(note: this is the second car in this COAL mini-series; the first was the 1993 Cutlass he bought at age sixteen)
Sometimes, we get a little overconfident when buying or even just receiving something. And I was definitely overconfident when I inherited my grandmother’s 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis when she passed away. The old Cutlass had served me well so I thought it was time to expand the garage a bit. The Mercury was the second car I ended up owning and also the newest, but it would end up being the worst by far. I have a feeling that some of you may think I’m incredibly picky when it comes to what cars I own and drive, and you’d be 100% correct. This car would end up being a case in point of that; being a Panther body with under 100k miles I assumed that this would be a reliable, comfortable, and long term vehicle. But much to my surprise (and my disappointment), this couldn’t have been further from the truth.
In November of 2018, I got notice that my grandmother had passed away. However neither me or my mom had a chance to go to her old house and inherit any of her things until spring, which is when we found the car. I talked to my uncle about getting it since we didn’t get much else (the rest of our family had already been there), and he decided because I was a car guy that we could get the car.
It did need a new battery and was really low on oil, but it came with four new snow tires so that was a bonus. When we drove it home it ran just fine and shifted smoothly, and it had some decent low end torque as well. I guess you could consider it an early Christmas gift since we got it in late December 2019. However, it stayed licensed to my uncle until February of 2020, so while we got it several months earlier, we had to pay the $200 late fee for both the tabs and the title, but after that we were home free…for at least a little while.
On March 14, 2020; The challenges would begin, as I had just found and decided on my actual classic car to buy (My next article will actually be about this car!). It had been sunny all week, but oddly enough a snowstorm started that morning, and it began to REALLY get bad when I got 10 miles out of town later that evening. The traffic on I-90 was bad and I started to see accidents left and right, I hadn’t had time to put the snow tires on before as I had never really needed them, and my mom had to come along in order to drive the car back home. But I had a 400 mile drive, and only 1 full day to get there, regardless of the weather conditions. My mom wasn’t too happy to be riding along with her son in a blizzard to get his dream car that was over 400 miles away, but I was able to keep her calm for the most part.
And so there we were, slipping and sliding on the snow and ice, with windshield wipers that didn’t really help, without being able to do much over 40. Luckily, there weren’t many other drivers on the road, which was helpful since I ended up nearly sliding off the road a few times, I really had to focus on the road, as I could barely see 30 feet in front of me. But, after getting over the mountain pass the snow began to die down, and after 3 hours of driving we were able to pull over and stop for the night. We left early the next day, and by then the storm had completely calmed, the rest of the trip ended up being a breeze for the most part.
However, both my mom and I had noticed something, that this car was the worst possible car to sleep in; I ended having back problems for a week and my mom had to go to the chiropractor for months. On top of that, any drives longer than 15 minutes were irritating, as the seats were literally like concrete wrapped in crappy upholstery. It was uncomfortable enough to where I began to hate driving it. But it it got much better milage than my Oldsmobile with the unplugged clutch solenoid, so most of the time I didn’t have a choice but to deal with it, we got a seat pad for the drivers side, but it didn’t really help matters. These are also the same seats that I blame road rage on, no wonder people are so angry all the time; I would be too if I had to spend most of my time driving a car with seats like that still.
“Introducing a car that needs no introduction.” What a stupid sentence, honestly.
I ended up having two snowstorm incidents, so this is the car I really learned to drive though the bad weather in, though I never once put on those new tires (so smart, right?). The next snowstorm would be in November 2019, when I was having a mechanic store and work on one of my cars, he wanted me to go into the city to get a part from an auto parts store that he needed. It had snowed but not badly, that was until I left, and yet again a blizzard came down. And the one time I chose to ignore google maps, I get on the freeway, instant traffic jam, figures someone had already flipped a big rig. Now the shop closes in an hour, so I’m just hoping that the freeway clears up, but of course it doesn’t.
And then it happens; The car goes into limp mode, shuddering and hardly able to move. Turns out it somehow managed to overheat in 20 degree weather; this is the worst possible time to run out of coolant, but being so cold it doesn’t stay hot for long. But limp mode sure sticks around, this is also when I found out my hazard lights didn’t fully work, so I get off the highway in hopes the side streets are less crowded. Not a chance, the only difference is the roads are worse, now whenever I’m fully stopped I start to slide sideways. Which is happening a lot due to the traffic, in danger of getting into a fender bender or getting stuck, I put the pedal to the floor for what little power it gave me, did a sliding turn and got back on I-90. At least the roads there weren’t dangerous, just really crowded and backed up.
By the time I got into the city, traffic had cleared up a bit. The car had cooled off, but it didn’t matter as it was still in limp mode and there was nowhere safe I could pull over until I actually got to the place. My foot was to the floor, but it would barely do 60, but after almost 2 hours I finally made it. And just in time too! They were closing just as I got there and I tripped over myself running to the owner of the place who was locking up, I went in, quickly paid for the part, and went back to the car to rest. I felt exhausted, but I still had to get home, and the conditions weren’t improving, and worse yet; It was getting dark.
I’d prefer not to have to do this again.
The rest of the night consisted of many things, let’s see if I can remember them all. Ah yes; when I left a gas station to fill up it was already dark, but the biggest problem at that point was the windshield wipers again, they didn’t really wipe the window, they more just smudged it a whole bunch. Back on the freeway limp mode returned and reminded me that I needed to fill up on coolant, but I first had to find a place that sold it, should’ve looked to see if they had coolant at the gas station I was just at, too late now.
