wagon which is not “officially” full size (though, practically speaking, it is). And instead of woodgrain, it’s a rather plain white. But yet it carries that 70’s vibe: remembrances of the family trip, in a “bright, showy, floaty” wagon representative of the era. I wonder how many LTD II wagons were built.
For not much money, it might be a fun car to own, and it even has good utility (much more practical to cart around the grandkids).
Thanks, Bob!
Hey, had try to contact you by craigslist, but no answer.
1971 is usually my cutoff year, but I’d definitely like to own this car.
1972 LTD is same as 1971. I had a 2door.
I learned to slide sideways around corners in a 77 LTD, mor-dor, gold white top, 400M. Dad once asked why the spare tire was thrown into the quarter. That was from donuts….
Can’t see this lasting too long at that price. If it wasn’t on the left coast, I’d be interested. Doesn’t look like it needs much but for $8k, you could afford to put a few bucks into it.
My father had a light blue car of the same year.It was the same interior but did not have the third seat. Guzzled gas like a son of a gun, and the rear seat got hot from the exhaust..
no way that’s a 44k mile car. The seats and tail gate tell a different story. I would need to see some documentation before buying that story. Beautiful car otherwise.
Much more capacity than today’s SUV’S and milage might be not too bad. Just no Bluetooth or other amenities people are used to or expect. Try and find a low mileage vehicle for that price and the ad is still up. I like throw some wheels and a few goodies at it and enjoy.
As a teenager, our police department had a fleet of these in sedan form. At night you could spot them coming a mile away with that unique headlight/ parking light setup.
Wagons are hot. And this one is clean, and rare. Again, and, as usual, it’s 3000 miles away from my door.
The 351 was standard on wagons.
Dang, that’s good info, CCF, thanks!
I was hopeing for the 460 ci wagon, LOL
Made me think of Quincy’s coroner wagon, although I think he had the full size ltd wagon.
At one time, that was my favorite show and I recorded every one of them on VHS tapes, believe it or not. What a nerd.
You hate it now, wait till ya drive it
Great scene 🎬 lol
My Uncle Andy had one of these, in this exact white with blue interior, in the early ’80s. I think he picked white for it, too. He bought it used from the TV station where he worked and was contractually required to repaint it to cover the fleet colors (themselves a repaint) of pale gray over mint green. They didn’t go over to a wrap (still the green now below factory silver paint) until over 20 years after everyone else did.
LTD II wagons were one-year-only in 1977, for ’78 their place was taken by the much smaller Fairmont which was a big improvement, the Torino platform wagon being barely smaller than full size, the Fairmont wagon being usefully bigger than a Pinto.
Trivia; LTD II wagons used the same rear fenders Mercury Montegos had had since 1972, while new ones were tooled up for the Ranchero to get rid of the Torino fender crease.
They were a “II” of the standard full size LTD wagon. That was the marketing approach anyway even though the standard LTD continued to be built, that is how Ford wanted you to see tgis version; as the “updated for new fuel economy trends” that was happening at the time. And, since the downsize standard LTD wasn’t coming out until ’79, this was a stop gap in the lineup. True it wasn’t a redesign replacement for the LTD lime the Mustang II was for the mustang, but Ford hoped some customers would think of it that way.
These were an LTD II like Chrysler pulled the downsized Fury and Monaco. from the Torino wagon not the full size Ford.They were a II of the Torino platform. Not a “smaller” full size.
Same old Torino platform from 72
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Ford/1977_Ford/1977_Ford_Wagons_Brochure_1/dirindex.html
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Ford/1977_Ford/1977_Ford_LTD_II_Brochure/dirindex.html
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Ford/1977_Ford/1977_Ford_LTD_Brochure/1977%20Ford%20LTD-12.html
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Ford/1977_Ford/1977_Ford_LTD_Brochure/1977%20Ford%20LTD-12.html
The stacked square headlight set up ruined the looks of many late 70s cars, and this is one of them . The Monte Carlo, Cordoba , LTD II and the mid size sedans looked awful with that set up IMHO. Thankfully that trend only lasted a few years
nice toy – will be interesting for me
One of these is like having a pickup truck with a canopy. With the seats down you can slide 4×8 sheets of plywood in the back and still shut the gate, not like that pickups they build today. Only thing missing is 4×4 but as we have seen many times on this site I’m sure someone has done it.
My mother had a 2 door sedan that would pass everything except a gas station. Great ride though.
Thats really a cool wagon. The down side is that with the 351 Modified engine, those were all prone to early failure, the oil is sent to the cam bearings before the mains, and usually the bearing wear reduces oil pressure leading to failure. Really decent Ford engines are the 302, 351 Windsor, and the 460.
