About American Cars

Often when we talk about classic cars, the image that comes to mind is of a small, sleek sports car that, for all its beauty, looks as though any collision with anything larger than a tennis ball would leave it irretrievably damaged. This is less true of American classics, as where the European manufacturers of the past would tend to favor a more sleek, sporty look the American manufacturers were more in favor of a rugged look, aiming for the kind of car that looked as though it could handle rough driving without needing repairs costing almost the same as the initial purchase. The Ford Crown Victoria – in all of its incarnations – is an example of this. It has been around in one form or another for more than fifty years. Now that is durable.

In fact, the first Crown Victoria hit the road in 1955. They looked different back then to the cars that go by the same name today, but then 1955 was a while ago. Certainly, they looked more ostentatious. They looked broadly similar to the older Ford Victoria, with a stainless steel band running over the roofline which extended the B-pillar line from the sides of the car right over the roof. In front of this steel band was a panel of glass, which may well have been what ended the reign of this incarnation of the vehicle as it made the car’s interior uncomfortably hot in warm summers in the Southern states. It actually found favor later in Sweden, a country which in this case benefited from having a vastly more temperate climate.

The Crown Victoria name went into cold storage for a time – until 1992, in fact, when it reappeared completely redesigned and remodelled for the present day. Critics were divided by its shape, and with some honing it went on to become as popular as its ancestor. It was the 1992 version which would see the Ford Crown Victoria becoming the popular car it is today – although there have been restylings since, the basic shape of the car has remained. The variations have been aimed at creating the perfect Crown Victoria for its purposes, which have become clearer as time has gone on. You see, the Ford Crown Victoria may not be the most popular private vehicle, but it has become very hot property in public service.

Go to New York and have a look at the yellow taxis. A large number of those will be Ford Crown Victorias, due to the great deal of interior space that the vehicle offers. If you are going to travel in a Crown Vic, this is probably one of the better ways of doing it – letting someone else do the driving, watching the scenery and not having to worry about anything. This is not everyone’s experience of the Crown Vic, as it is also used as a police car in many jurisdictions – being popular among the police forces for its durability and its body-on-frame construction, which allows it to ram getaway cars into a spin which allows the police to make an arrest. Can any other car say it has been more influential on a wider public?