After getting lost 2 miles off the freeway and ending up in someone’s driveway, I finally found a gas station that sold coolant. But now I was kinda stuck, this driveway was at a certain angle, where the car would have to get a running start and keep going up the small hill and slide straight on to the main road, I just hoped that no one was coming because if I stopped at the top of the hill I’d slide back down. Luckily enough I got my chance and was able to get out safely, I got to the gas station, filled up on coolant, and called my mom to let her know I was still alive and that I was on my way home.
I’d say the last 5 miles was actually the worst of it; it’s completely dark, the bad wipers don’t really help, and now the windshield has fogged up from the outside. So at this point I’m nearly blind except for my somewhat visible lights and the other vehicles glares. So all that I can do now is feel the rumble strips on both sides of the lane, and stick my head out the drivers side window. But as crazy and stressful as it was, I made it back, dropped off the part, and went home. Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll ever go get parts for my mechanic during the winter ever again. However I can now say I have experience driving a big RWD V8 car in the snow, so that’s good considering those are the only cars I drive now. After that I finally went to O’Reilly’s to get new wiper blades; took me long enough.
My next experiences would be short but not so sweet, earlier this year a steering rubber ball joint slipped out while my mom was leaving the dollar tree (Thankfully not on the road), and I had to wait for AAA to come pick it up to take it to my mechanic, who was nice enough to have it fixed the next day. But the moment when I pulled out of a parking lot and the car randomly died, I had enough, I was sick of this car, it was one thing after another. At around the same time the brake rotors had started making grinding noises, at first I though they were just dirty, but after washing them off the sound came right back. It had been burning oil the whole time we had it, so much so that I never even had to change the oil since it burned 1 quart every thousand miles.
The last memorable thing I did with this car is drive to my graduation ceremony, I had my mom and two friends in the car, and we watched as one of my classmates raced by me in a white Pontiac Vibe with white rims. She was an aggressive driver, and a few miles down the road we watched as she rear-ended the guy she was bumper riding, the reason I found it so funny was not only because I got to the ceremony first but because I had just told everyone a few minutes ago that she was going to get in an accident if she kept driving that way.
A short while later, I had found a car on Facebook marketplace that I wanted to trade it for. it was a 350 mile drive, but it was worth it if it meant I never had to sit in those seats again. And so far I’m glad to say it was, so I guess something good came out of it. I should’ve kept those snow tires though, I might’ve been able to use those for another car, especially considering what I need to buy most for my cars is wiper blades and tires. But at the end of the day, it was a free car, I don’t know what I really expected.
So, in the big picture; I didn’t like this car, and some of you in the comments may tell me why I’m too picky or I’m completely wrong about this car, and that’s fine. I’ve met other owners of Panther body cars with as high as 400k miles on them, and most never even had any of the issues I described to them, but I noticed that none of them had a 1998 of any model. That was the first year of a redesign, maybe they had issues? (*cough *cough *plastic intake manifold *cough *cough). And honestly, that 4.6 V8 really wasn’t that good, it had good low end torque and that was it. But I don’t think that the Panther body platform is bad by any means, I think I just got a bad year and a bad model, and I’ve heard Crown Vics and Town Cars are more comfortable too, wouldn’t surprise me either.
Sorry that this was such a long one, the next will most likely be shorter. Also, these stories will be in correct order as they are released, ( 1st car owned, 2nd car owned, 3rd car owned, etc). And the 3rd car I can guarantee people will find more interesting than the first two, so hopefully I’ll have that story out soonish, or some day, at some point. Anyway, thanks for reading.
Welcome to the COAL mine; you’re off to a fine start!
My gosh, I thought I was the only one. My father had this exact same grand marquis, which he had custom ordered with the performa nce package. I loved driving it. But sitting in it? That was a different story. I also had back problems for a long time after I borrowed it from him for two weeks. I had no idea that this was a common occurrence. What a story. Welcome to the COAL mines!
Welcome!
My “02 LS version had thick and soft comfy seats. The leather was also pleasantly soft.
The base seats must be different.
Like my ’00 Concorde and ’05 Taurus. Hard and thin foamy things. Sucked on a long drive.
Among the cars Ive had, the ’03 Town & Country, that ’02 Grand Marquis and the ’03 Avalon had the best seats for a long drive. Maybe the ’81 Delta 88 too, but I was in my 20s then and didnt care about such things.
I drive almost exactly the same car every day, in LS trim, that I also bought from the estate of someone who passed. I also tow a trailer with it regularly. It has been exceptional.
Respectfully, I suggest the author have patience and make more effort to understand root causes. Vehicles don’t “manage to overheat”; rather, this is a lack of maintenance that’s easily preventable or resolved (highly likely this was caused by a well documented issue). If a vehicle is in limp mode because it’s trying to get you off the road safely without destroying itself, is the right answer to floor it to 60mph?
Maybe if the author, who seems inexperienced, performed more repairs and maintenance things himself, he might gain a better diagnostic mindset in the future. Or he could watch the thousands of free how-to videos for Panthers.
The seats are great; Ford wouldn’t have sold zillions of copies to old people if they weren’t. Take the time to adjust them.
I bought a set of used steelies from a Crown Vic, put Blizzaks on them, and run these in the winter months with bags of gravel in the trunk. Having a transmission that I can shift manually into 2nd gear, this car is great in the snow.
Sir, with all due respect, I’m would like to clarify a few things:
1. I disliked this car, I was only going to do the bare minimum to keep it going. And since driving it wasn’t the experienced I hoped for, I couldn’t care less if something went wrong. I had no connection to the car and it was horrendous to sit in. It’s not that I am inexperienced or can’t do basic maintenance, more that I didn’t see why I should waste money or time on a vehicle I didn’t even want to own.
