For the 1975 model year, Ford discontinued the Galaxie 500 after 16 years and moved the Custom 500 to fleet sales. This enabled them to expand the LTD line further. While model years 1970 to 1974 had both an LTD and LTD Brougham, 1975 brought the LTD Landau to the top of the line up as well. Here is the model for the middle of the road, a 1975 Ford LTD Brougham four door pillared hardtop. It is for sale here on Craigslist in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The seller is moving out of state for a new job and needs to sell it. The car is originally from Virginia and has been in the south since new. It has only 44,000 miles and is being offered for sale at $5,750. Looking around the car, it appears that it has just come off the showroom floor. No signs of rust, dents or parking lot dings. The standard vinyl roof and the paint are original and in excellent condition. I call this color baby blue, and it was a very popular color for Fords during the sixties and seventies.
The exterior of the LTD and LTD Brougham were pretty much the same, while the inside is where the difference was. The Brougham model has a full-width front seat with center armrest, while the LTD does not have the armrest. Also included are working air conditioning, AM/FM radio and clock. The seats are finished in durable vinyl and look new.
The engine is the 351 cubic inch 2 barrel. The owner purchased the car after being stored for a period of time and replaced several things, even though he/she doesn’t say how long it has been owned. Items replaced when purchased by current owner include master cylinder, rear wheel cylinders, radiator, starter, tires, alternator, tune up, and carburetor rebuild. The antifreeze and rear end fluid have been changed as well. The transmission shifts perfectly.
The car still has all the original factory chalk marks and underhood quality check stamps. The seller describes it as a wonderfully preserved specimen. Original paperwork is included as well. This is a time capsule car. You would think you’re back in 1975 driving this one. This could be the car you’re looking for.
This is another one of those cars that could be rented out as a classic limo today, and no one raised in the plastic jellybean generation would be the wiser. Love the blue interior.
Not my type of classic car but nevertheless its a beautiful original !
My aunt had one just like it.
Yep.
You know what they say: only the good die young.
Nice looking car at a good price. I doubt there is much demand, but it would make a good car for a production company that is doing a TV series set in the mid-1970’s.
Steve R
I agree and even period correct for movies! It is a very clean car!
I am surprised a Brougham doesn’t have the covered headlights.
So was I. I looked it up and only the LTD Landau and Country Squire had the hidden headlights for 1975-76. Broughams apparently had the exposed lights. The Landau also had fender skirts.
Super, very few landaus had the fender skirts. Most people didn’t like them.
I think that was an even higher model that came with those.
Many of the Landaus had the skirts option, I know, I’ve been collecting 75-78 LTDs since the early 80’s. There was no higher model than the Landau. Many people love the skirts and it’s one of the first questions I get when selling one today.
Blue would be a popular color inside TODAY, if the greedy car companies offered it.
If they did, it would only be blue seats – the rest grey. yuk.
They don’t “offer” grey because its POPULAR, but because grey matches every exterior color – yuk again. Blue doesn’t.
& there are sooooo few exterior “colors” today (say 5 or 6), compared to the good old days(15-20!)
I had an E30 with blue interior, though BMW used black rather than grey as a dash/trim color. I thought it was a nice combination. There are a number of car manufacturers that today use black instead of grey inside (Mazda and Audi come to mind). They could easily throw blue in as an option and make it work, if they wanted to offer it.
My ’66 Mercury has a combination of dark moss green on the dash, panels, and carpet, and a lighter green on the seats. Sounds horrible, but I like the uniqueness of it. It’s a shame there aren’t more options today.
If you look at the new Lincoln Continental “Black Label “ edition it comes in blue. The jury is still out for me on whether I like it. But agree with you, I’d take blue!
Nice car, I had a 71 LTD and it was a great road car. It was dark brown with black vinyl roof and black interior. I paid $1500 for it in 73, put quite a few miles on it before the first wife took it in the divorce.
This is a nice car and I’m thinking it could be purchased for less. The pillars in lieu of none add real strength to the overall car. Just like the custom 500 had.
With approxinstely 148 horsepower and a curb weight of about 4600 pounds this big Ford is a cruiser not a hot rod so demand will be low from lead foots. However, the attractive blue color combination and amazingly well preserved condition of this vintage family hauler makes it a great choice for someone entering the hobby or who loves classic Ford cars.
Nice car, really nice, and I hope it finds a good home. Too bad there won’t be any demand for it. It’s a comfortable car for cruise nights and car shows.
Nice big ride for the highway. The car can cruise at 100 mph all day if the police would let you. The 351 will probably net 10-12 mpg around town and 20 mpg on the highway. Our 72 wagon did that.
It’s a cruiser. Price seems high but not outright.
