(first posted 8/1/2017) Ever since fellow editor JP Cavanaugh excoriated a 1973 Ford LTD, I have been on diligent patrol for one to provide a much-needed counterpoint to that disheartening tome of his. Someone around here needs to defend these mind-blowingly awesome Fords and after three years nobody has ever stepped up to the plate.
For shame.
JP didn’t have to seek out such a shitty-looking Ford; it was brought to him. At a CC meet-up, after we had consumed too many frog legs and mint juleps, Jim told a story about a client offering him a classic Ford in lieu of cash payment. Having test-driven it, Jim admitted to being sorely tempted as he was tired of being cut off in his Honda Fit and viewed an LTD in this condition as being an extended middle finger on wheels for his slogs along the interstates around Indianapolis.
In the end, Jim concluded owning the LTD was a bad idea, suspecting it could be an automotive dalliance he might soon regret. That sentiment is understandable; that poor LTD he drove does have the automotive equivalent of chlamydia.
Conversely, this ’73 LTD (or maybe it’s a ’74 – there’s really no tangible difference) is as pure as the day she rolled off the line. See how the lines of this LTD simply flow as beautifully as words from Shakespeare? See how the paint on the doors sparkles like the pinky ring of a mafia boss? They just don’t make them like that anymore.
Compare this Ford to the ’73 Chevrolet Impala / Caprice, a car that does its damnedest to look like it has a pot-belly and a receding jawline.
Get a load of those bumper guards up front. Where do you think George Lucas got his inspiration?
And let’s not even consider the bulbous porkulence that was the pear-shaped ’73 Plymouth Fury with its banana-seat shaped tail lights. It and the Chevrolet have about as much shape as mashed potatoes.
In comparison, this Ford is slicker than wet silk doused with WD-40.
This LTD was a veritable Hercules, doing its best to kill the competition. The full-sized Ford almost did so, too. At 941,054 biggies going out the door, this was a mere 50 cars less than Chevrolet. Truly a terminally ignored herculean feat by Ford.
This mesmerizing LTD is also planted on the second best-selling Ford passenger car platform of all time, behind only the Model T. The market knows a good thing when it sees it.
Like JP, I have had exposure to these LTDs since they were rather new but in an admittedly different capacity. Seeing this suave and debonaire Ford triggered recollections from times passed.
My Grandpa Albert’s older brother Lyle and his wife Jessie had a ’73 Ford, but it was the lower-trimmed Galaxie. Living down several miles of washboarded gravel roads, that Galaxie was as unflappable as a mailbox welded to a truck crankshaft mounted in reinforced concrete. Nothing fazed it and the pillowy soft ride of these Fords were a godsend for people living on rough roads.
So many malign these big Fords for their dreamy soft rides. Odds are a hemorrhoid or two would prompt a huge change of heart for these curmudgeons. Ford had better ideas even before they started bragging about it.
Then there was Mitch and Agnes’s LTD, the one I rode in many times. The grandparents of a school friend, their LTD was still going strong well over a decade and a shockingly high number of miles later. Given the way that car accelerated it likely had the available 429 or 460 V8 – it would make your neck snap like a green bean fresh from the garden.
The room inside their LTD was amazing. At the time I was shoehorning my narrow butt into the rear seat of the 1983 Plymouth Reliant my parents owned. The difference between the Reliant and the LTD was like comparing Paris, Missouri (population 1,193) to Paris, France; even now, I get verklempt thinking about all the glorious room that LTD had.
As an aside, Mitch knew how to make an impression on gullible boys. During one visit he started talking about his time in the army during World War II. I remember something along the lines of “Boy, I was in a company that didn’t take shit from anybody – especially officers. The brass got real suspicious of us for losing so many lieutenants to friendly fire.”
While Mitch wasn’t exactly Barnaby Jones, the preeminent private detective from the 1970s, they did share one trait…
Both loved their ’73 Ford LTD.
And let’s not forget that other celluloid celebration of the magnificence that was the 1973 LTD. Remember The Driver from 1978? When they could have picked any car, the producers picked a ’73 LTD (or Galaxie) for this most awesome chase.
The can of whoop-ass opened by that LTD came as standard equipment from Ford.
The LTD simply had a lot going for it. Not every car can inarguably prove itself to be quieter than a Jaguar. There is also no question on which has better reliability; a 1970s-era Jaguar is being used as a benchmark, after all. For anyone who has ever surveyed land, they know benchmarks don’t move – which pretty well sums up the Jaguar.
There is one point about the LTD I will readily concede to JP; the visibility out the side of his example was about as non-existent as chastity in a bordello. One could speculate this LTD was quite predictive of cars from the 2010s.
Prescience, by Ford.
Times and visibility had evolved in the decade since Ford built this in 1963.
While Ford is perpetually and merrily hurled under the bus for their incredibly original solution to the problem, they really did have a Better Idea for improved visibility.
It’s called opera window.
I was fortunate enough to find a four-door, which was 65.9% of LTD and LTD Brougham production, the body style best exhibiting the ripped muscularity that was the full-sized Ford. I’ll say it again; park this LTD next to an Impala and Fury from the same year and you’ll be looking at two bloated blobs and a Ford.
Despite my concession, I do feel the need to brag about the superior find that is my pine needle-colored LTD. This Ford appears to have spent its life in reasonably temperate climes and is in remarkable, but not perfect, condition.
Somewhere along the line, this LTD received a mighty fine undercoating.
Whoever applied it did get overzealous in their work. While it’s doubtful the undercoating was applied by the highly skilled craftsmen at Ford, even if it was we must remember that in 1973 comfort and quiet was Job One at Ford; quality was still about two years away due to corporation prioritization.
All this liquid asphalt has enhanced this LTD to being as rust-resistant as stainless steel.
These LTDs simply had so many wonderful things going for them; the LTD never rested on its laurels.
Might the 1973 Ford LTD be the perfect vehicle? For the time, yes. It looked good, it was comfortable, and this car could effortlessly pull to the salvage yard all those lesser 1973 model cars that had rusted in half by 1976. Such talent and versatility was sorely lacking in every other car sold in the United States in 1973.
As was typical, Ford was ahead of the times, blazing new trails to ever better and more attractive products. Sadly, as is human nature, the detractors continually poo-poo such things.
As Kermit the Frog would say, it’s not easy being green.
Found July 2017 along US 50 near the Mariosa Delta, just east of Jefferson City, Missouri.
Not one of my favorite years for the Ford LTD but I really like the green color featured on this particular 1973 Ford LTD and the white top looks great with the green exterior, I do like the 1973-74 full sized Ford’s a lot better than the 1975-78’s.
Ive had a good run out of green cars noteably my current Citroen and the MK2 Corona I had in OZ but if memory serves the only green Ford Ive had was the 71 XY Falcon in Aussie it kept running in remarkably poor mechanical condition, so yeah I’ll buy green cars they’re great.