2. If neither me or my mother have gotten used to the seats after year and a half, what makes you think we ever would’ve gotten used to them? Because no matter how many times you sit on concrete, it’s still going to feel the same way, uncomfortable and hard.
I really enjoyed your review and agree with the Panther cloth seats. But I do agree with MaxKlinger on maintenance, and I do so respectfully and my intention is certainly not to be demeaning or rude (which I think his post intends as well). For example, I thought it was interesting when you were talking about your brakes squeaking. Could it have needed new brake pads, or maybe there was dirt or a stone stuck in the brake pad material? This has happened to me before, and I agree that it’s an agitating noise. Usually the rotors are not the culprits per se but the pads or more rarely a sticking caliper piston.
Looking forward to your third piece!
Great first COAL!
Actually his first COAL was on 10/25, the 1993 Cutlass he bought at age 16:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/my-first-car-at-age-sixteen-1993-oldsmobile-cutlass-ciera-these-hold-up-over-time-right/
Let’s see… you get a car for nothing then trash talk it because you drive it in a blizzard with baldy tires, ten year old wipers and no anti-freeze.
Lease a Kia, Dude. And see how long that drives with no coolant.
I leased a 2015 Kia Rio for three years. The payment was a paltry $157 a month. I paid almost that much for my sofa. A utterly forgettable little car but it got the job done. The 138 hp motor and six speed manual made it a quasi-hot hatch.
Don’t worry, I know how Kias are, I would never touch one lol.
When it comes to subjective tastes, you either like a car or you don’t. Lots of people like GM W bodies, but I swore off of them after far too many irritating experiences. Different people, different bodies, different cars – we all have to find the ones that work for us.
That said, you are awfully harsh on a car that you did virtually nothing to maintain. 1000 mi/quart oil consumption is an irritant, but it is what it is. The cooling system is another matter – did your Marquis ever have the manifold recall done? Or if it was leaking coolant somewhere else, I would think that coolant levels would become something an owner would stay on top of. Lots of people have gotten lots and lots of miles out of the 4.6, and that plastic manifold issue (or almost any other coolant leak on these) was highly fixable. It’s hard to get enthusiastic about fixing issues with a car you don’t like, but I don’t see that so much as a fault of the car.
Well, I did say I was picky. But I did virtually nothing to maintain the car on purpose, I didn’t see I point as I had no connection with it nor did I want it around. Did my Marquis ever have the manifold recall done? I am unsure myself but I doubt it, since Grandma never drove much as she didn’t have the best eyes.
However, I do not not blame the panther platform itself for this, as I’ve met other folks who’ve had much better experiences with these cars than me. But sometimes lemons come out of the factories, and that should also be noted just as much as all the success stories about these cars.
It’s easy for us old dudes to kibitz about ‘ya shoulda, shoulda’, but wow, this sure brings back memories of my days of learning about cars. The time I was in a big hurry going over a rail road crossing and (maybe caught a little air?) and screwed up the alignment on my car….I had just bought new tires too. Of course I drove it that way for a couple months, by which time the belts in the tires had taken a set and you could see the uneven wear in the tread. Decided I’d better do something. Well, the car was undrivable after the alignment. But I had just bought tires and i couldn’t afford two more! I had to move the front tires to the rear and live with the shake. Then there was the time I decided to change the spark plugs on my 307 V8 Camaro. Yanked the wires off and changing the plugs was a snap, but that was the day I learned about the concept of “firing order”. No internet in those days, and my dad thought it was a good lesson for me –“Hey, you screwed it up, you fix it!”. I did, eventually. I never drove without coolant though…except for the time a radiator hose burst (no, I don’t know how old it was, but old), and I drove home 5 miles at a crack. For closers, I throw in the story of my friend who said his oil light was broken because he’d put a quart in and the light stayed on. One day when I borrowed his car, I was doing the “Thank You” fill-up and checked the dip stick. Four quarts of oil later, the oil light “fixed itself” by going out.
So….Yeah, been there. Oh, and for what it’s worth, add me to the apparently list of people who are unimpressed with Grand Marquis of that era. I had to drive four Japanese ladies a couple hundred miles, so I rented one for the trip. Room enough with three in the back and two up front, but yeah….those seats! Uncomfortable. Oh, and the car wallowed and wandered and we got a couple cases of mild sea sickness and had to stop a couple times.
Finally, I am having PTSD just hearing about that blizzard. My blizzard story didn’t end as happily. I was 17 and driving too fast. I dropped a wheel off the edge of the road and when I tried to pull back on, I spun the car…and hit a telephone pole with my driver’s door…. “ Hello, Mom, can you come and pick me up? I had a little accident”…
My it wasn’t the car’s fault, but I never liked it much after that. Couldn’t trust it.
I had a very similar experience with our rental Grand Marquis back around the same time. We’d had a Crown Vic a few years before and enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to a comfortable few days. Unfortunately our Marquis gave us the same nausea-inducing ride you found, and the seats seemed to be padded randomly, with odd lumps in uncomfortable places. I understand the fondness many people have for these cars, but ours was certainly a disappointment.
I never could stomach the 1998 refresh of the Ford Panthers…just about every change they made was either blatant cost-reduction, or a beating with the ugly stick. Of the three cars, the Grand Marquis came out the worst: The front end looked as if they took the grille off a 1978 model, melted down the edges, and pasted it to the 97 nose with a literal shovelful of plasti-chrome epoxy. Looks aren’t everything and I wouldn’t doubt that these cars had virtues “under the skin,” but I wouldn’t be able to muster enthusiasm for one at all.
