11 years apart, which is better?

[ford4v429]

weve had a 2011 Grand Marquis loaner for the last month, nice car, albeit a bit boring...yesterday went and picked up a 'new' winter beater...found a super clean 2000 for about half kelley bluebook, and brought it home. both got 23 mpg on the hour drive home, both pretty much 'feel' like the same car to drive- except: the seats in the 2011 are freakin huge and putting a 6th person in the 2011 is tight...the new ones split bench dont have 6 way on the passenger side, making the 'split' uneven, and the longer seat bottom leaves way less footroom than in the old one- or maybe the tranny tunnel was smaller...in any event 6 people in a 2000 is pretty comfy, 6 in a 2011 is rough on #6. Also the older seats have great leather- very soft compared to the new one, and the new steering wheel looks like leather, but dont feel like it....the new mustang wheels feel great, but the new merc wheel feels more like vinyl...the Grand Marquis' have identical interiors except the clock location and instrument cluster (and no controls for passenger seat on the new one), and the kids loved the seats in the new (old) one compared to the 2011s relatively rock hard ones...my 89 lincoln has the kinda hard leather seats too, so its not a age thing, but more of a materials thing I think.

I know the 2011 is the final year anyway, so who cares...but I still kinda care and think someone at ford should be loooking at materials used today and a decade ago- the new interior really sucks materials wise compared to the old ones.

The 2000 had nicer wheels- I scrounged up the same style wheels for our 65 galaxie, they are great looking wheels for a 4 door...sporty wheels look out of place, but the honeycomb spoked deep dish ones I really like a lot. headlights in both cars equally suck...our 65 with just halogen bulbs even sheds more light on the road than these. My wifes avalance has probably the best headlamps Ive ever used, the new mustangs are excellent too- but these are pretty darn terrible lens designs- I'll be adding some driving lights soon- maybe even tomorrow, I dont like driving either of these Mercs at night...great visibility/crappy lights.

 

PS- the one we got has near 140,000 miles on it, looks/drives/rides like the new one - only difference noticable is a slight rattle from a loose sway bar link that needs serviced, and slightly better brake pedal feel in the new one. well built machines, such a shame they never recieved any improvements over the years...couldnt even think about a new one right now- thankfully found a used one I actually like better for dirt cheap...big/safe/durable/6 passenger/V8/RWD/Ford, if they still made them in a couple years I'd likely have looked at one next, oh well.

Edited January 2, 2011 by ford4v429

[armadamaster]

Welcome to a decade of Ford's decontenting of the Panther.

[MIAMI-DADE]

I had a 99 Grand Marquis [with HPP] with 200K miles on it....I liked that one better then my sisters 07 Grand Marquis LS and my current 05 CVLX...Hurricane Wilma totaled it on me in 05...I did absolutely nothing with that car [got it brand new] but a IAC...It still had the orginal plugs in it and it was running awesome...Just did the regular Ford service...Oil was changed every 5K miles with Motorcraft ...Lincoln Mercury did all the service on it...At the time I was dealing with a honest dealership but since then the dealership turned into a stearlership when it merged with another Ford dealer...Now I use a honest independent.

[ford4v429]

just thinking about winter coming, and our old merc... shes getting rusty, the last mustangs paid off in another month, darn... if the panthers were still out there, I'b probably be shopping. guess another used winterbeater might be on the list- or if gm still makes the avalanche, my wifes has been a great truck, maybe I'll look at another of those...