I’m sorry, I get where you’re coming from but those in my humble view are the bad years at Ford, a long way from the handsome 1960-1964 full size cars. They took the basic Lincoln Mark III style and applied it, more or less, across the board. I understand the idea behind it and to an extent it worked, sales-wise, but to me all those early to late 70s Ford/Mercury/Lincoln looked the same.
Having said that they represent great value if you can stomach the looks and want a traditional, large US-made car.
Oh, just in case anyone hopes the Australians saved the day for the LTD…
That one looks like Ford Australia took a whole bunch of styling cues from the 1970-1970 Torino and transplanted them.
They took the basic Lincoln Mark III style and applied it, more or less, across the board.
That really well sums up Ford’s 70s design language. It spread to Mercury first and then Ford. By 1977 they all had that same basic front end, with the bladed turn signals, and big centeral grilles, only holdouts being the aging Pinto/Mavericks and the Mustang II.
I suspect Ford’s current Aston Martin grille on everything look will looked back upon similarly.
What a well written article, made me smile .
The chase clip is good too ~ it never loses a hub cap =8-) .
The camera truck smoked a fair bit though =8-^ .
-Nate
A very well written, passionate, defense of a car that is completely undefendable.
Sorry, but the full sizers of the Big Three for 1973 should be pictures in the dictionary defining the term ‘malaise’. For one reason or another I drove an example of each back in the day (none of them were older than three years old) and they were all horrible. Cheaply built, pillowy, floaty, abominable cars. And ugly as hell once you went above the bottom of the line model, with all the brougham crap added to an already unclean basic design.
Of course they were roomy inside. Outside they were like a parody of the automobile in “The Magic Christian”. You couldn’t design a car much larger unless you were planning on having escort vehicles with flashing lights and flags in front and behind you going down the road.
My memories of American cars of 1973 are admittedly colored by the memory of my father buying me my first new car that year as a graduation present for finally getting my bachelor’s degree. I was free to pick whatever I wanted, under a few very hard restrictions:
1. Absolutely no foreign brands (which killed off 95% of what I would have been interested in) would be considered.
2. I’d have to do some serious convincing to have him go with a Ford product (remember, dad was only out of the Chevrolet dealership six years at this point).
3. He was not willing to come up with the money for a Corvette (not even a used one).
Which is why, after looking over the entire GM line for 1973, I ended up the proud owner of a 1973 Vega GT in sliver with the black stripe. That was the best I could come up with.
There is nothing better than starting the day with a good laugh, thanks Jason!
However, I do have to quibble with one point: as a Ford connoisseur par extraordinaire, you must know that this is a ’73! Much like vintages of fine wine, there were subtle yet remarkable differences by year. Leave it to Ford to improve on the perfection of the ’73s by adding an even more glamorous grille treatment to the Galaxies and LTDs for 1974, immediately making the chunkier ’73 treatment (as seen on your feature car) seem ever so slightly less fresh.
“… ’73 LTD (or maybe it’s a ’74 – there’s really no tangible difference)…”
Above shows the 74 grille changes, and the rear bumpers were 5 mph versions. So I could tell them apart.
It’s the 75-78 era that had no virtual changes.
Can’t agree with this article. Compared to the curvaceous Chevy, the Ford looked like it was styled by hacking away at a big block of clay with a dull ax. Even the Plymouth looked better, though it lost a lot of character when the loop bumpers of previous years were done away with for 1973 (that was not entirely Chrysler’s fault as the new bumper regulations were kicking in). Also, I’ve driven some of these cars back in the day. The big Fords and Mercurys of the day had hopelessly soft handling. The GM biggies were just as comfortable but at least had some smidgen of control.
Someday we are going to find a Ford that doesn’t get Jason all aflutter. If someone ever offered me a car in lieu of a fee, it would be just my luck for it to be one of these.
I will admit that back when these were fresh their best side was the inside. I remember riding in several and they did seem the most nicely finished of “the low priced three.” I had forgotten how well these sold in comparison with the big Chevy.
A friend of my mom bought one new – a copper 2 door LTD. My mom, sister and I went on a Brady Bunch-style vacation with him and his two kids. We kids ranged from maybe 7-14 and were moderately comfortable in that big LTD.
But wow, how far Ford had fallen in a decade. From Total Performance to morbid obesity.
Yes. That decade when Hank the Duce was more interested in racing, booze, and hookers than future models from his company. And by the mid-70s, it showed. That being said, I do like the Country Squire/Colony Park wagons of this vintage.
Show me a Ford pickup with a 300 straight six and my excitement disappear faster than a bottle of vodka at the wino convention.
Those dreadful bumpers.
The Plymouth Fury – back then and now would be my pick.
If I absolutely HAD to pick between those three (and it would take at least a .380 pointed at my head to get me to do so), I’d go with the Plymouth, too.
.380 might go straight thru without hitting anything vital…does that change your decision ?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an LTD of this vintage in such good condition. And I mean “ever”.. not just “recently.” For some reason, even in the late 1970s, these LTDs seemed to be beaten down and banged up. I’m not sure if it’s just a phenomenon of where I grew up, or whether this was more universal, but an early-70s LTD seemed like the quintessential beater car of the early 80s.
The example that’s fixed in my memory is one (in this same pine-needle green color) owned by an old man who lived down the street. He kept his LTD in a ramshackle garage where the Ford’s rear end stuck out a few feet. I rarely saw him drive it — he walked most places, with a walking stick that he would shake at children and dogs telling them to stay away. I’m sure the other 941,053 LTD owners were somewhat friendlier than him, but that’s the image of this car that is stuck in my mind.
Finally — I like the call-out for Paris, Missouri. Last time I was there, the City had banners featuring the Eiffel Tower hanging from streetlights — I bet civic leaders there would relish the comparison between their city and its more obscure namesake somewhere in France!
The last one I remember seeing in good condition was owned by an elderly couple in my neighborhood for several years after we moved here in the early 90s. It was that 1973-only hot orangy-red with a white vinyl roof, and was in beautiful shape. I believe that they moved on (in one way or another) about fifteen years ago.
In the Ford commercials, its avoirdupois was called “road hugging weight.” Yeah, we all laughed, too.
Sure, it handled wallowy, but laugh all you want… that ‘road hugging weight’ made this car nearly impossible to get stuck in the snow.
I still remember an early Saturday morning while I had my learner’s permit (@16YO) when my Dad woke me up and said, “Get Up. You’re getting a driving lesson this morning.” Half in a fog (as all teenagers are wont to sleep in on a weekend), I got up and looked out the window. There was 4″ or so of snow on the ground.
To this day, I’m greatful to my Dad for that lesson, as that big LTD’s ‘road hugging weight’ of which you all make fun, made that car the perfect car for learning to drive in the snow. I have been a confident driver in the snow ever since, and get quite frustrated with my fellow Baltimorons (pardon me, Baltimoreans) who freak out and can’t drive in the snow.