Mercury’s sales and marketing were in an utterly bizarre place when these cars were new. Ford made a show in the late ’90s about how Mercury would become “focused on the youth market”…then immediately dropped the Tracer and Mystique, the two models that younger buyers would actually buy! The geriatric Grand Marquis somehow outsold every other model in the Mercury showrooms through the midst of this, which continued the direct contradiction. Ford then axed Mercury’s Canadian dealer network, which indicated that they had no commitment to the make at all.
Well said. I own both a 93 and 98 Marquis LS models, both fully loaded, and the cost cutting is significant. The 93 was well detailed with nice engineering and interior flourishes. The 98 saw so much of that stripped away.
There were some functional improvements, but they didn’t justify what was lost.
From driving several Ford cars and trucks it’s my feeling that Ford starts de-contenting a vehicle about the second year into its production or even refresh. Or at least that was the way things worked into the late 90s.
By contrast, my experience with Honda cars is that they add features/value as a model ages. Example? I bought a 4th generation and later a 5th generation Civic. The 4th generation was in its second of 4 years and consequently didn’t have the tilt steering column, passenger door rear view mirror, or the folding rear seats that the third and fourth year cars got. The 5th generation car was a bare-bones CX, it was the first year of that generation and had vinyl seats. Following year cars had cloth seats and if I remember correctly would eventually get powered steering.
Ford went on a massive de-contenting kick in the mid 90s, and it hit every vehicle line at a slightly different time. The Panther got it in 1998, the E series vans got it in 1997. If you owned a Ford vehicle in that era you know what year the cost cuts hit hard.
At one point I owned a 93 Crown Vic LX and a 94 Club Wagon Chateau and boy were both of them nicely trimmed and equipped cars. Sure, anything could be made nicer, but I watched both lines take a feature-bath and Fords after that happened were mighty grim.
This fascinates me… as once many years ago I had the opportunity to have some drinks with an American Automotive Engineer and a Japanese Automotive Engineer.
We got to talking about the engineering philosophies of their respective companies.
The American said he was taught to think,
“How can I make this just as good but less expensive to make?”
The Japanese said he was taught to think,
“How can I make this better without increasing costs?”
Neither engineer ever truly succeeds,
– on the Japanese car, there are “always” improvements but costs and prices creep up. One day, the cheap car isn’t cheap any more; it’s fancy and expensive. Eventually a cheaper model must be introduced ‘underneath’: Civic/Corolla moves upmarket and the Fit/Yaris takes the cheap car spot.
– on the American car, de-contenting sets in (keep making the plastic door handles thinner and save a penny one each one – 4¢ a car!), overall quality declines, sales fall off, and suddenly “Quality is Job # 1!” again for a few years…. Detroit always promise they have learned that you can’t save your way to profitability, but they seem to be slow learners.
Sounds like a lot of youthful stupidity to me, not like a bad car.
Been there done that, I have to admit.
Yup and Yup.
Sir with all due respect, even if youthful stupidity was at play, that doesn’t mean that the seats were any less uncomfortable or the car gave me any less trouble. And neither the steering issues, oil burning issues, or computer issues were any fault of mine. But merely just how I got it.
The _good_ thing is : you didn’t get killed .
No everyone likes Panthers and the whole ‘GrandMa’ thing isn’t to my taste and I’m old .
You’re young and beginning, plenty more vehicles to try and see what you like .
You’re a decent writer so I expect we’ll have fun following your travels & travails .
-Nate
It’s true, I didn’t get killed. My mom didn’t either and she was more unlucky than I was, but thankfully she seems to have an angel looking over her shoulder on occasion.
But it’s not that I don’t like the panther cars, I would be willing to give another one a try if I found one that didn’t make driving a pain in the rear end, I honestly believe I just got a bad year last time.
However, the next 3 COALs will be about the cars I really wanted and currently have today. 🙂
I can dig the bad seats thing ~ many 1930 through 1980 vehicles had horrible seats that gave me pain .
I see little point in dumping $ into a car you didn’t want .
-Nate
I had an 01 grand marquis from 2011 to 2018. It was our family car when my kids were little little. It was reliable and functional with that giant trunk being able to swallow everything we could want to fit in it. But driving in the snow with it REALLY taught you how to drive in the snow. Its like steering 2 cars at once, the front and the back with the wheel and throttle together and downshifting to help straighten her out, pulse the throttle to maintain momentum on hills, wigiggle the steering to help keep her straight, pulse the brakes when braking (no abs on mine). There was an art to driving these in the snow for sure. Mine was reliable but it would eat ball joints every 2 years or 40k miles and in the end I sold it with 180k miles because it was having little issues and it wasnt worth it to fix a big problem when the big problem would come. I miss crusing it it during spring summer and fall but every winter Im happy to have front wheel drive.
Can’t argue with you there lol, there really is an art to driving these big RWD cars in the snow. However, I can’t say things are going to change for me as those are the only types of cars I drive now. 🙂
In 1990, I was fresh out of teacher’s college and went to work in a small Rocky Mountain town called Invermere, British Columbia. I was there with my girlfriend and her 1985 Toyota 4X4.
It was mid December and -20’C in Banff when we left. I stopped to fill the gas tank as there is no service between Banff and Radium Hot Springs. It was half full and the gf was all mad that I filled it up. She was convinced filling up cost much more money.
