Junkyard Find: 1976 Ford LTD Brougham
Just after I wrote that non-Country Squire Ford LTDs were rare Junkyard Finds (we’ve had three so far: this ’69, this ’71, and this ’72), I found this majestic yellow four-door hardtop in a San Francisco Bay Area wrecking yard. As an added bonus, it’s a Brougham!
We laugh at Malaise Era big Detroit cars now, with their overwrought heraldic crests and laughably fake wood and leather, but I spent much of my childhood in cars like this and they actually seemed pretty nice at the time.
The 351M V8 was big on torque, not so great for horsepower or fuel economy.
This one got a lot of use over its 38-year lifespan.
There is no way in hell this generation of LTD managed to get 22 mpg on the highway, even with the not-so-strict tests of the time. It was comfortable, though.
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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- Analoggrotto I hope the walls of Mary Barra's office are covered in crushed velvet.
- Mikey For 36.4 years i punched the clock at GM Canada.. For the last 15.5 years (frozen at 2008 rates) my GM pension shows up in my account. I flirted with Fords for a couple of years but these days I'm back to GM vehicles and still qualify for employee price. Speaking as a High School drop out ..GM provided myself and family a middle class lifestyle.. And still does .. Sorry if i don't join in to the ever present TTAC ..GM Bash fest
- Akear Does anyone care how the world's sixth largest carmaker conducts business. Just a quarter century ago GM was the world's top carmaker. [list=1][*]Toyota Group: Sold 10.8 million vehicles, with a growth rate of 4.6%.[/*][*]Volkswagen Group: Achieved 8.8 million sales, growing sharply in America (+16.6%) and Europe (+20.3%).[/*][*]Hyundai-Kia: Reported 7.1 million sales, with surges in America (+7.9%) and Asia (+6.3%).[/*][*]Renault Nissan Alliance: Accumulated 6.9 million sales, balancing struggles in Asia and Africa with growth in the Americas and Europe.[/*][*]Stellantis: Maintained the fifth position with 6.5 million sales, despite substantial losses in Asia.[/*][*]General Motors, Honda Motor, and Ford followed closely with 6.2 million, 4.1 million, and 3.9 million sales, respectively.[/*][/list=1]
- THX1136 A Mr. J. Sangburg, professional manicurist, rust repairer and 3 times survivor is hoping to get in on the bottom level of this magnificent property. He has designs to open a tea shop and used auto parts store in the facility as soon as there is affordable space available. He has stated, for the record, "You ain't seen anything yet and you probably won't." Always one for understatement, Mr. Sangburg hasn't been forthcoming with any more information at this time. You can follow the any further developments @GotItFiguredOut.net.
- TheEndlessEnigma And yet government continues to grow....
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The last car my great uncle drove before the cataracts took him out was like this. Not sure of the year, but his last LTD was a dark blue four door with a 400 c.i. engine. Always driven under 30 mph, and usually with the right tires on the shoulder. I shudder to imagine how far that thing would have gone through a building had he suffered an "unintended acceleration" event. He had been a Ford dealer for years, and had bought himself a brand new V-12 Lincoln Zephyr. Tragically for me, he was not a hoarder.
AHHHH the good 'ole days when if the ENGINE light came on, you stopped because it really meant something was wrong with the ENGINE and you didn't know if it was low oil pressure or high temperature and no amount of duct tape could help if ignored long enough. But surely LTD drivers would just call a tow and not try to do any diagnosing themselves.