You bring up one of the things that gets me going sometimes. Everyone who bitches about how awful rear wheel drive cars were in the snow never drove the cars of this class. GM A bodies and Mustangs were absolutely terrible. But those were around in such numbers that most people who only got a little RWD experience in before the industry went to FWD likely got it in one of these. But I lived in the snow belt and drove a variety of big cars from all across the Big 3. All of them (big Fords, Mopar C bodies and GM B/C bodies) were decently balanced cars that needed little more than a full tank of gas and a set of snow tires (in the days before radials) and you were set. At least until you got stuck at an icy intersection behind a Cutlass or a Cougar that couldn’t get moving . . .
“But those were around in such numbers that most people who only got a little RWD experience in before the industry went to FWD likely got it in one of these…”
That’s me, the most RWD seat time I ever got was in a 1980 Toyota Corolla in the winter of 1992-93. What weight was over the rear wheels thanks to factory sheetmetal and 5 mph bumpers was mostly rusted away and it required a trunk full of empty 2 liter soda bottles refilled with garden-hose water to get anywhere.
Having heard the reputation of how bad the Mustangs were in the rain and snow, I was almost afraid to drive mine when I first got it, and I drove it around corners very slow in the rain, and was reluctant to even take it out in the snow, especially after almost a decade in a ’97 Grand Prix GTP (FWD, obviously).
But then the Mustang surprised me. It’s actually pretty good in the rain and snow. But of course it’s a 2007, not a 1967. Probably has a little more ‘road hugging weight’ going for it. LOL.
The secret sauce to an extra successful winter experience in these cars was a limited slip differential. Considering the nominal cost, like well under $50.00, it was always a wonder that dealerships in the snowbelt didn’t order cars with this feature as a matter of course. But, obviously, most buyers were fairly oblivious to this, and preferred to blow a hundred bucks or more on a vinyl top instead.
My ’76 Cutlass coupe (GM A body) was loaded, including the limited slip. Along with a set of new Goodyear Arriva all seasons, that car regularly climbed snowy hills right past other cars that were stopped or sliding backwards. I got quite the chuckle one time literally blowing away a vaunted, overpriced, yuppie driven FWD SAAB in my broughamed out RWD ‘merican car on one of our worst major thoroughfare hills during a good snow storm. It was a fair contest. We were both stopped in traffic several cars back from a light. The Cutlass dug in and walked up the hill, leaving the SAAB scrambling to find some traction.
But, to your main point, you are quite right that the big pre-downsized cars, with decent tires, planted themselves well on snow, and pressed on in tough weather, even without a limited slip. In a house that was chock-a-block with downsized B bodies and Panthers replacing these old boats, I was of the opinion that for all the charms of the ’77 B body, it was simply not as good in snow as the heavier cars were.
My ’73 Galaxie was unstoppable in the snow once the studded tires went on. In Montana. I kept two in the trunk for the weight and because you never knew when a snowstorm would hit. The only time I got stuck was with my Tracker, which simply proved the adage that having 4wd only means you get stuck 100 yards further.
I DD an ’05 P71 and the old tank goes through the snow like a tank, and being a native Clevelander I know snow 😀 !
Yeah, well you’re talking to a guy from Syracuse, NY, where 4″ of snow on any particular winter’s day is considered easy driving. My 1974 Ford Gran Torino Elite, with all of that weight you think is so great in snowy weather, was always a hot mess in snow. Bad weight distribution, too much up front and not enough in the rear, where you need it most, spun my ass around more than once in that car.
Yup. My mother’s 74 Luxury LeMans was horrible too. It’s not the weight but the balance. The big iron had it, smaller stuff didn’t.
Paul Newman came to grips with one of these, and the seatbelt chime, at the start of the drowning pool.
Oh, the irony of the commercial that compared the Ford to a Jaguar, knowing what would happen a mere 17 years later…
As for the reliability comparisons, relatively speaking the Ford era was marked by improvements in quality – again, relatively speaking. In the years prior to the Ford takeover, if Jaguar assembly quality had been any worse, the marque would’ve had to market the cars as CKD kits!
To this day I wonder why Jag didn’t just send all XJs to the US as gliders, with customers instructed to install their own SBC and THM.
The THM already came installed straight from Jaguar!
The THM already came installed straight from Jaguar!
Wasn’t the THM 400 only used in the 12-cylinder cars?
I thought the far more common sixes used Borg-Warner automatics…
“make your neck snap like a green bean fresh from the garden”
Absolutely incredible. You are truly a genius Mr. Shafer. And to hear this in my head in deadpan delivery with a Missouri accent, you have made my day.
+1 – Shafer definitely has a gift for prose.
Thank you. You would enjoy what I sent to a non-performing vendor yesterday.
Ha! I have one of those on my wall. I should really frame it:
“the Partnership would like to express our disappointment with your response time to correspondence and requests”
It gets worse from there…
Ah yes, I love stuff like that.
It seems I may have mentioned something along the lines of it being obvious they thought the deadline for deliveries was a great idea and easily achieved since they bid on the job. But I guess I was wrong…
Nice article. As a dual citizen, I visit Windsor, Ontario often. There is a house along Riverside Drive that I have named the “LTD House” for its collection of this era LTDs parked out front. Pretty unusual, even in Big-3 centric Windsor to collect these barges, what with fuel at about $4 USD/gal (about $1.11/liter), driving them much can be expensive. I’ve included a pic of the LTD House (Detroit River in background).
If anyone wonders why I’m not a Ford fan it’s because of awful excuses for heaps like this ’73 model. Nothing like a good laugh on a Tuesday morning!
Come to think of it, I may have seen that car from our train window as we were traveling across Missouri in June. The tracks follow U.S. 50.
Whereas the 1973 Impala is a creature of pure beauty, at least in pillarless hardtop form, whether two or four doors. The Chrysler product falls well below the Chevy, but miles above the Ford.
By that time, however, I no longer lusted after full-sized cars because they had just become too big and unwieldy and huge gas hogs. I was in to mid-sizers, at least until the 1973 models came out, then went to smaller cars for the remainder of the decade and into the next.
I second Syke’s comments above – the full sizers were all horrible cars for all the reasons he mentioned, and more. That’s from the perspective of being there, not in retrospect, either.
They were fine cars if you had 3-4 kids and regularly pulled trailers long distance, try that with a Camaro or a Toyota. And yes I was there, and did that, always with a full-size car.
This was the last Ford car my Dad ever bought after it completely rusted out in only two years. The seat mount actually went through the floor one day on the highway. He was so disgusted, he would never buy another one after being a new car every two years “Ford Man” for a decade before 1973.
I personally have fond memories of that car…oh well. I knew a guy that worked at a Ford assembly plant at the time and he claimed that the iron used in that era was imported crap from Japan…
I would love to see someone with some metallurgical experience weigh in on this. I have always maintained that as far as rust goes, carbon steel is carbon steel (for the most part) and that tendency to rust is more about body design, steel thickness and rust-prevention measures (or lack thereof). Studebakers rusted like mad, but not because of Japanese steel. They were simply built with lots of places that trapped salty water and with almost zero rustproofing despite using relatively thick metal. The 1965 Ford (frame aside) was one of the most rust-resistant American car of the sixties. By 1968 that body rusted worse and starting in 1969 Ford became one of the worst. I don’t believe it was all about steel source.
