Some time back, I shared with fellow Curbsiders the hunt for and eventual bagging of my son’s first car – a 1989 Mercury Grand Marquis (CC Here). Well, here we are about two and a half years and about 21,000 miles later, and it is time to make a decision.
The MGM has been a great car for my son Pierce. When he bought it, he was a student sports broadcaster and the big gray Mercury took him safely and comfortably to many cities in the Big Ten Conference (and beyond) – just as it was designed to do. He has now graduated from college and is moving on to the next stage of life – which will not involve a car.
This next stage is a bit of a twist, as he has determined that there are more important things in life than calling athletic events. He has applied to and been accepted by the Dominican Friars with the idea of coming out the other end in six years as a Dominican Catholic priest. He will begin the first year of his Novitiate without a cell phone or computer, and also without a certain gray Mercury. And tell the truth – if a guy is going to be limited to actually owning only one car in his life, could he have done much better?
So, what is the problem? About eight weeks ago, yours truly swapped cars with the lad for a day and was greeted by the unpleasant sensation of the car revving freely after shifting into overdrive. The short version is that after a fluid change, the AOD transmission shifts smoothly and pleasantly through all gears, which is not a good thing. When an AOD shifts smoothly and pleasantly into 3rd gear, this clearly announces that something is wrong with it. It also slips a bit on hard throttle in third gear and slips wildly in 4th/overdrive. Driven gently in D3, the car is perfectly serviceable for short hops, but we have been avoiding highway running (which is, of course, the Panther’s natural habitat.)
The car has had several things done while in our stewardship, including a water pump, air pump, exhaust system and universal joints. We have also replaced the Autolamp switch, the ignition switch, and all belts and hoses underhood. The 5.0 uses no oil and always starts right up. Everything else works as it should, though the a/c seems to have a slow leak which requires a small annual spritz of R12 to be 100%. It also suffered a couple of scars from life in his college apartment parking lot, such as the missing hood ornament and a small dent in the decklid. The lesson here is to never let members of the inebriate into close contact with a docile Panther.
A local transmission shop has quoted $1000 for a used tranny with a 6 month warranty or a rebuilt unit with an 18,000 mile warranty for $1,500. At one point, I thought I might like to buy this cat for myself, but have decided that it doesn’t really fit a need. It is way too nice for an occasional-use beater (the role of my 93 Crown Victoria), and if I were to keep a third “play car”, I have concluded that it would be something less practical (or simpler) than a box Panther sedan. While I think it is too nice of a car to dump as a project, the decision will ultimately be my son’s to make. As it stands, he is reluctant to part with four figures for a car that he will not be keeping beyond the end of July.
So anyhow, the decision has been made that the car has to go, but little friendly advice from such an august source as the Curbside Cognoscenti can never hurt. The car’s owner is asking $1850 as is, which seems to me to be really priced to sell. Paul Niedermeyer is , of course, completely crushed. You see, he had been lusting after this car forever until he finally could wait no longer and settled for that oh-so-common Acura. So maybe there is someone out there who has been looking for a nice car to go with the perfectly good AOD that has been sitting out in the back shed. So, what say you, Curbsiders? Any good counsel on finding a suitable home for our pet Panther would be appreciated. If there are any specific questions about the car, you can contact me directly at jpccurbside@gmail.com.
Maybe you’re not looking in the right places. I thought one of the reason the Town Car was so adored by the black car services was that rebuilt transmissions were about $650 for them. Unlike most anything else car related, maybe the best price is in NYC.
No they are not a C4/6 TH350/400 and getting a rebuilt that is actually a fully rebuilt and carries a decent warranty for under $1200 is a good deal. Installed at $1500 is a good deal.
My brother went a similar route, but became a CRC pastor and has 7 kids now, so even a Panther isn’t big enough for his brood. He should really have a Ford full size passenger van but makes do with a Caravan & a pair of 3 across benches.
Sell as is for whatever you can get, your analysis is spot on. Well done good and faithful servant.
Too bad I have too many cars and not enough space, I’d love to have that Box. Also, my brother was a Ford trans tech and knows AOD’s inside and out. Sigh…
My admiration for your son’s future plans, and he’s not doing it the easy way, either. I had a parallel plan when I entered college 45 years ago, but the pre-seminary track didn’t survive the first four years.
JP, you should post the Grand Marquis on The Brougham Society–you just might find someone interested.
Tom, can you shoot me an instructional email? Sounds like a good idea.
