Marketed as being as quiet on the road as a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow four-door sedan, Ford’s new-for-1980 LTD Crown Victoria was a nice car for the time, at a fraction of the price of a Rolls-Royce, which goes without saying. This 1980 Ford LTD Crown Victoria can be found listed here on Facebook Marketplace in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the seller is asking $3,000. Here is the original listing.
A show of hands for those who would take this 1980 Ford LTD Crown Victoria over a similar condition 1980 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow? I see, hmmm. So much for that argument. I think I would, but I’m weird, and I’m sure most things on this LTD could be fixed by me or the corner garage. The Roller, not so much. Plus, those white walls! If the tires are under a decade old and in good shape, I’d keep them, otherwise I’d put on a more factory-looking set of tires with thinner white walls.
Ford offered the LTD Crown Victoria from 1979 for the 1980 model year until 1991. It was the top-of-the-line LTD and basically a Mercury Marquis for Ford buyers. You can see some bits of rust here and there on this car, which isn’t surprising for a car in Minnesota that’s 46 years old. It looks much better than it should, but if you watch the provided video, you’ll hear that it needs exhaust work. I’m a bit worried about the condition of the underside. I absolutely love the look of the padded half-vinyl top, though. The pitted chrome rear bumper, not so much. Ford also offered a two-door version that would be pretty desirable, I would think.
The seller only gives one interior photo showing the “dark red velour cloth” seats, unfortunately, but I’d have to believe that the back seat area is even nicer than the front appears to be. The bright red dash pad isn’t a good sign, and Minnesota only gets around 0.13 days of sunshine a year (not bitter), so maybe it’s on there for another reason than to hide cracks. The seller says this car was their daily driver for a few months, and they replaced the gas tank, some fuel lines, and the speakers. An unusual mix of repairs, but hey, everything counts. The only thing not currently working is the clock.
With a reported 60,000 miles, I’m assuming this car has either sat for an extended period of time (maybe that’s why it needed a new gas tank and some fuel lines?) or it wasn’t driven in the winter months. I hope it’s the latter, but some underside photos would be great. This LTD is on the Panther platform, and it has Ford’s 302-cu.in. OHV V8, which was rated at 130 horsepower and 230 lb-ft of torque when new. Passing that power through an AOD (automatic overdrive) four-speed automatic to the rear wheels, the seller says it drives great but could use some tweaking on the timing as it backfires a bit. I’m assuming 90% of Barn Finds readers could have it silently passing every 1980 Rolls-Royce on the streets in no time. I have to believe $3,000 is a reasonable price for this one. What do you think?
I demo’d one of these in 1995. Was a 100 dollar beater, no brakes but i drove it 15 miles to home in Little Falls, MN! I won the first round, then got stuck in the final.
Sold. That was quick. A great bargain and that front end reminds me of a Cadillac. That Panther platform underpinned full sizes Fords, Lincolns, and Mercury’s for decades. Bulletproof.
Thanks, Fox Owner! I was beginning to get worried that this one hadn’t been published correctly when I hit the “publish” button, with no comments for about 14 hours. I really should have looked at this one; it’s maybe 12 minutes away.
It might have low mileage because these early ’79-81′ LTD’s had a variable venturi carb that were a headache to keep going. A lot of people pulled them off an replaced them with something more reliable. We had a 1980 LTD Wagon that had this issue. Ford dealer replaced carb 3 times in a year. Finally put an aftermarket Carter carb on it and the car was reliable.
Not bad. The whitewalls would have to go. Can you imagine a red car with a white vinyl half roof in today’s new car market?