Welds rust first…actually to be more accurate, it is the point at which the weld metal touches the base metal that rusts first. It has to do with temperatures and carbon migration and embrittlement, IIRC. Also, if there are two different grades of steel in contact with each other, the higher strength steel tends to rusts first. Warmer steel rusts faster than cold steel if all other variables are the same. Cast iron rusts slower than malleable iron which rusts slower than carbon steel. Modern coatings make a big difference.
I recall reading Ford used recycled steel in the frames in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Possibly the steel was improperly processed because, so they said, the steel had deposits of iron oxide throughout which helped propagate new rust. I’ve heard people blame notorious rusters like the early Datsun Z cars for using similar materials.
Hopefully someone else may have more details.
I thought recycling steel isn’t a bad thing, I read that over 80% of steel being manufactured today uses recycled steel in the process. I just don’t think the manufacturers back then cared if a car lasted more than 5 years, they were not worth keeping at that point.
I learned on the Concours Mustang forums that at some point in the late 60s factory’s began spraying what they call slop paint, a varying dark greenish or bluish or grayish sometimes metallic coating, across nearly the entire underside of cars. This was in fact a mixture of all the excess body paint colors poured into a vat and applied to the undersides of cars to get rid of it. I wonder if maybe that wasn’t the greatest thing for corrosion resistance, because the practice coincides with that timeframe.
I can’t comment on metal sources, but I can confirm that ’73 LTDs rusted from the top down as well as the bottom up. While road salt was never an issue in the Deep South, the ’73 Ford certainly had plenty of places to trap moisture and give rust a foothold. One big offender was the vinyl roof and the molding around the back window. On my Granddaddy Will’s car –which lived outside all the time–there were plenty of rust bubbles apparent under the vinyl, as well as visible rust on the sheetmetal along the molding where the vinyl roof met the body. Since his LTD came from the factory painted a metallic rust color, Granddaddy Will didn’t seem to notice or care, but it was a bad sign for a car that was probably only about 4 to 5 years old when the metal cancer became very apparent.
I once had a ’73 Impala 4 door hardtop like that, I swear GM couldn’t have painted the roof before they laid the vinyl over it. Goofing off one night (after a beer or 4) I lightly punched the roof of the damn thing (while mimicking a popular dealer commercial at the time) and put my hand THROUGH IT!
“Hey man, your headliner is sagging”
“No it’s not, that’s the vinyl roof”
All I can say is that the car didn’t last two years, he had a 71 LTD, 68 Galaxie, 65 Fairlane all ok, but for some reason the 73 just disintegrated. I don’t know if recycled steel had anything to do with it or maybe that former employee was trying to justify the rapid rust issue. As a footnote, my Dad did by a 1978 F150, which lasted well into the eighties..
I remember ’73s rusting pretty badly back then, too.
You always have love for your first car. Sure, looking back, it may be all rose colored glasses, but I have fond memories of my ’73 LTD. Mine looked almost exactly like the one in the brochure picture, in That 70’s Gold with a Brown vinyl top. Mine was not a brougham though, and had the base wheel covers like the subject car. It also had more of a Galaxie type interior, with headrests instead of the brougham’s high backed captain’s chairs… and yes, I’ll agree with JP and its cruise ship like handling.
It was a hand me down from my parents… they had moved back to GM, on to a much sportier handling ’77 Chevy Nova Concours with a 305. That car got out of its own way MUCH better than my car, but on a trip… that LTD was the best. On the highway, it was the ultimate quiet highway cruiser, and got ok mileage on a trip (it was terrible in combined or city driving).
It’s nice to see Jason throwing some love this car’s way, but you kind of expect that since he is a big Full Sized Ford Fan. This was a very nice counterpoint to the very first CC I ever read here, JP’s scathing review of that green unloved monstrosity. It’s how I found Curbside Classic… I was reminiscing about the car of my high school and early career youth when I came across the CC linked here. You’d think I’d’ve been turned of to CC right then and there, but I became hooked on this site that very day, and it has been my favorite on the web ever since. JP made me take off my rose colored glasses that day, and see my old car for the luxo-barge that she was.
Someday, if I could get over my fear of writing up my own CC, I’d like to do a COAL series of my cars, but this would be the first car I’d have to post, if I were to do it chronologically. JP and Jason would probably fight over whether it was worthy, and ultimately our fearless leader Paul might shoot it down. We all know how he feels about these LTDs. ;o)
But again, you never forget your first car, and for me this was it. In ’79 I’d moved on to my Fairmont Futura, and have been driving better handling cars ever since. But my big gold ’73 LTD will always have a special place in my heart. Someday, I need to dig around in my attic and find some pictures of it, so I can write up the COAL it deserves.
Haha, it is funny that you first arrived the day I was venting my spleen about a 73 LTD. Oh well, other people hate on cars i’m sentimental over too (though why not everyone loves Studebaker Larks is something I’ll never understand.)
On starting a COAL series, I say go for it! The poor 73 LTD needs all the friends it can get. 🙂
This post really brings back memories for me…. My Granddaddy Will had a ’73 LTD, finished in that horrible rust color metallic–aka Medium Copper–with a beige vinyl roof and beige brocade cloth seats. Doesn’t get much more malaise than that…
Anyway, your mention of driving on dirt roads really takes me back, as Granddaddy Will used to take me and my brother hunting in that car (who needed a truck when you had a full-sized Ford?). I remember he’d blast down the rough dirt roads leading to the hunting club at the same speed as you’d drive on boulevards, with the LTD heaving and crashing along, spewing pebbles and huge clouds of dust in its wake. The ride motions, especially in the back seat, were akin to a roller coaster–complete with that nauseating feeling you get right when the coaster starts to plunge.
Here’s the color combo, courtesy of Google. Though Granddaddy Will’s LTD was not a Brougham and had the standard hideous wheel covers rather than the optional hideous wheel covers like this one.
And those standard wheelcovers really were hideous. They looked extra cheap (with no colorful plastic center as had been common up till then) and shaped in a way to make a pudgy car look even more pudgy.
Those covers were genius. They sold a lot of upgraded covers. It seemed like GM and Mopar rarely sold an upgraded cover in this era.
I have to admit, JP, that I like those particular wheel covers on the ’73. I don’t like the ‘turbine’ wheel covers as much. I don’t hate them, but I don’t fancy them.
On the other hand, when I owned a ’67 Continental I very much liked the wheel covers on my Connie, but absolutely loathed the turbine wheel covers that adorned the Mark. Just rump ugly to my eye.
Same goes for my el cheapo ’64 Falcon. I dig my hubcaps that just say ‘FALCON’ in the middle; loathe those ‘spinner’ hubcap/wheel covers with the turbine look on the more-expensive model Sprint.