I love Panthers, and this is a nice one. You’ll have no problem getting your asking price. And congratulations on your son’s vocation!
So $1,850 for the car, $1,000 for a transmission and all in for under $3,000? That’s a steal.
I read your post from 2011 for the first time just now. You said “There is a benefit to having your automotive tastes line up with those of the AARP set of a decade or two past: You have an unusually good selection of nice old cars from which to choose” and ain’t that the truth. It was fairly easy to find a low-mile Fleetwood Brougham when I looked in 2012. It had the same story as your son’s Panther where it outlasted two elderly owners or at least their ability to drive. Take a look at 560SLs from the 80s on Craigslist. Plenty of low-mile, one-owner creampuffs for relatively little money.
I love the looks and condition of your son’s car. I don’t know much about Panthers but really like the “aero” ones from the mid-90s. I guess those have a cult following now. I was in a 2008 Lincoln Town Car L a few months back and asked the driver about the car. It felt damn near new at 170,000 miles. He said the resale value on late model TCs is incredible, like $25k for a 2011.
For the rest of the trip we chatted about these cars. Apparently around 2003 Ford upgraded the front suspension to a more heavy duty design because the old version tended to wear out ball joints on the stretched limos. His company regularly services the brakes and he said with the front wheels off the brakes look like they’re from a full-size pickup truck.
Terrific story and post JPC, GLWS.
Congrats on his trajectory, I have a very good friend of mine that is a Jesuit Priest, after initially going for a career in journalism early in his college days. If it was close it would be tempting, but I would probably end up flipping it, interesting 2 tone on the GrandMa.
But Carmine, it would compliment your Caprice so well!
The dark gray lower body with the silver car was part of a factory 2 tone that was not very common by 1989. The silver paint on the upper horizontal surfaces was getting tired and the last owner (an old body shop guy) was concerned that he would not be able to match it, so he went for the dark gray on the hood, roof and decklid. It is truly one-of-a-kind. A mild Restomod? 🙂
If it was a coupe….I already have a sedan, the Caprice, though I’ve never owned a Panther…..
I was wondering if there was a story behind the 2 tone, I had never seen the dark color on the hood with the light sides on one of these before, it does look like some of the 2 tone jobs that GM was offering on some of the downsized cars during the end of the Bill Mitchell era.
There was an unusually clean 1985 or so LTD coupe on local Craigslist that I was eyeballing for a while.
“…automotive tastes line up with those of the AARP set…”
In a few years, all the cars for sale from eldery drivers will be Camrys, Avalons and Corollas. In Sun City AZ, the Buick LeSabre has been replaced by these as the car of choice for retirees.
The WWII generation doesn’t drive as much, and import loving Boomers are easing into Sun City. Also, when gas prices went up, civilian Panther sales died off, literally.
Actually Ford removed the Crown Vic from the retail order form before gas prices went up. GM and TC retail sales continued on their downward trajectory without any significant change in the slope of that line. What are they going to buy instead a Taurus and sacrifice all that RWD goodness to get a 1.5 increase in MPG. Or maybe a Camcord and with the V6 gain 2 or 3 MPG tops. When you only drive 5-8,000 miles per year even at $4 a gallon it doesn’t make any significant difference. If you are a Panther devotee or just a devotee of a “real American car” spending an extra $30 or $40 a month on gas is well worth it.
i know as long as the car doesnt drink gas like a Mark V, it doesnt hurt even if drive 1000 miles a month.
so i stick to my Mark VIII
Mark IV….it makes the Mark V look thrifty…..
Congratulations, JP, on your son’s vocation. It’s very good news.
Congrats to Pierce and your family! It’s great to see young people still interested in joining Religious orders. I was a Seminarian myself now married with kids and working for the Jesuits.
Around 10 years ago I had a job that involved visiting approx 100 Catholic churches around my city, and I saw precisely one priest under the age of 60. There were several in their 70s still serving their parishes.
I was just literally thinking about this car two days ago, remembering our discussion about it standing next to it in your driveway, thinking about how fun it would be to have a cruiser like this. And now that the opportunity arises, I sit on the fence about spending money now that my ex and I are in the beginning stages of talking about how to pay for the older boy’s college.
Methinks that Keith Thelen needs A) another project and B) the perfect car to wean him off the GM train onto the other side of the fence. It looks to be in excellent condition, good luck selling it!