I wanted to get a hotel but the gf protested that it was “too expensive” but at the age of twenty-six I was willing to try it. After about twenty minutes were in a white-out. I couldn’t see five metres ahead of me. A group of vehicles ended up forming a convoy, the 4X4’s in the front and the cars in the back.
It was the most harrowing and scary drive of my life. One wrong move and we could have ended up in a valley covered with snow, only to find us in spring.
The distance is 140 km and it usually took ninety minutes. It took us seven hours to get home, arriving at 6:00 AM the next morning. I was exhausted and I swore I would never drive in a blizzard again and I never have.
Driving a car without coolant in limp home mode is something I would never do. I’d call the flat deck to come get it and spend the $100, which is a lot cheaper than a new engine. That it survived 60 MPH with no collant is a testament to the Ford 4.6 litre V-8.
Granny cars are not always the best option, speaking from experience. They are often not maintained all that well since Granny didn’t drive much. A Granny car needs to go to a garage as soon as it is acquired. The seat could have been repaired by an upholstery shop.
That’s a good story…although I want to hear what became of the girlfriend who a) refuses to stay in a hotel vs. driving at night in a blinding snowstorm; and b) believes that it costs more to fill a tank up than to…what?? Perhaps she was convinced that you’d both die in the snowstorm and would never use the 2nd half a tank of gas?
Like the OP’s story, this is an example of that which does not kill us makes us better, or smarter, or more skilled at driving in bad weather. In that vein, I still want to know what happened to the girlfriend. 🙂
She was an art teacher from a wealthy family in Toronto. She was a city girl who didn’t understand the hazards to the mountains. Ditzy to the max but a wonderful person.
In hindsight, we should have got the hotel.
Was gf all mad because she paid …or all mad after you paid? or all mad once she understood it it did not cost more… assuming you got to that logic point….Seems you got to use the gas so all good….
Definitely would’ve had more fun!
I’m guessing that Gma wasn’t big on keeping the car serviced. It’s often seemed to me that among the very elderly relatively few people maintain cars as necessary. Instead, the majority either do not maintain at all OR over-maintain (e.g, 500 mile oil changes several times a year).
I will second the comments here about “been there, done that”. I think we all need to learn basic stuff like “put on the snow tires after Thanksgiving”, regularly check fluids (such as coolant), and “limp mode means stop driving”. Fortunately you had some kind of limp mode. I recall driving cars where if the idiot light was broken, your first notice of running out of coolant was a persistent knocking noise under the hood where once you pulled over the best option was a blown head gasket…the more likely option was impending melt-down. Anyhow, many of us had parents who beat (or tried to beat) these pearls of basic automotive wisdom into our muddled adolescent heads. You’ve seemed to learned these things on your own (perhaps a more powerful experience than being “told”). Either way, you’ve learned them now.
Enjoying this series. Keep ’em coming!
A friend of mine once told me a story that he’d heard second-hand. Or maybe third, fourth, who knows? If it wasn’t true, it sounded as if it could have been.
Supposedly two grandma-age women were driving some kind of Detroit lead sled with minimal instrumentation and idiot lights in Arizona. The HOT light came on. They thought it was a commentary on the outside temperature and kept going. I assume the outcome wasn’t pretty.
🙂
I just flew in from the coast…and man are my arms tired!
(But actually, I can totally see your story as being solidly rooted in fact)
I doubt Grandma almost ever serviced it honestly, it had very little oil when we got it, though she never drove much as she couldn’t see very well.
Truth is, it’s not that I didn’t want to put the 4 new snow tires on, it’s just that I was lazy and I wanted to completely use up the old tires first, some good that did me right? And I barely did maintenance on it because I didn’t want to drive it, why would time and money into a car that made me so unhappy when I drove it?
One thing you are right about however, is that I’ve seemed to have learned these things on my own, which ended up being very true, as you will be able to tell from my next few articles.
I gots a ’93 “Aero” Crown Vicky in a gunmetal blue, with a matching cloth interior, lace wheels with black walls, and 50K under it’s belt. I really like this car, for all the obvious reasons.
What I remember about the Grand Marquis was its Blind Spots trying to judge distances past the hood of the car, not knowing whether or not you were too close to the car in front of you in heavy traffic…
Years ago I bought a 2005 Grand Marquis that was a low mileage likely grandma car, thinking it would be a plusher more refined upgrade from the reliable but tired CVPI I had. I should have kept it, the GM turned out to be an awful lemon, lots of things like the head gasket intake manifold heater resistor headlight resistor way too many things failed on it, and the seats were horribly uncomfortable. They caused some nerve pinch in my left leg, and that has never happened to me outside of that car.
The OP seems to be learning from his own mistakes without the benefit of an older family member handing down conventional automotive wisdom. By the time I got my first car at 17, I had years of being yelled at about it behind me. My stepfather forced me to learn whatever maintenance he was doing on the family cars. At the time I would have rather been anywhere else, and some of it I learned rather despite him, but later on it saved me from a lot of unnecessary grief.
One thing he taught me is to IMMEDIATELY go over any newly acquired car and not wait until issues manifest themselves at the most inconvenient time possible. Oh, I still ended up perpetrating all sorts of automotive stupidity, but I would have never ended up in a blizzard with ancient streaky wipers and bald tires, because they would have been replaced immediately, along with fluids, belts, hoses, brakes and whatever else deferred maintenance the car would have needed. Only then would the car be driven. It may still have issues, but not easily preventable maintenance issues. I would get used junkyard tires if I had no money for new ones, or even get refill wiper rubber which was cheaper than new blades, but it always got done. I hope the OP has now learned this lesson.