Sometime in the Summer of 1988 I sold my ’77 Chrysler LeBaron coupe for $1200 (a sale I’ve come to regret many times over the years) to a 17 year old kid who was newly licensed. He was the brother of a girl I’d graduated high school with, and their mother accompanied him to our house when we closed the deal. I was unloading the LeBaron, which had been my grandparents’ car, because at the time I was 21 and was toggling back and forth between a ’75 MG and an ’85 Chrysler Conquest, and the LeBaron felt huge and sloth like to me, especially with its Lean Burn choked V8 and 3 speed transmission. (In hindsight, the car was outfitted with a 360 and a torqueflight, but I was too young and stupid to appreciate what I had.)
Anyway, despite not loving that LeBaron, I ended up feeling very defensive about it, and actually found myself getting a little incensed at the mother, who commented endlessly about how big, heavy and safe the car would be for her son, and comparing it to an LTD she had previously owned. Since I’d known her daughter since kindergarten growing up in our small town, I happened to be familiar with “Her LTD”, which had been one of this vintage in some shade of shitty brown. I was wholly offended and affronted that she would even have lumped my unloved but still appreciated LeBaron into the same category as that monstrous turd of a thing.
And that sums up my thoughts on these. No offense to anyone who has more fond feelings for them.
My father had an aunt who owned a Ford dealership in Hollywood, Florida in the 1970s. We lived in L.A.–I was tempted to say Hollywood, California. Always with an eye for a deal, my father had been burned by a Datsun 2-seater 1600 he snagged for a song from the showroom of our local Datsun dealer–it had been sitting in that showroom over a year and allegedly–according to my father–“all the seals had rotted out and that’s why it was a lemon” At least I have a fond memory of cruising down the San Diego Freeway with the top down. So, with the Datsun unfeasible, my father remembered his aunt in Florida, and contacted her husband about getting a deal on a new Ford. Lo and behold, after a few weeks of waiting, a Ford exactly like the profile car above arrived in our driveway, a beautiful dark blue inside and out. I had just got my driver’s license, and mostly drove my mother’s 1970 Pontiac Safari Wagon. But I had occasion to drive to Long Beach, about 30 miles away (again via the San Diego Freeway). What a sweet ride! It was smooth, soundproof, luxurious, safe, big, heavy, soft…it floated above the fray. Unfortunately, at 16, I was a little embarrassed by it. It didn’t grace our driveway long though. When the Grenada came out, my father traded it in for that.
As an owner of a couple of full sized Fords, I can’t disagree with the complaints about handling. I thought nothing could handle worse than my MkV, but these do. Extremely softly sprung with body roll that starts with the slightest degree of cornering. Their dedication to smooth a bumpy road is impressive, though.
I’ve always maintained the greatest advantage of these larger Fords is their extreme reliability. Durable, proven and sturdy. Refreshingly easy to service. These make a cool summer cruiser, that can be had for pennies, because virtually no one wants one.
Wouldn’t it be a money pit though? Perhaps that’s why people shun them…
That said,I’m on the lookout for a car with “soft pillowy ride”. Having had sports cars, and other well handling cars, I’ve come to appreciate what’s missing in my new “modern” vehicles; the road insulated driving experience. The main reason being, that Im greatly fond of road trips,and realize that a 6-7 hour road trip in a modern unitbody vehicle tires me more than 14 hours straight in a body on frame car.
I had a stint with a bof GMC envoy, which surprisingly enough have an extremely soft and insulated ride. Way more comfortable than the Chrysler 300C that followed it. Also way more comfy, albeit inferior in every other measure, than my friends Bmw x5 suv. I noticed that I had to start slow down on the same roads tat I would just blast through with the envoy. The 300 was faster, but has to be driven slower due to all the vibration and bumps it transfers directly to your body.
Same experience after driving a late model Grand Marquee as a cab driver for a month and a half.
I want to find a car to keep for a long time, perhaps forever , were the my body isn’t part of the suspension package, but where the car itself absorbs more for a cream smooth ride.
Not excessively big (my garage is a bit small), a little fun, not too complicated to maintain. Tired of dealing with modern cars excessively complicated engine management, as when it gets older, it nickel and dimes you to death.
So far,a 1970-72 Buick skylark convertible seems a good middle ground, but I have yet to drive one to assess the ride quality.
Anyone have a different suggestion? Id like it to be 4 seat minimum, v8, rwd convertible, Ac offered as original equipment. .
A ’70-’72 Skylark ragtop would serve you quite well.
Can anybody but a Ford salesman argue that the ’73 is a better design than the red ’63 shown below it? This was obvious to me as a kid, but apparently to no one else.
This, friends, is what is known as “Progress!”
No! The ’63 is too kool for skool!
These LTDs simply had so many wonderful things going for them; the LTD never rested on its laurels.
There it is, the perfect summation of a perfect car. What else could I possibly add?
That gave me a chuckle as a child of the ’80s, the big LTD stood pat year after year wearing its’ 1979 face well into the late ’80s before getting a too-little-too-late facelift.
When the ’79s shipped to dealers I was a few months short of my fifth birthday, at the next full redesign for the Big Ford I was an 18-year-old high school graduate.
It isn’t like GM was busy doing major work on the B bodies at the time. Everyone though the full size car was dead and it was just a matter of keeping them in production because they did sell enough to keep the lines moving but not to warrant spending too much money updating them. At least Ford invested in fuel injection for them way sooner than GM did in their full sizers.
Thank you. I’ve long held hope I could entice you in Ford Fanaticism.
Scratching another accomplishment off my bucket list. ?
Another great read by Mr. Shafer, who yet again displays his wily ways with words. After reading the article, I found myself agreeing with Jason that the LTD was the best option among the full-size offerings of the low-priced three in 1973, assuming that “none of the above” was not a choice. I vaguely remember riding in my friend’s parents’ LTD of this vintage and marveling at the smooth, quiet ride and luxurious brocade upholstery – so completely the opposite of the one-piece rubber-molded taxicab interior of Mom’s base model ’71 Dodge Coronet Wagon.
I would argue with those above who see this as a Malaise-era low in American automotive design. For that honor, I nominate (bash?) once again the 1974-1976 Ford Gran Torino. The LTD was at least straight-forward in its Brougham intentions and sported relatively clean lines compared to the porcine Plymouth, and the corpulent Caprice. The Torino, especially after getting the 5 MPH bumpers, was a dated, wallowing, overwrought pig of a car that was second-best to, well, everything.
The Driver is one of my favorite 70s movies, where else can you see a 73 Galaxie sedan and 73 Chevy C10 stepside coming out ahead in car chases? Don’t need no “speedy” Trans Am here, Mr. Bandit!
There’s quite the disconnect with the 63 and 73 isn’t there? LOL Even though just about all cars exhibited quite a bit of bloat in the same ten years(Fairlane to Torino was even bigger) the lack of even the slightest element of sport incorporated into the design came to a head with these 73s, even the 71-72s still looked a little lithe and muscular, even if they were equally slow and wallowy. The 73 restyle literally turned them into boxes, the generic car, a far cry from the 60-64s with their space age aspirations and stock car pedigrees.