These are the cars that Tupperware would supply to the district managers back in the 70’s. My mother was one of those district managers and beginning in 1974 she was “provided with one” which was replaced every 2 years so long as she kept her selling numbers up. Obviously they were a perk supplied through a lease program between Ford and Tupperware. They were huge and loved the taste of gasoline.
I had a jade green LTD II, 2 door bucket seats auto on floor and 351 modified engine. I put dual exhaust on it shift kit in the C-4 and it would get second gear scratch. I had it repainted delete of the of the factory stripes and lowered it and got quite a few compliments. I use to shake my groove thing in it as well!
Never understood why FORD made these LTDIIs.
It’s basically a T Bird or a Ford Cougar!
These were just Ford Torinos with a new name. The Torino was built up to 1976, and the LTD II from 1977 -79 . The sedan and wagon are exactly the same car as a Torino with a different header panel , and the coupes share a lot of styling as the Tbird , but all share the same platform.
Ford successfully rebranded its aging midsize platform for 1977 to get a few more years out of them. They refashioned the Elite into the Thunderbird (very successfully) and then put the Elite’s front end on the Torino to make the LTD II.
There was a bit of redundancy there. The LTD II coupes were not much different from the Thunderbird. Ford canceled the LTD II station wagon after 1977, perhaps because of the new Fairmont wagon.
Mercury went in a different direction by eliminating the Montego name and just calling all of its mid sized cars Cougars The XR7 was like the Thunderbird and the regular Cougars were like the LTD II.
My dad was working for a local Ford dealer at the time and we had so many of these come through our driveway, from the 75 Torino up through this year of this wagon. One thing I remember was if you were small, seeing out of the rear windows in these things was a bear but it didn’t matter because when we went on vacation, the seats were down and the three of us kids hung out in the back of the wagon most of the time.
I remember when these wagons came out with the stacked headlights. I found them so infuriatingly ugly that, as an aspiring car designer, I actually sent a letter to Ford showing what the front end could look like with horizontal headlights. They actually took the time to write back to me. Said something about how the design team does not comment on future design issues. Next year the 1978 Cougar came out looking much like what I sent them. I took vindication even though I know I had nothing to do with it 🤣🤣🤣
That’s pretty cool, as a kid to get a letter from Ford would have been a big deal too ..
It reminds me back when I was around 12 , my buddy and I were addicted to Wacky Packages stickers , so much so that we went to our local grocery store and came up with a bunch of our own parody brands ,and sent a letter to Topps with the original names and the parody names next to them. We never got lucky enough to get a letter back, but in some of the next few series, several parodies of the brands that we sent them came out as stickers. We always wondered if they took some of our suggestions or it was just a coincidence …
Who cares what’s “hot”? I think for myself. I buy what I like.
My HS buddy Mike’s dad worked for a large manufacturer in sales and always had a company car. All full-size Ford’s, Galaxie’s and LTD’s up until 1978. His new company Ford was an LTD II sedan, red with a white vinyl top and the wide white insert body side mouldings Ford loved at the time. The bulky body clashed with the red and the only think missing was the “Fire Department” lettering and logo on the side! It was a huge and bulbous car on the outside, but no roomier inside than my Mom’s Volvo 240. The leasing company spec’d the base 302/automatic and Mike’s dad constantly complained that “it gets terrible gas mileage, but at least it’s also slow”. He used it to two their 20ft Outboard bow-rider to the local ramps and it did do a good job of towing the boat. Other than that it was an old Torino with a Halloween mask and was happily replaced two years later by a new Panther-chassis LTD that was a far superior car.
Add another set of stacked headlights and you’ve got the “Family Truckster”.
Wrong body style, but just as hideous
My parents had purchased a 1977 LTD II sedan that was a baby powder blue color back in 1977 it had a 302 which was not bad and rode very smooth i was 7 years old back then
What would you do in an LTD II? That jingle has been stuck in my head since ’77.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l15ljngOMNI
My heavens. It is a Torino Elite. I honestly never noticed. By the by. The Mustang II and LTD II wasnt all. Don’t forget the ranger based Bronco II , personally I preferred and still do prefer those to the full size. But I suspect I’m alone in that assessment
My parents bought one of these in 77 was black with wood grain and red interior had the 351m I remember my mom saying it’s so smooth it doesn’t matter how far I press the gas pedal it’s just takes off so smooth not like the old one. Her prior car was a 69 ltd country squire 390 that would bake the tires.
I still own one of these cars. A banana yellow 77 coupe withna brown interior. Pretty base model, No A/C, vinyl seats, crank windows…hasnt ran since 2007…its a one of these days projects. But i will say these cars are a blast to drive….so floaty, accelerate decent (for what they are, mines got a 351W), and are so comfortable. My dad also had one when i was a kid, a dark blue with blue vinyl topped 77 sedan, brougham trim, 351W, alot of trips and memories in that car.