Also, I think another factor is at play here. Not only is once common wisdom no longer so common, but the expectations have changed. Coming from modern cars, somebody inexperienced with older models might not realize how much more maintenance and attention they need. That Mercury may have seemed like a clunker but that’s just how old cars are. With proper maintenance, it would have served you well, uncomfortable seats and all. If you move on, let it be for the right reasons.
You’re correct on the first part, I had no one to teach me anything about cars except for myself. My mom knew nothing about cars and in result didn’t own one for a very long period of time, and my dad pretended to be a car guy when in reality he knew almost nothing. And it didn’t help that I was the only one in the family that was even remotely interested in vehicles, the only other one had been my grandfather who used to be a racing driver, but he died long before I got my first car, so it was just me learning everything I could about vehicles of all sorts.
However, early on I developed a nasty habit of just winging with hopes that I bought a good car, but later on this would not work out in my favor.
As for the Marquis, I refused to work on it because I didn’t like it at all, the only thing it did better than my other car was gas milage, which didn’t make it worth keeping since it was so uncomfortable.
Lastly, keep in mind this is the newest car I have ever owned, and my 1993 Oldsmobile that I bought for $750 had been far less work to keep happy than the mercury, who would’ve thought that an older car with higher milage would be more reliable than a newer car with lower milage?
Also, I would rather not own a car at all, rather than own a car I hate driving.
Under 100k with a lack of maintenance will doom anything.
“Also, I would rather not own a car at all, rather than own a car I hate driving.”
Yep, I hated my first car’s ownership experience so much I didn’t own one again until I got married 7 years later.
I have a dad who pretends knowing about the car…
The headgasket blew and he pretended the problem wasn’t there. Until I floored the gas pedal and all traffic behind us disappeared. He still denied it,
So I dropped the car to the dealership then the entrance disappeared. After the smoke went away, the dealer took the car immediately
I’ll add to the list of those who don’t “get” the Panther love. These cars are woefully space-inefficient; the ride isn’t especially smooth; the interiors of the later ones look and feel cheap; the traction is poor, the seats are uncomfortable, and the quality is iffy. The only attraction I have to them is for the huge (but irregularly-shaped and non-expandable) trunk, and how everyone slows down for me or gets out of my way because they think I’m a cop.
I’d say the car treated you much better than you treated it. A car that could switch from a liquid cooled V8 to an air cooled V4 so you could keep driving it w/o damaging the engine, was pretty rare in 1998. Most engines would have died in short order and in an expensive fashion.
I’m also not buying the couldn’t find a place to buy coolant. Convenience store with gas pumps, hardware stores, grocery stores and discount stores like Walmart all normally all carry at least the old school green version which would have worked in it.
While you were at that store a bag of sand, a couple of concrete blocks or even the cheapest, biggest bag of dog food to throw in the trunk gives a good increase in traction, That was something that was commonly done back in the days when FWD, AWD and 4wd were very uncommon. I did the dog food thing a couple of times with some of my Panthers since we had a dog at the time so once the snow was melted we were stocked up.
Sir, with all due respect allow me to explain some things.
1. If the engine would’ve died, I wouldn’t have cared, because that’s how much I wanted the car out of my life by that point, thankfully that didn’t happen because that was before I knew some good could come out of it.
2. The reason I had to look for a place to buy coolant was because the engine didn’t go back into limp mode until I got back out of the freeway and away from the city, which is what reminded me to do so in the first place as limp mode was becoming annoying at that point.
3. And lastly, believe it or not I didn’t have the money to buy a bag of anything, so even if I had wanted to I couldn’t. Also, I only would’ve ever used when I was REALLY stuck, so what’s the point of that when you can just use brute force?
1. So you can honestly say that you would have been left on the side of the road with a now worthless car, just to be rid of it, because you didn’t like it? I’d rather have a running and driving car I didn’t like so I could sell it. Would your mother be happy to be stuck on the side of the road in the cold?
2. Again I don’t just don’t get it. I understand you were focused on getting to your destination, but keeping the car together so that it can reach the destination is something I consider mission critical. So when it started acting up correcting the problem would have been at the top of my mind, so I could ensure I made it to my destination.
Sure you didn’t like the car, but it has much more value as a running and driving car, than it does with a dead engine on the side of the road. You mention money is tight so it seems like you would want to preserve the value of the car since it is an asset that can be turned into cash.
3. The point of the weight in the trunk is to prevent you from getting REALLY stuck or worse, it helps every time you accelerate.
For the benefit of future “strandees” is this where I mention that even in sub-freezing temperatures plain old water -with common sense precaution- can be temporarily used as engine coolant?
That’s actually the reason that a keep a container of water in my older vehicles, though I didn’t start doing this until I overheated two of my cars, lesson learned and thanks for the reminder!
Ok, I’ll clarify a bit:
1. I had two cars at the time. So if the head gasket had blown, it would’ve been more of an “oh well” type of situation and I just would have sold it for what I could get for it. While this was before I knew that the car was going to end up being of some use to me, my mom from what I remember and how she still talks about disliked the car even more than I did. Sure, it would’ve sucked, but neither of us would have felt sorry for it.
2. I was focused on getting home above everything else because the weather was so bad and I had been out for 3 hours at that point trying not to get into an accident, as long as it didn’t involve me getting injured I was going to get home no matter what it took. But then I realized that if the car was going to keep going after this, it would need some coolant, so I bought some while I was out, rather than waiting till I got home.
3. Money is always tight for me these days, but I’m not going to force myself to spend a lot of money on something I don’t like, and as an FYI I had 4 full size tires, a spare, and numerous other things in the trunk at the time. Though it was very hard to fit anything else back there, I can’t say that I was low on weight.