I’ve only ridden in one of these once, and it was the Mercury version, and it wasn’t terrible. There *was* lots of room in that back seat.
But I have always thought Ford utterly lost its way in styling in the 1970s, at least on their bread-and-butter cars. So out of step.
In late summer of 1973, my parent’s 1964 Impala had died…transmission failure. For the first time in their lives, my parents were going to purchase a NEW car to replace it.
I was 6, my brother was 13, and already 6ft tall. Our car shopping priority was to find a car with backseat legroom that would accommodate my brother’s increasingly long legs.
Living in Daly City, CA (suburban San Francisco), we visited Serramonte Ford, and test drove a new dark green Galaxie sedan, very similar to the LTD pictured, sans vinyl roof. We then went down the street to Stewart Chevrolet and drove a new dark metallic green Impala. It was determined that the Impala had the superior rear leg room, and we left later that evening with a shiny new Impala, with 350 4-barrel engine, dark green vinyl interior, dog dish hub caps on color matched painted wheels, dual exhaust, and, shockingly, Air Conditioning! I think the parents paid around $4000 including tax. We were all SO excited.
The Impala took its lumps. Within the first year, my Mom parked it along 19th Ave near Stonestown mall in SanFran. It was rear ended by a distracted old lady in her Olds 98. The rear bumper of the Impala was pushed all the way to the rear window. Insurance had a borderline total loss, but opted to repair it. About 5 months later, we got the Impala back, but the car was never the same. The trunk lid always unlocked itself and flew open on its own accord. No amount of latch adjustment ever seemed to prevent it. As such, we always kept a bungee cord handy.
My brother, two days after getting his license, wrecked the Impala left fender/bumper in front of Westmoor high school. Back to the body shop.
The Impala was parked in front of my Dad’s house one night and was again clipped in the front left. The insurance refused to repair it this time, and me, by now 16 and driving, told my dad I could fix it, so a deal was made with the insurance company. I found a wrecking yard fender, bumper, grille, and headlight surrounds and made the repair. Earl Sheib got the business to paint the fender green.
The Impala served my family to about 130,000 miles, at which time it was in yet another wreck with my Dad at the wheel. It was towed away and I never saw it again…never got to say goodbye.
Another 1 of those instances where 1 year makes a huge difference. I really like the looks of the 72 big Ford (compared to the 73s), even if the 72 borders on overstyled.
In the case of the Plymouth, the 74 is a HUGELY better car than the 73.
The Chevy? 72? 73? 74? Doesn’t really seem to matter, they look the same, so it comes down to the engine tune so that makes it the 72.
My family had a 69 LTD and I have driven early 70s Fords and Chevys as well as a 74 Plymouth. Up until 1971, it’s a toss-up, Plymouth or Chevy. From 71 on? The Plymouth is the better driving car…but it’s the worst looking.
1973 model year was the last one where full size cars dominated. There was pent up demand for family cars.
We all know what happened in Oct, though.
While GM B body and Ford Panthers made a comeback in the 80’s, they never did sell in the same numbers.
This has to be one of the best articles ever written! And amazing prose, too!
Thanks for enlightening us and do keep them coming!
Thank you! Writing these articles is, for me, a lot like a baseball game. Sometimes you have a homerun, you often have base hits, but sometimes you do strike out.
Thanks for a highly entertaining write-up in defense on the ’73 LTD.
My parents traded in their 1965 Buick Special Deluke 4dr with a rough idling V6 (which they had paid cash for in ’66), for a left over stock ’73 Ford LTD 4dr pillared Hardtop at the beginning of 1974. My Folks probably paid cash for the Ford too (and may have gotten a great deal on it after the ’73 Oil Embargo). I recall there was an issue with the Ginger Brown paint – which made my Mother raised hell with the Ford Dealer and forced them to do a re-paint. Rust wasn’t an issue with this Ford either, even though we lived in the rusty Great Lakes region. Our’s had a beige Vinyl Top. I remember the other new car alternatives at that time being a butterscotch 4dr ’73 Pontiac Catalina (rust was an issue on these), and the same Dark Green as the CC 4dr ’74 LTD Brougham with high back seats.
The ’73 Ford LTD served as a family vacation-mobile (Jet Travel was very expensive in the ’70s), in addition to its native Wisconsin it visited 20 States, and two Provinces during its seven years of service as family vehicle and “Mom’s Car”. During this period my Dad had a company owned ’71 Ford Country Squire, he than changed companies and in the wake of the Energy Crisis bought a used ’73 AMC Hornet Hatchback (which my older brother smashed up), than on to a brand new Miami Blue ’75 VW Rabbit.
I turned 16 toward the end of 1978 and learned how to drive in the ’73 LTD. after getting my license I had many adventures in the Ford, the craziest was going 120 mph on a busy 4 lane US highway (how stupid is that). My best friend’s Dad only drove Peugeots (504s, a 604 and a 505), sometimes my friend would borrow his Mom’s ’73 Plymouth Fury 2dr hdtop, which I loved to trash talk how ugly it looked next to the ’73 Ford. His Mom traded in the ’73 Fury for a ’78 Pacer Wagon. My best friend’s Dad had better taste in cars.
Thanks for bringing back a lot of memories!
My dad purchased new a ’76 LTD, a slightly refreshed version of the subject car. It was decent family transportation for the times, generally more reliable than a Mopar product, probably a smidge more space efficient inside than the GM products, and noticeably quieter than the ’74 Olds 88 sedan in our driveway. Handling, on the other hand, was abysmal with the base suspension. I had a lot of wheel time in the GM cars, and they were better, auto writers usually gave the handling win to the Mopars.
While his car, in a darker blue, was handsome in its own way, I always found it a bit too rectilinear, and the top looked like a helmet from some views. And, of course, Ford’s famous park bench bumpers always seemed like an act of hostility toward federal bumper rules.
People tend to claim that the ’74 Fury and Monaco were modeled after the ’71 Buick, but the general profile, bloat and helmeted roof on those cars make me think much more of the ’73 Ford. GM sort of missed a styling cycle in the ’70s with their big cars, and was generally the better for it.
Among the ’73 big cars, Ford would have been my last choice for styling. Regardless, they were popular. Four of the twelve houses on our block had a ’73-’78 era LTD in the driveway. 33% market share in our corner of the world was pretty remarkable.
GM did a ‘half cycle’ with adding ‘colonnade roofs’ to some of their 74-75 big cars.
Gross. I remember when cars looked like this; I’m glad they don’t any more. The attached image, however, expresses my opinion of today’s car styles vs. these ugly, shoddily-built ’70s bloatmobiles.
Right there with ya, man. All of these morbidly obese overwrought under powered malaise barges are just awful, IMHO. Im not piling on the Fords here, either…this rot affected the entire D3. You know what I see here? As bloated and grotesque as these cars are with all the gingerbread drawing even more attention to them, if a car could be represented by a person then these are the automotive equivalent of when John Candy dressed in drag for Armed and Dangerous.