I was offered one by a family freind back then, nearly identical shame couldn t afford to drive it then and not likley now either
these were a very dependable car …. not pretty but dependable …. a lot of police forces used these
Not familiar with a 4 door pillared hardtop. Isn’t that a sedan?
That’s what I thought, too. Did someone have a brain cramp?
The term “hardtop” doesn’t necessarily mean no pillars, only Chevy enthusiasts generally use it that way. In fact, even Chevy itself referred to their 4 door pillarless as a “Sport Sedan”, not a “4 door hardtop” and their 2 door pillarless as a “Sport Coupe”, not a “2 door hardtop”. When you think about it, the term “hardtop” being exclusive to pillarless tops might actually be pretty dumb since the top on a pillared car is, in fact, also “hard”. I know the people that began the using it were comparing it to a convertible, but I don’t think they really thought it through. The term “hardtop” literally means top made of hard material, which does include all pillarless and pillared cars. Here’s my Chevy “4 door pillared hardtop”.
$5750 buys you one fourth of a Camery. This is a beautiful car.
Starsky & Hutch, Baretta, The Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Charlie’s Angels, Toma, Barnaby Jones, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, Columbo, Harry O, McCloud, The Rookies, S.W.A.T, Get Christie Love, Police Story & Police Woman to name a few. If you watched any of those cop shows on television you saw the cops driving one of those LTD’s (or the look-a-like Galaxies) or the bad guys driving one. I think of my childhood watching TV more than ever owning one.
Better a LTD than a Camry. Steel vs plastic
sold
“If this were ANY closer…” Glad it sold. For years my Dad would order his company car Ford, always light blue, until some years later I’d choose his (rather limited selection) car for him: Chevrolets, then Buicks to the end. This featured car is similar to his 1974 Galaxy 500, in, guess what, light blue. It was big, and it ran and ran. He and my sister bought it for her first car when it came off lease. No matter how much she (unintentionally) abused that car, it. Would. Not. Die. She even ran it without oil for a while. It ran. Plenty of other stories with that car. When she finally traded it in on a brand new 1982 Mazda 626, I took her by the hand to the new Mazda and showed her what she needed to in order to maintain the car (“You’re not treating this car the way you did the Ford.”) Happy to know this LTD survived and will be cared for.
Repeat 100 times, if it has b pillars it is a sedan, if it has none it is a hardtop.
I agree with you, that with a B pillar, it is a sedan. But in my description of vehicles, I use the description used by the manufacturer. In 1975, the LTD no longer offered a true 4 door hardtop. They called their 4 doors Pillared Hardtops, probably because, even though they had the pillar, they did use frameless glass as hardtops did.
Totally disagree, “hardtop” can have a pillar because it should only mean the top is made of a “hard” material, if you want to refer to pillarless, it’s easy, this is how Chevrolet officially did it in ’57:
2 door pillarless = Sport Coupe
2 door pillared = 2 door Sedan
4 door pillarless = Sport Sedan
4 door pillared = 4 door Sedan
Why have some of you guys said this car is not in demand.
Why would you think that?
I would translate that to mean that desirability amongst the collectors & classic car guys/gals as a whole would be very low. You don’t have to look any further than your local car cruise anywhere in North America to realize the “desirable” cars tend to be the Mustangs, Chevelles, Camaros, and the Chargers. It takes a special person to want what was a regular family car back in the day. Factor in that it’s a land yacht, long, heavy, and not terribly fuel efficient, and you’re down to a handful of people who will truly appreciate something like this. There’s an LTD very similar to this one that’s been for sale for the last several years in my area – again, not a vehicle that has a lot of demand. I love these old boats, and if I had more room, I would own a couple. There’s a classic car for everyone. Thankfully, some people are quite happy preserving “regular” cars. It’s clear someone wanted this beast as it appears to have been sold.
Hi fellow car lovers!
I am happy to say that I am the new owner of the LTD. I actually saw the car on barfinds on Saturday. I contacted the seller immediately, he responded right away.
He sent me every phot that I asked for and then some. We had great communication and I send a deposit Sunday and wired the rest on Monday. Car was delivered to me in NJ on Tuesday.
I have to say it is better than expected. It runs, drives and looks like it’s a one year old car. It is just an awesome car to drive.
I am a Ford guy first and my Dad had a 74 LTD. I have a lot of other cars from a 59 Porsche to 70 Boss. I am into original cars and this LTD is probably the most original car that I have now. I’m sure this will bring a lot of smiles for years to come and where will you see another this clean.
I enjoyed reading the comments and best wishes and happy cruisin to all of you.
Brian
Congratulations on your purchase Brian! I’m glad we were able to help you find this car. It looks amazing and I know you’ll be happy with it.
Congrats on the purchase Brian, I owned a 71 LTD back in 73, was a heck of a nice car.
thanks Jimmy & Bill