Let’s stop slagging the COAL author, please and thank you. We don’t do that here; there’s the entire rest of the internet for that. Writing a COAL series is an enormous undertaking, whether it winds up being two chapters or fifty chapters. If we let the air out an author’s tires by scolding them for how they treated their car, they’ll get discouraged and we won’t get to follow along as they live and learn. Drop the torches and pitchforks and find something encouraging to say.
+1 on general principles. +2 because the guy is young and inexperienced.
I agree with the general sentiment of the replies you’re referring to; we just need to word them carefully to make clear that they’re not in any way personal attacks, but merely advice as to what happens when you drive an old car that’s not being properly maintained. That old Jiffy Lube jingle “be good to your car so your car will be good to you” is true. Here is someone not being good to his car, i.e. not putting on the snow tires that were already sitting in the trunk, mounted and ready to go.
I agree wholeheartedly with Daniel. This is a good COAL and it’s unfair to be overly critical of the author’s experience. Maybe all the armchair quarterbacks would have better maintained this car had they owned it, but the bottom line is he didn’t like the car and it wasn’t a good ownership experience. How many of us can say that they haven’t made any mistakes in their vehicle ownership, in particular during youth. I also think that the “Panther love” on the internet is a bit much at times, so it’s nice to read about someone who did not like his Panther. And this statement is coming from someone who has owned and driven many miles in Panthers.
0192700SALT I have enjoyed both your COALS and I am looking forward to you next.
Agree with Daniel and Vince. For what it’s worth, when I was 25 or so and dealing with the endless issues on my first vehicle, I would have gladly driven the thing straight into Lake Michigan had I been able to afford to.
Thank you Daniel (and others) for speaking up on this issue. I was not online last night, but I might have anticipated this. The author chose to be honest (and in the process made himself vulnerable) about his feelings and actions. I appreciate that and can relate.
CC is about sharing the full spectrum of our experiences with cars and such, and there’s no need to finger wag.
Thank you yet again Daniel ;
Many here had good teachers, some didn’t we all learned as we went along .
-Nate
I have nothing but praise for Panthers. I dealt with not just one or ten, but a LOT of them.
Part of my lot in life has been to keep folks rolling – on my dime. I lightheartedly call that Lend-Lease, after the government policy which puts one in the fight, but in sort of a hands-off way. lol
Anyway, in their era these were the absolute best value in cheap reliable transportation, and one of my favorite to send off on Lend-Lease. Just simple-stupid tough-as-nails. (Consider what the featured car endured) If I did get a car problem call from the likes of some far off college town or whatever, no matter what it was, there would be some simple cheap long distance fix. Panthers didn’t have a “killer” Achilles Heel as so many other cars have. No “doomsday” timing chain, water-pump, head gaskets, etc.
Intakes and stripped sparkplugs sucked, but neither was that big of a deal. Not like contemporaries that’d predictably come up with things like every valve bent, or head bolts stripped out of the block.
Also, they didn’t have dozens of irritating petty “breakaway” components that stack up. You know, the way some vehicles will predictably break door handles, strip regulators, burn up switches, wear out hinges, strip wiper components, lose instrument displays ..
Panthers didn’t have that; they’d mostly hang all together for half a million miles
I would’ve loved to have bought a car similar to featured GM from a like-minded fed-up owner. With half a day of shop time it would’ve been ready to be sent off to not be heard about for some 100,000 miles.
I am looking forward to your COAL’s to come because of the two you have shared so far. Thank you! Cars Of A Lifetime are much about the learning process, the personal experience with the vehicles as well as the personal development. Of course you got the woulda-shoulda-treatment from some of the commentary. Not from me though. I am interested in seeing your collecting more experience.
In regards of the seats: I guess you got the Marquis De Sade edition.
I drove a 1998 grand Marquis for about a year and a half. I had no problems. The author seems to be inexperienced. The car I drove for a while is still on the road and is in great shape. I wouldn’t go into a mountainous are with a car like that. The car I drove had a lot of power. I wouldn’t go into a blizzard for any reason except a medical emergency. I don’t know what the guy was thinking.
Tough crowd here. Early COAL entries are often a window into youthful indiscretion – This seems no different than other first and second COAL posts in that regard.
Presumably the author learned his lesson and is no longer treating his current whips this way.
Safety matters. Can’t put a price on the life of people, especially family. That having been said – I spent twenty plus years often spending money I didn’t have trying to keep old cars going. Putting too much money into what should have been a beater.
No judgement from this guy. It was a free car, you had some issues, you gained experience and knowledge, and then you sold it and moved on to something (hopefully) better. Done. My in-laws had a ‘94 Grand Marquis that was also a granny car. It was in nice shape when they bought it in the mid 2000’s with under 100,000 km on the clock. They didn’t have much in the way of problems with it, and having driven it a few times I found it to be a pleasant and comfortable (if unexciting) ride. I also drove a limo for a few years in the mid-2000’s, and both cars I drove were Town Cars. The first was a ‘97, and it was quite comfortable and well put together. By the time the company sold it in early 2006 it had 750,000 km on the original engine (it usually went through a litre of oil between changes) and it was on its second transmission. The second was a 2006 (an executive off-lease) that drove and handled quite well but as others have said, the interior seemed cheaper and less well-built than the ‘97. They’re still a common sight, though, so they must hold up well mechanically. Again, no judgement. You had a bad experience with a Panther, and you’ve learned your lesson and moved on. I’m looking forward to your next instalment.