That ’63 vs the ’73 makes it clear what’s very very wrong here.
Mr. Rocker, I’m glad we agree.
(Psst…don’t look now, but there’s a bloated, grotesque, morbidly obese, overwrought ’70s car in your avatar pic)
The ’70 Challenger?!?!?! Ill have whatever youre smoking! haha!
Agreed, theyre a little excessive compared to the ‘real’ Barracuda successor (Duster/Demon) but still a fairly purposeful and trim package. The ’70 and ’71 Cudas are pretty close to ponycar perfection.
Um…trim? That word, like all others, has a meaning. The E-bodies merit many adjectives, but “trim” is not among them.
Most opinions about cars are subjective, of course, so my scorn for the E-bodies as ugly from every angle and substantially incompetent as cars is not more or less correct than your apparent liking for them. Nevertheless, words mean things. You say the car is “purposeful”. What purpose would that be? The ones with big engines went fast (for the day) in a straight line, but you don’t get to turn or stop worth a damn without massive injections of money for aftermarket upgrades. They’re cramped inside—that’s in front, just fuhgeddabout the rear—and fat outside (“trim” has a meaning, too). Driver sightlines are poor. You might fit two small bags of groceries in what passes for the trunk. Build quality was just as lousy as everything else Chrysler threw together at that time (and I say that as a lifelong A-body fan). And to that we can add that they’re boring and tiresome. Oh, look, yet another B5 Blue Challenger with a 451. Ooh, and there’s another one in Hemi Orange. Seriously: what “purpose”, other than advertising that you bought one?
FWIW, I think today’s Challenger is almost equally as stupid a car as its forebear.
Jeez, I love the E-bodies but I nearly spit out my drink laughing when I read that!
! HEY ! .
Not ONE SINGLE BAD WORD ABOUT ‘A’ BODIES ! .
? Got that ? .
Don’t make me have to school you Daniel =8-) .
-Nate
those things were everywhere when I was a kid. then they seemingly all disappeared overnight.
Back in the times, I disliked the 73-78 Ford big cars, since they were too big and far from the sporty 60’s models. Even the 71-72 had some sporty flair, mostly due to the movie “White Lightning”.
But, as time went on see them as solid family cars. Sure, didn’t get 30 mpg, but what family or 4-6 could squeeze into a ’74 Civic?
A friend’s parents always drove loaded LTD 2 doors, one time we were riding through Angeles Crest Hwy in his mom’s brand new ’73, the combination of the wallowing ride and the tires trying to peel themselves off the rims
prompted me to give him a slow down now or else command he didn’t appreciate. His inept driving skills didn’t help either.
Smooth riding and nice quiet interior it had, but that’s about all I could say in favor of these cars.The ’63 vs ’73 photo tells the sad tale in a nutshell. They way I can easily tell ’73 from ’74 is roof mounted belts in ’73 and B pillar mount belts in ’74.
Nice write up, Jason has a fun way with words.
Nice novel Jason. The Ford LTD, the CC Cult Status vehicle.
I’ve read about it here, but I never saw one in real life. Till last year that is, when I had the honor and privilege to meet two of them.
One was a very nice and friendly family sedan:
And the other had the optional Serial Killer Package:
+1 for that, J. Dutch. That ‘Serial Killer’ package line cracked me up. 😀
There was a powder blue ’73 or ’74 Mercury Marquis at a local used car lot just a few months back. It was impossible to miss as I rode past it on numerous occasions. Just once, I wish I would’ve stopped to look at it closely, but I was always in a damn hurry. I’d run late to my own funeral.
Yup. I was going to say OKC Bomber’s car (a 1977 Mercury Grand Marquis, now in a museum):
http://www.tulsaworld.com/mcveigh-getaway-car-now-part-of-okc-museum/article_84c9f684-e016-5d64-a2e7-09a4acdae0d3.html
Apparently there’s a long tradition, as ‘Son of Sam’ killer David Berkowitz drove this. Obviously whatever the decade or generation of model line, the full size Ford has a kind of charm certain folks just can’t resist.
HAHA!!! Well played!
Wow, quite a bit of commentary for this car.
I’ve had quite a bit of experience with the LTDs and Marquis’ from this era — grandparents bought a ’75 LTD 2-door new, and I had a ’76 LTD Landau sedan (then 5 years old), loaded with the 460 and trailer towing package. The latter was quite a handler, considering it’s size, and could knock down 18 mpg on the highway at 55-65 mph all day long.
And I’ve had a ’73 Marquis Brougham 4-door pillared hardtop for about 14 years now (see photo). Loaded, equipped with a 429 and the self-leveling rear suspension. Not as tight a handler as the ’76 LTD, but what a highway car.
I have to say, those that have driven these cars a bit probably appreciate them more than those who have not. They are definitely products of a certain period and were all quite good sellers.
With all the gingerbread, the big Mercury could be a looker, and yours is stunning in black. A beautiful car, thank you for sharing it!
That car looks like the one Jack Lord aka Steven McGarrett of Hawaii Five-0 drove around the streets of Honolulu. His car was beluga black with a black interior. You should get a license plate frame that says “official Hawaii Five-0 staff car”
Great write-up Jason! While I still don’t consider myself a huge fan of the LTD, you really make a case for it. A very enjoyable read, to say the least.
I share my reflexive, diehard Ford-love with Jason, I guess. My Dad had a ’73, and one fond memory is how much stuff it could hold; he could drop me off at my college dorm in September with all my stuff in back seat + trunk. (Don’t ask me how much stuff uni students “need” to set up housekeeping today!) These Ford designs are from just before Gas Crisis kicked in, and the 5mph bumpers were rarely things of beauty, for sure.
My first trip to NYC was about the same time, and so the ’73-74 Fords sorta scream “Taxi (Driver)” to me, in any context:
Thank you, George, your help in lavishing the love upon this old girl is greatly appreciated.
These make great looking taxis, but I’m afraid that’s damning with faint praise.
My business partner is a Ford guy, and lately I’m starting to see his point. As cheap and crappy as these cars could be, especially in the lower trims, they were tougher than Dodges or Chevrolets. He grew up on the prairies, and for that duty, these huge old sleds were perfect. You could fly down gravel section roads with these things, and nothing would break. Any GM sled of the era had a crappy interior, but the Fords were pretty nice.
I’d never drive one now, but I think they are really cool cars.
My grandmother owned a ’78 LTD she bought new. She’d always proudly say it was the last year of the big Fords. It was green, green and green all over. Green paint, green vinyl top, two tone green seats and interior panels, green headliner, green dash (save for the chromed plastic and faux demon faced woodgrain) green carpet and green steering wheel. It was like riding around in an enormous booger. She drove it for twenty years and near the end of that time, say 1997-1998 when I was about 12 years old and beginning that whole having to look cool thing, I hated that land barge. I remember sitting in the rear floor when we’d pull up to the local mall so no one would see me in it.
