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Ford Panthers are easy to find in American self-service wrecking yards, to put it mildly, and the most common Panther of them all is the P71 Police Interceptor version of the Crown Victoria.
I daily-drove an ex-San Joaquin County Sheriff’s ’97 P71 for most of the 2000s and thought it was one of the best car-per-dollar-spent deals I’ve ever had. However, it takes a very special Crown Vic to stand out sufficiently from the junkyard crowd and get into this series.
I shot a professionally-painted stars-and-stripes ’89 Olds last year, but nicely executed American-flag paint jobs are quite rare on junkyard cars (badly executed flag paint jobs, on the other hand, are easy to find). This ’04 Crown Vic, which started life as a police car and ended it as a patriotic-looking San Jose taxicab, has a pretty good Old Glory costume.
You’ll find one in every car, sometimes in a puddle of rainwater.
It appears that this cab was operated by American Cab, which specializes in star-spangled vehicles.
Is there any way to get a 12V device to pull the mileage off newer cars with digital odometers? In 7 years, how will we be able to tell if the ragged Sonata made it to 200k or turned in early at 100k?
Can’t you just put a charge box to the battery (or battery leads) and twist the key?
That was my thought at first, but in my limited junkyard spelunking, only a slim percentage of cars retain the key.
12V, pry the column and short the acc line should do the job.
On my CANBUS ODB2 Solstice, I can read the milage with an ODB2 code reader even without the key in the ignition, but that may not be true of all makes.
BMW’s will show the mileage when the key is out, by pushing the trip odometer reset button.
You’d think Ford would implement a similar function.
Yeah,good question!
I wish the yards would write the last shown mileage on the vehicle especially if someone rips the dash out.
I bring a 12V battery pack (8 AAA cells in a holder with wire leads) to the junkyard when I’m looking to buy something low-powered-electrical, but it hadn’t occurred to me to try to power up the car enough to read the digital odometer in a car like this. Maybe I’ll give it a shot in the near future.
Those new lithium jump starter packs are really great. I have a couple of them now. It’s really cool that you can start a car with something the size of your hand. The best part is that they hold a charge unlike the old style heavy leadacid jump starters which always seemed to be dead when you needed them most. I have the Anker one and it seems pretty good, you can usually score one on sale for around $50..
Having just bought gas at $1.35/gallon, I say let the Crown Vics roll!
Cramped interior; floaty ride; awful seats; lousy ergonomics; subpar safety; terrible performance and handling. These were terrible vehicles when they were relevant 20 years ago, and time isn’t on their side.
Why is it so hard for you to empathize with Panther owners?
Thanks to Avis, I’ve empathized plenty with Panther owners.
@alja: “Why is it so hard for you to empathize with Panther owners?”
I empathize all too well… The Panther drives like my old Ranger with a car body on it.
Driving like my old Ranger is not exactly the pinnacle of automotive refinement. I’ll put my 2004 Sienna against it for every aspect of its performance, drivability, safety, and longevity.
Oh, and my Prius has more rear legroom and is better for rear facing car seats than the last rental Panther I drove.
Like my Ranger, the Panther was in production long after its obsolete. The difference is that the Ranger didn’t have an entire marketplace full of excellent replacements.
I own a 2014 model year car with 370hp but I still enjoy driving Panthers around.
I don’t know what it is I’m missing about why these suck so bad (maybe I need to crash one or something?), but until I figure it out I’ll keep on liking them.
I also love how modifiable they are for a 4-door. That is certainly something your Prius and Sienna lacks.
Your Charger has similar build quality to Panther as well! :D
Because VoGo hates anything that consumes more than minimal resources in the interest of making the owner’s existence more enjoyable. And those damn Panthers don’t consume that many resources that they can be considered useful for solving the “problem” of an energy glut.
Ergo, to him, Panthers and their owners are persona non grata.
Have you sat in its Taurus replacement?
Woah woah woah… Cramped interior? Compared to what, a Yukon?
Shux, compared to a Fit :-D
For their exterior dimensions, I must agree the packaging isn’t the best. A similar size B-Body had considerably more interior room.
The rear door sure is narrow!
Must have still been a good running car since someone pulled the engine out. These cars will run as long as you want them to. I would say most of these Crown Vics and Grand Marquis that hit the junkyard are still mechanically sound.
The cab company probably pulled it before they junked it.
I thought the P71’s had a better , non floaty suspension package ? .
This old war horse looks pretty solid after all these years of duty .
-Nate
The worn out P71 ex-cruiser is a favorite hood ride round my way, they usually sport body damage and peeling paint, along with dark tints and the stock steel wheels. Yesterday I saw one in “peak beater” status: cruising down I70 with a taped over passenger side window, a crumpled front corner, and it was leaving a trail of white smoke from the engine bay, which I assumed was an overheating condition. These things are tanks and will keep running in that state for an unsettlingly long time. The 4.6 mod motor will cycle air through cylinders in an alternating fashion to keep an engine without coolant from overheating. The panther is ghetto approved. Grand Marquis are also common, especially with a vinyl top and rolling on Rim Tyme’s finest $50 a week set of 20 inch Chinese junk.
Reading this made me go “Aww sheeeeeet.” in my mind.
More importantly, how is there a puddle of rainwater in a California junkyard find? Seems like that’s the real rarity here.
Might not be _rainwater_ Balto……
Ew .
-Nate
“Maybe leaking radioactive heavy water?”
I, too, have witnessed the aftermath of vehicles at self serve parts yards being used as relief stations…yuck!
Yeah and most often when there’s a good carpet or something I need up under the dashboard…..
I was in Nevada over the Holidays , naturally I was walking the local Junk yards looking for good stuff (bingo) and they had the entire front suspension cut off a nearly new P71 and for sale complete , almost $1,000 IIRC ~ someone must be needing these things .
-Nate
Those front clips are a popular bolt on swap to Ford Trucks from the mid Fifties and later to replace the solid front axles and the Twin I-Beam. Interesting fact-the front frame sections on Ford full-size cars and trucks has been 36 inches wide since the mid ’50s.
Thanx Ostrich .
I figured something like that .
-Nate
That’s pee. Don’t think the car freshener will make that fresh.
Sad to see a Marauder in the background.
Re.: Little Tree Air Car-fresheners- “You’ll find one in every car, sometimes in a puddle of rainwater.”
Miller to Otto: “Find one in every car. You’ll see.” Repo Man, 1984
Viva the full-interior coverage, rubber floor mat!!!
That’s a 2004? The instrument cluster configuration suggests it’s a 2006 or newer.
The yard thinks it’s a 2004, which means that’s what was on the paperwork when they got it. Could be a data-entry mistake, or a VIN swap, or a cluster swap, or any number of things.
Many thanks for the clarifications!
God it’s a basic one, too. Doesn’t even have cruise control.
I’ve noticed a lot of the CVPIs don’t sport it. (The controls are on the wheel, right?)
I’m just afraid of one of the contributors here having conniptions over the entirety of the going-going-gone Panthers surrounding this particular beast!
Poor San..uhh..SAjeev!! ;-)
Lol yep, big ugly buttons on that bumper car steering wheel. The wheel designs before and after this one were big improvements.
Look under the hood, it still has the siren!
Yes ‘Murica!
I just found a Phoenix Suns car (click my name).
Gotta love the strange paint schemes and wraps. Every once in a while you might even find an art car.
The most humorous yet disturbing aspect is the ape head on the basketball player. Did this car come from the future when they blew it up? If so, damn them, damn them all to hell!
Yeah, the gorilla is the Phoenix Suns mascot, hah.
That’s out of left field to me. Thanks for the reply.