“Commanding. Brilliant. Power. Control. Grand.” Sadly, I have none of those traits, but the 2000 Mercury Grand Marquis line has them all, according to this brochure. I can’t imagine going wrong with a car like this Panther platform Merc as a daily driver, or a weekend road trip car. The seller has this one posted here on craigslist in Lynnwood, Washington, and they’re asking $5,880 firm. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Curvette for the tip!
What’s your guess for the last American car to have whitewall tires? And by “car,” of course, I mean an actual car, not an SUV. Most people generally say “car” when they refer to an SUV or car, mainly because there aren’t many cars being made anymore, especially American cars. Anyone? Yes, in the third row, nice work! The 2010 Lincoln Town Car, and even then, they were optional whitewall tires. After that, they were gone, dumped into the wastebasket of automotive history, along with not wearing jeans to the office, and also, actually going to an office rather than working from home. The wastebasket is getting full.
This car is from the second to the last generation of the Mercury Marquis, a third-generation car. They were made from the fall of 1997 for the 1998 model year through 2002 and were based on Ford’s Panther platform, as most of you know. I always think of a stealth, unmarked (is that redundant?) highway patrol car when I see this shape, and maybe that’s why I like these cars so much. Another reason is the amount of space inside and in the trunk. Is that some silver paint lifting on the top of the rear bumper shown in the trunk photo?
This LS has the optional Light Graphite leather to go with the Silver Frost paint. It’s showing some wrinkling on the driver’s seat, which may be why there isn’t a photo showing that seat in the photo gallery, but maybe it was just an oversight by the selling dealer. The back seat looks great. They list the mileage as being 88,250, and this car is wearing the 16″ Lacy Spoke wheels, which were part of the Handling Package. I’m not sure whether it has the handling package or just the wheels, but dual exhaust was also part of that package. I can’t tell if it has dual exhaust or not.
With the handling package, this 4.6-liter OHV V8 would have had 215 horsepower and 285 lb-ft of torque. If not, it had 200 hp. Power is sent through a 4R70W four-speed automatic to the rear wheels, and the seller says it’s in great overall condition for a 26-year-old car. That’s usually not a glowing report, but this one looks nice in the photos. Any thoughts on this Grand Marquis LS for under $6,000? It looks like it could be a good deal to me.
This used to be my favorite rental car,until they quit making them.
Fun write-up SG. Looks like a solid Mercury. Hmmm, I guess I’m not surprised that the listing is already gone.
The last car my Dad bought was a 2000 Grand Marquis. He had many cars ( mostly GM) but he said this one was the nicest riding, best handling car he ever owned, and couldn’t get over how much more power that “little” ( his words not mine) V8 put out. This looks like a winner for sure. I think its a very fair price too.
Very good car to own. Great price and mileage not bad at all. And its gone so fast. What a surprise! 😂
Ford was stupid dropping these cars. I think they still would have had a following today had they kept them and refreshed them.
Excepting the tail lights, identical to my dad’s ’98! Really good cars-I was skeptical until I took a trip in it. Great road car-easy to spend time in.
already gone. these never last long on the market. lovers of the snap them up. never liked to work on them
If like the earlier 5 liter ones, one common job that cost very little but was no fun to replace is the water pump. I replaced one on three that I owned. Lots to remove atop the pump. Each was a good car that got surprisingly good milage on the highway with the AOD transmission.
I miss cars like this.
Another great brochure link.
Thanks Scotty!
I’ve had a lot of CV’s and a few Grand Marquis’s great cars but if I bought another it would have to the a P70, the long wheelbase model. Six inches longer. I still have a 96 Crown Vic I bought from the Port of Portland (Oregon) with just 23,000 miles on it. I bought it in 2007. They sold it because the CNG tanks were about to expire. I converted it to a gasoline powered car. Fortunately I had a wrecked CV to use as a parts donor because there was a ton of differences between the CNG car and the Gasoline car. The CNG car has a Kevlar buffer between the tanks (2 in the trunk and 2 behind the rear axle) and the passenger compartment. Body Wiring harness was different because the CNG car had no gas tank gauge sending unit. Quite a learning experience about how two identical looking cars could be so different. Still have that one.
I built a 1933 Roadster with L.P. Gas because at the time we lived 2 hours away from rod runs and the gas was cheaper, anyway I converted it back to gasoline and man alive you could notice the difference in performance between the 2. I was funny when people would ask why did you go for LPG, L.P.G was .18Cents a liter and the petrol prices were about $1. Plus I was running a 402 Chev engine. The car performed quite well on the L.P.G. but the tank was due for replace or test and it was almost as expensive to have the test done and I wanted to sell the car and there was a great resistance against the L.P.G. But it did very well on both fuels.
GONE!