1984 Ford LTD Crown Victoria Two-Door - You Had to Be There

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Can't tell you the last time I saw a first-generation Ford "Panther" let alone one in this condition and a two-door too! This 1984 Ford LTD Crown Victoria popped up on Facebook Marketplace recently somewhere down in Georgia. Asking price was a seemingly not unreasonable, given the shape it's in, $7,500. 

The Ford Motor Company first came out with these cars and the similar Mercury Marquis in 1979; Lincoln got a so-called "Panther" in 1980. "Panther" was Ford's internal code name for the full-size chassis that was significantly smaller and lighter than the chassis it replaced. There is no formal documentation why Ford called the chassis, "Panther". One thought is it followed in the tracks of the Fox-body chassis, which was named after the Audi Fox; Ford keeping with an animal theme for its chassis'. 

The new chassis was to help the Ford Motor Company be in compliance with government mandated fuel-economy requirements enacted in the wake of the 1973 OPEC embargo. The thinking was that a lighter car would get better gas mileage. 

If I wasn't doing handstands over the downsized General Motors makes and models, I was less thrilled with the smaller Ford's. Now, while I'm a GM girl at heart, I'm not allergic to the charms of a handsome Ford but Ford's styling en masse in the 1970's had gone completely off the rails. From the Mustang II to the LTD II to the god forsaken Granada, Ford design was derivative at best, boring at worst. The clean sheet boxy "Panthers" only adding to the literal as well as figurative malaise.  

Introduced in 1979 as the Ford LTD, a top-of-the-line trim package was added in 1980 they dubbed "Crown Victoria" resurrecting an obscure Ford nameplate last used in 1955 and 1956. Trust me, if you think "Crown Victoria" sounds old and farty now, it smelled of mothballs back in 1980 too. 

All full-size LTD's became "LTD Crown Victoria's" in 1983 to distinguish the cars from a new for 1983, mid-size, "Fox-body" based LTD that replaced the Granada. I know. Not confusing at all. Mercury was worse. Their new for '83 Foxer was called "Marquis", the old Panther was called "Grand Marquis". 

Why Ford called the new for '83' Fox-body sedans "LTD" is a question us mere mortals will never get an answer to. Best we can surmise is it seemed the Fox-body cars were to replace the Panthers but seeing how well the Panthers were still selling, there's no accounting for taste, there was a stay of execution. A very long stay as it would turn out.  

If you're scratching your head over this being a two-door, well, I guess you had to be there; back in the day, two-door cars were way cooler than their four-door counter parts. For the most part, the Big Three all offered two-door versions of their four-door sedans. Lincoln even had a two-door Continental in 1980 but that was shelved for 1981 and beyond. 

Four-door sedans actually evolved from two-door sedans, but once four-door sedans became de rigeur,  sales of two-door models began to wane. Manufacturers continued to sell them, though, often times adding raked windshields, lower rooflines and longer doors to exaggerate the long hood, short deck ethos of more sporting automobiles.

                            

Albeit it's sparse, our two-door LTD "Crown Vic" here as some semblance of the two-door elan older Ford two-door sedans had by the trunkful. On the left is a 1969 LTD, the right is a 1970 Galaxie 500 "Sportsroof". 

Even by the late 1970's, the market for two-door sedans was waning. When Chrysler downsized their full-sized fleet for 1979 as well, there were no two-door models. Ford deep-sixed the two-door LTD Crown Victoria (and Mercury Marquis) after 1987. 

Ford dropped the "LTD" from these cars when they redesigned them for model year 1992. Ford continued to build Panther-platform Ford Crown Victoria's, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars through 2012 making the Panther one of the longest running vehicle platforms in automotive history.