That’s now *three* cars we’ve documented on CC in the past few weeks that have been either EOL’d or put up for sale due to transmission failure.
Not a “CC Effect” I like to see! (c:
Those are some very interesting and unique future plans. Congrats to your son and family for keeping an old way of life alive.
Also, I hope whoever ends up with such a lovingly maintained car repairs it and treats it just as nicely. I’d hate to see it end up in the hands of someone unappreciative or slob-by.
Congradulations on your son’s calling to serve God and the community.
The car is well cared for and hope it can find a good home.
@Keith Thelen,
Wherever you are, please save JP’s Grand Marquis and give it a good home!
Congratulations on your son’s calling.
My dad briefly had one of these late aero box Panthers in MGM form. The family’s last relationship with 4 Panthers. I like the late detail changes, I’m trying to recall if the dash update was to accomodate air bags. If so, Ford did this the right way.
That is a unique and sharp MGM. I don’t recall ever seeing a two-tone one of these areo boxes.
Congrats on your son’s calling. He will make a fine member of the clergy.
As for the Panther, that is a tough choice to make. On the one hand it would be criminal to replace your 93 beater panther for this one and relagate this to beater status but on the other hand, it is not easy to simply give up such a great looking spiceman of a “Box Panther” That is one of the best looking and well taken care of Panther I have ever seen. It would also be criminal sell it to somebody that is going to put it on those sill assed big tires and rag the crap out of it.
As for the transmission issue and cost, I have always looked at it this way, if a car is in good shape and the only bad thing is the trans then dropping in the cash to fix it is good sense as you have a car you know the ins and outs and you don’t have to take on a car payment.
Good luck to both of you.(you son in his spiritual quest and you in trying to decide what to do with the car)
Box Panthers looked so much better after the “aero” refresh (’88?). I don’t mind these…’87 and back, not so much. Good drivetrain, although I always felt the AOD was a little “mushy.” Would these have the 8.8?
Yep.
A handsome car. I hope it finds a worthy home.
A ver beautiful car. Worth restoring to number one condition, if you ask me.
Hope your son’s calling is successful. The car appears to be in beautiful condition, I wonder if it would be a good idea to have the good transmission you already have installed. You should be able to more than recover the costs. It deserves to go to someone who appreciates the care the car has had and takes cars of the little dings it has and ‘pamper’ it.
I should have been more clear on that – I don’t have a spare AOD sitting around. If I did, it would have found its way into the car. I was suggesting that if anyone does have one, this would be the perfect car to put it into.
Now I understand. My bad, thanks.
Effing gorgeous. May I suggest two organizations that adore panthers even more than Sajeev Mehta does at TTAC?
http://www.crownvic.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php – big panther lovers
http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/forum.php?s=b39435588ccfb3725c7e16b714526368 even named after the Grand Marquis.
Of course you could always shoot him an email sajeev@thetruthaboutcars.com and see if he wants to add to his fleet or knows someone that does.
If I hadn’t just bought a vehicle and didn’t have a baby on the way I’d be seriously tempted. That leather interior is beautiful enough to make a big car lover weep. If he was entering a less serious sect (I grew up Catholic) I’d suggest he mothball it until exiting the seminary. That car would be perfect for one of the rural parishes he might be stationed to and expected to keep up masses as two or three churches.
We are well acquainted with GrandMarqNet – that forum has been invaluable in helping to economically fix some of the common ills that affect these. Like the idle air control valve solenoid that magically decided to slit its little electric throat yesterday. A new one is on the way.
“If I hadn’t just bought a vehicle and didn’t have a baby on the way I’d be seriously tempted.”
Congratulations, Dan! Now your life is REALLY going to change – for the better, whether it be a boy or girl!
A Ford Flex may yet be in your future!
Congratulations! Can we ask what the new car is yet? Or will it be revealed in time?
With a failing trans that car is worth nor more than $1200 at least around here. With a functioning trans then it is a $3000-$3500 car again based on local pricing. So it may be worth having the trans done.
I think the difference might be that you guys out in the Pacific Northwest don’t have to deal with the kind of rust we routinely get in Indiana. Around here, the $1200 cars are rustbuckets. This car spent many of its winters in Florida, out of the salt. A rust-free car around here, especially one this old, is not far from Holy Grail territory.
This would be perfect for somebody with a mechanically solid but rusted and weathered Panther car. They would be a tranny swap away from something in the top 5% in quality, at least by local standards.
with heavy under-coating in my 1978 Volare and only driven in winter from ’92 or ’93 till ’97, the wheel well and quarter still looks bad, but it still drives prestige attention in Michigan.
