Junkyard Find: 1986 Ford LTD Country Squire LX
Since we’re on a Country Squire Junkyard Find roll, with a ’76 Squire on Wednesday and a ’77 Squire yesterday, let’s take a look at a Panther Squire today. Yes, Panther Love even extends to Reagan-era woodie wagons!
The 1979-91 Panther-based Country Squire was much smaller than the dreadnaught that preceded it, but it still had room to haul a family of six in relative comfort.
Thanks to the lightweight Panther chassis and electronic fuel injection (starting in the 1983 model year), owners of 1980s Country Squires were able to crack the magical 20 highway MPG fuel-economy barrier. The mid-70s Squires were lucky to get double-digit fuel economy (downhill, drafting 18″ behind a semi).
It’s hard to imagine phony wood paneling worse than the stuff used by Ford in the 1970s, but the bean counters managed to find an even cheaper source for the stuff by the 1980s.
These were pretty good wagons, in spite of the archaic 60s-flashback decorative touches, and you still see quite a few on the street today.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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I was spared the horror of Plastiwood trim with my Crown Vic, but my '84 sedan had the half-vinyl roof and fake wire hubcaps. It was a gloriously extravagant luxury ride after spending the first 12 years of my life riding in a Chevette and a 3-on-the-tree Chevy 1/2 ton. The overdrive gear was so absurdly tall that you had to be doing about 85 to get any throttle response out of it. Seats 4 in the front, 6 in the back, and 4 in the trunk. It did its cop-car heritage proud by blasting down a nearby country road at 120, it's speedometer pegged so far to the right it might as well dug a tunnel to China. A great car - I miss it dearly.
I am restoring a 1986 Ford Country Squire that has been in my family since it was new! Where is the junk yard where this one is located? I need some spare parts! Thanks!