I agree, the seats are hard in my 1995 Grand Marquis which causes local and remote nerve pain along the lower back and left leg if left unchecked. This is a GS model without lumbar support, also. What I’ve done, which alleviates the pain, is adjust the rear to the lowest position and the front to the upper most position and recline the seatback to something comfortable. Pain eventually went away.
If I sit in the unadjustable passenger side, the pain returns. I think it’s when there’s a combination of no thigh support and the tailbone pressing forward in relation to the pelvis combined with the rounding of the back which caused the pinched nerve endings for me (the seats are rather low in this car compared to a B body or M body, from what I remember, leaving little inherent thigh support). No doctor here, but I think that’s what was happening for me. Kind of like slouching in a chair with the bottom slightly forward causing pain when the buttocks is supposed to be pressed up to the rear of the bottom cushion.
I don’t know, my 2 cents. Maybe I should do a write up with my Marquis as it is my favourite among my fleet which includes a couple 2020 models. Thoroughly enjoying mine, but it’s definitely not perfect.
It’s not surprising that a car that was owned by an older person and infrequently driven would have problems due to differed maintenance. I put down a lot of miles in various Crown Vics over the years and they were always comfortable for me. My ’96 Mustang 4.6 has been very reliable, though I am on the second replacement intake manifold. I bought the car with 150,000 miles on it and it had the all plastic, maybe original manifold. Mileage is now up to 215.000 and it’s running strong I do keep a careful eye on it. I anticipate it will hit 300k, just like all those Town Cars.
Not knowing anything about cars makes it hard to anticipate problems and to later fix them. My Son is a hands on car guy, but my youngest daughter could care less about cars. Now that she’s 120 miles away I’m not there to help her out. I told her that is why people have to buy new cars. You are either going to pay for repairs and maintenance, or pay monthly on a new car. They all cost money to run.
Amazing .
Due to have seen Panthers in service since the beginning, I think they’re fine cars .
I don’t want one neither did the original poster, no crime in that .
As a youth I remember many teenagers who hated the cars they were given .
Not everyone is a GearHead nor should they be .
-Nate
Owned three Panthers, but they were higher trim models – a 98 Crown Vic LX, 07 Grand Marquis LS, and a 93 Town Car Signature Series. The 07 was dead reliable until I rear ended someone in the Squirrel Hill Tunnel…the other two had various gremlins but the 4.6 wasn’t one of them. I’ll chalk up the seats being more comfortable to chance.
We’ve all been there and done that with regards to pushing our luck – I look back on some of the stunts I did and am amazed I survived…or only cracked up a car.
Hopefully your next car(s) you have better luck with!
I would take that free GranMa, buy new wipers blades, change the oil, check out the tires so that they are road worthy, and then avoid bad weather. No one can hop into a car that sat for who knows how long, and expect it to roar through a snow storm without incident.
Not all free cars are bad, although grandma not servicing is a theme. Back in 2002 my wife’s grandmother gave us her car which was a 97 Saturn SL2 with 18,000 miles, a bad vibration from a leaky engine mount and a disintegrated headliner. a trip to the dealer, followed by the local upholstery shop gave us a cheap ride for the next 15 years until the transaxle blew up. It did need an alternator, water pump, two batteries, 8 tires and a radiator in that time plus it developed an intractable serpentine belt squeal but overall it was dirt cheap motoring.
Had a ’99 Crown Vic LX, light blue metallic over white leather.
Didn’t have adjustable pedals, so the steering wheel was always too close or the pedals were too far away.
Windshield wipers juddered and squeeked no matter what brand of rubber inserts I bought.
Often had problems getting the hood to close completely. Dealer wasn’t interested in fixing it.
Bought the police equipment to supposedly prevent the gas tank from exploding if rear-ended. Never had to test that out!
It finally succumbed to the plastic intake manifold cracking, stranding my wife and small kids on the side of a busy two lane highway.
But I LOVED that car! Literally built like a truck.
you sort of come across as ungrateful getting a free and wonderful car from your grandmother. You could have gone to a junk yard and gotten nicer seats from a top of the line Grand Marquis or town car and swapped them in. All used cars usually need a few repairs and cars that are little driven often need such things as water pumps or brake callipers and such then they are fine. Panthers are among the most reliable cars ever made. I have had several and drive an 83 Lincoln. It was little used and i had to do a fuel pump and front brake callipers and hoses and pads and auto lamp sensor and replace tires right away but it has been a great car. It has great seats. it just seems a shame to hate on it. i could understand if it was a Chevy Lumina or a Chrysler 200 or even one of those hideous and badly made Sables or Mystique cars Mercury made.
That is a captivating story; enjoyed it, very much. A Panther Grand Marquis remains one, of my dream cars(if I can’t have a ’59 Ford 4-door); I’m serious.
It’s interesting that this article ignited the most comments by far. I think it can be credited to a car unfairly maligned. I owned a ’94 LS Grand Marquis, and then traded that in for a ’03 LSE Grand Marquis (a floor shifting version similar to the Marauder). I still have the ’03, and after nearly 20 years of ownership, I can say it is the best car I ever owned. But a lot of people commented on the decontenting that occurred in the ’98, which I have to say just reflects what was going on industry-wide. The “real” decontenting (in my view) happened in ’04, when actual features that were standard on the ’03 disappeared. Regardless, the basic car is one of Ford’s classics, that was well built, comfortable (for most people) and dependable. That it was a best seller, no one argues with. I thoroughly enjoy our author’s stories, and I am fully up to date with all of them 😉 I look forward to more of them..