Yeah being in the rust belt probably makes one that nice pretty rare.
Congrats to your son, JPC. Takes a strong man to answer a calling like that.
The car is actually in amazing shape, but these old land barges tend to be so. Too bad its such a cherry old car, or Id suggest painting it up in SeaHawks colors, adding some Cragar SS wheels, flowmasters to make it a gridiron grinder. Not sure what kind of following the Hags have in your area, but Im 3 hours from Seattle. A reliable hawkified sled like that would sell for a ridiculous amount of money, Im betting.
A hearty congratulations for Pierce answering the call. It looks like you and Mrs. JPC have done a fine job.
Here’s an unusual idea, a kind of helping Pierce by helping others. The Jefferson City diocese is periodically receiving priests from other countries with subsequent requests for loan of a car – or an occasional request for someone to teach them how to drive.
Speculating the Indianapolis area may have some similarities, you could keep the GM and answer this type of call. In turn, you could get a hearty tax deduction for your contribution. Timing and logistics could be absolutely terrible rendering this possibility irrelevant; its just an idea that popped into my head.
Best of luck to Pierce as he begins this new journey in life.
Congrats to your son JPC. As far as the car, it’s beautiful!
God bless your son on his discernment. I was in the (diocesan) seminary for four years and think it was a great experience to have. Now I’m married, but I don’t regret those years at all. I also remember fondly one of my formators who is a Dominican priest as well as the student-Brothers that joined us for classes.
Priesthood – wow, that came out of left field. I had gotten to the point about the next phase not involving a car and was thinking either NYC or military…and completely blew the remark I was going to make about hoping his kids get a school with a different mascot after reading the other link…
In any case, I wish you and the Grand Ma well!
My ’87 Crown Vic started slipping into overdrive and it turned out the whole thing did not have to be rebuilt, as it still shifted ok through the rest of the gears. Sure the whole transmission is toast?
Beautiful Grand Marquis, my grandfather’s last car was a new ’88 LS in white with blue velour interior. He really bought it for my grandmother, but she died the next year. I preferred his sky blue ’86, but this one sure looks great. I love love love the two-tone treatment on this one. I had similar on my first car, an ’87 Crown Victoria. Navy on the hood, trunklid, and above the doorhandles with navy half vinyl roof. Then a color similar to Jennifer Blue on the Cadillacs below the door handles.
Somebody’ll buy it, and hopefully they’ll take as good care of it as you and your son have done.
I wish I had budgeted for another car now…In the future! these are great!
I always liked the “box panthers” better than the GM B-bodies, especially the aero-refresh, but I think the GMs were better cars, in spite of my GM hate from 1976-2004.
Still, I would have bought one of these had we not been in “economy car mode” during the young family years, especially one with a vent window! I really liked Ford in the 80s, but we drove Chrysler products exclusively for the reason I felt – right or wrong – that they had the front wheel drive format most developed in those years of transition.
I had a very nice ’91 Crown Vic about 15 years ago. The transmission went at 60,000 mi. The $1000 rebuilt transmission lasted less than 20,000 mi.
It was a very nice car, but its appetite for transmissions (and power window motors) was annoying.
Hey, I was just wondering where your’re located because I have an 88′ Grand Marquis and I might be interested in getting another one, if it isn’t too far from Ohio.
Thanks!
This is the dilemma faced by every old car fan; invest in a somewhat pricey repair, or pass the car on. In my opinion it comes down to a couple of important questions; How much do you like the car, (is it a good one?) and “Will I keep it long enough to amortize the cost of the repair?” I had the transmission rebuilt in the ’07 Mustang which now belongs to my daughter. It set me back 3,500 dollars which is more than half of the car’s current value. But it was worth it because my daughter really likes the car, and wants to keep it, and you can’t buy a very good replacement car for 3,500 bucks. I just had a serious discussion with her about the car, I asked her if she really wants to keep it long term. If that’s the case, then I’ll fix whatever it needs to keep it running and looking good for the future. But if she thinks that she might want a newer, smaller, more fuel efficient car to let me know, then I’ll start saving up and thinking about the Mustangs replacement.
The V6 Mustang is a nice driving, and fairly fuel efficient car that gets 27-28 mpg on the highway. Since she has a very short commute, it is still a reasonable car to drive. Let’s see if she will still want it over the years.