I guess I’m different from a lot of folks here. I love the large, heavy, box-body Fords. I sadly lament their disappearance— as I can’t stand the cutsie, rounded, small feminine looking cars of today. Puny roller skates on 18” wheels. Not a good look IMO… but that’s just me.
In regards to McVeigh driving a ‘77 Mercury Grand Marquis ; how oddly interesting. It’s sad that such a nice car has to be forever associated with a psychopath that hurt & killed so many innocent people. (It wasn’t the poor car’s fault).
Also interesting is the Son of Sam driving a 1969 Ford Galaxie. I remember watching a movie about him back in the late 90’s where they had used a white 1968 Ford Galaxie instead. Well I guess the vintage movie car people did the best they could.
I used to be a member of a Ford Galaxie Club, and I can tell you that the 1960-64’s got all the love in the club, with honorable mention for 1965-68’s. 1969 & 1970… no one really cared, and if you said you preferred anything 1971-1974… you were ceremonially stoned to death by the club at the summer BBQ!
I on the other hand, not having been born until 1967, couldn’t really relate to the early 60’s Gals, but vividly remember 68-72’s as a part of my early childhood— my parents owning a nice 68 Fastback, and I remember 71’s & 72’s all over the streets, as a little kid; and thinking to myself… now that’s what a real car is supposed to look like! Lol
Summer of 1998, I almost bought a 1973 LTD Brougham— burnt sienna 2 door. It really was a nice car… but the sentimentality of getting a car similar to what my folks had, edged out the ‘73, and I went with a ‘68 Gal instead.
I owned the 1968 Galaxie (1998-2016), and just recently replaced it with a 1970 LTD (2016-Present); which I have been enjoying a lot.
A picture of the two during the brief period where I owned both, before selling the ‘68. Unfortunately, I couldn’t keep them both or else I would have.
My late dad was a fan of those big Ford cars IE Lincoln Continental, Mercury Marquis Brougham, Ford LTD. Those smooth riding cars in which the commercials would show a diamond cutter from Tiffany’s cutting a rough diamond in the back seat, the Mercury Marquis Brougham was as smooth riding as a $40,000 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow saloon and they even used professional pilots on how smooth riding was. I hope to find a nice specimen to pay tribute to him
Well if you ever drove one, yes they had a soft ride, but they also handled like crap. Flaccid, under-damped, tire squealing cornering, you name it, just plain lousy all around. Fine if you never ventured off the Interstate, but rough gravel roads with washboard like we have in Vermont induces severe axle hop and rear-end sideways jounce. That smooth ride was bought at a great cost. As for styling, the Fury is far more interesting, the Ford: just plain boring. Our ’73 Plymouth Fury wagon (Custom Suburban) survived 210,000 miles of hauling 3 kids, an 18ft boat and a 2 horse trailer, and handled well with it’s torsion bar suspension. If you look up “Pig” there won’t be a porcine mammal but a ’73 Ford LTD! LOL Jim C was right!
I had a 1975 Thunderbird, so while not the exact same car it still fell into the soft ride, handle like crap camp. It’s hard to imagine there is a profound difference between the two.
It’s been long enough now, but this was written with my tongue well placed into my cheek.
I have just completed an in depth review of this and JP’s articles, both. Side by side. (Almost line by line). I was most influenced by adjectives bandied about such as crap, fat, Ugh, Middle Age Spread, and ungodly. I believe those were mostly located in JP’s submittal.
Judgement for the defense – the jury has decided that JP’s writeup is right on the mark. There is no reclamation of this gen of Fords.
Both most enjoyable essays. Well done JP and Jason.
Why am I thinking of the movie “Uncle Buck”.
A bit ironic, but (excluding 2nd cars starting in 1966) my Dad’s newly purchased ’73 Ranch Wagon was the first “non-green” colored cars since he started buying wagons in 1961 with a Rambler Classic (first of 2 in a row).
As for durability, well, it was bought in Virginia but brought up to Vermont for our 2nd time living there….but my Dad didn’t keep cars long, it was gone in October 1978 replaced by (also not green) 1978 Caprice Classic wagon.
I liked the car a lot, more in retrospect than at the time, I was more into small cars. Wish as I’ve aged I could buy one now, I can appreciate them much more. Like the ride of a car, and something a bit roomier, and these might have been a bit extreme in that regard but other than gas mileage (which became an issue after my Dad bought it in early 1973). Don’t know how it would have fared over the years had we kept it. As it was, we were out of Vermont by 1982 (parents moved to Texas where they live now; I was on my own by 1980 but reversed that by following them to Texas the next year). Don’t see many of them down here now, but heat (sun) is also hard on cars in different way, so most cars are newer than 50 years old here.
My Dad went back to Mercury in the 80’s for 3 Sables in a row to finish up his Ford purchases, but the Fords served us well, didn’t really have any that let him down in any major way.
Kermit the frog very familiar around here – I live a block away from the house where Jim Henson grew up, and a stone’s throw from the high school he attended. The aforementioned house was sold to a new owner a few years ago, and the seller was apparently unaware of its history, as there was no mention in the real estate agent’s listing that the Muppets creator lived there as a teen.
I rode in several LTDs as a teen in the ’70s, but all of them were either earlier or later than this example. I did ride in the front seat of a 73 or 74 Galaxie 500 and even though that was a lower-end model, it seemed strikingly plush and comfortable to me, with that sweeping woodgrain dash, soft vinyl “flight bench” seat as Ford called them, and thick cut-pile carpeting, all in fully color-coordinated red. It really was as quiet as Ford made it out to be and it felt luxurious compared to the ’66 Polara I was used to. My impression of ’70s Fords and Lincolns was that they were the quietest and smoothest cars available, at the cost of good handling. Consumer and car magazines whined about wallowy handling and soft suspensions, but not-yet-old-enough-to-drive me loved the resultant smooth ride since as a passenger, I didn’t care how the steering felt, and what was wrong with “floaty” ride anyway? I preferred that to a more controlled ride where you felt each bump, even if only once per bump rather than a boat-like undulating motion. Today as a driver, I have more appreciation for a suspension that lets me feel the bumps – once – as long as they don’t jolt me.
_Every_ MotorHead needs to drive a French car at least once to discover their floaty ride that still holds the road at speed and in the twisties .
I don’t know how they do it but it works ~ make no mistake .
-Nate
I did some time in my uncle’s Citroën DS21 or DS23 wagon. It was one with the side-facing third row seats. Yes, they are magical with their magic-carpet ride from their pneumatic suspension and big soft seats and flat floors that made me a FWD convert for decades. It somehow wasn’t floaty in the big American ’70s car sense; it was *controlled* floating.
Did he downshift the car in The Driver when chased by the second police car. You have got to be kidding me along with the NASCAR exhaust sounds.
In the chase scene, it is a 1974 Galaxie 500. Is that Ryan O’Neal?