Driving a 2001 Ford Crown Vic in the UK! Part 2: On the road 

I was a NYC taxi driver and drove a crown vic for years. This is a great car, a true work horse, that would drive 24 hours a day 7 days a week in the worst traffic grid in the world without issue.

I can explain the surprising road noise easily. The P71 and P72 Police Packages were only available on base model Crown Victoria L as regular production options to Police departments only. The L, particularly in P71 form, lacked a lot of the sound insulation that was standard on higher trim level, such as GL, LX, and Ultra. The stiff and wobbly is an easy fix. It needs to have Ford gas dampers fitted. Although made by Monroe they are calibrated very differently. In the aftermarket dampers, Monroe made 2 sets; regular or heavy duty. In the Ford branded dampers they made 5 different sets for this generation of Panther. In the box ones Ford offered 8 different sets depending on engine and suspension packages.

Stiff and wobbly at the same time, either Ian is describing the Crown Vic's handling or a swinger party in a jelly factory.

Built at the now-defunct St. Thomas Assembly Plant near London, Ontario, Canada along the corridor between Detroit and Toronto. I grew up about 15 minutes from the plant and have many fond memories of seeing acres of brand new Crown Vics and Grand Marquis in the compound (as well as the Marauder in '03-04 and the Lincoln Town Car from 2008-2011). Also, there was usually one of each model on display up on illuminated platforms by the entrance. I also toured the plant in 2006 and shortly before it closed in 2011. Passing by so many times in my childhood must have influenced me because I have owned many Panther platform vehicles in the past 20 years - currently 4 in the fleet, ranging from 1985 to 2007. Thanks for another great video!

Glad you enjoyed it, it always puts a smile on my face. The thing that gets me is the sound, not just the V8 (which is just lovely, if more muted than anyone expects) but the squeaks and rattles - every TV cop show or movie you've ever seen filmed in a Vic sounds just like this. But now Im worried I didnt give Betty enough beans to adequately compare!

The design of the Crown Victoria is just so timeless.

I was anxious to see what you thought of the Crown Vic. You were right on the money when you described the interior as rather cheap with lots of hard plastics. They sound quite “hollow” to me. And in our below 0° F winters the plastic creaks maddeningly . BUT! everyone drove them. Especially little old ladies who weighed 90 pounds. They often watched the road through the steering wheel . At the opposite end of the spectrum were the cop cars and government fleets. While they weren’t overly luxurious they were tough as nails. I think that was the reason so many older folks had them. Dependability. I’ve had several, from the Galaxy’s to LTD’s to the Crown Vic. The Mercury Marquise was a slightly more luxurious version of the Crown Vic. The lack of sound deadening insulation allowed lots of road noise. Especially when running winter tires with ice studs! But compared to a Plymouth or Dodge of about the same size the Vic is far superior in most ways. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

The police car is very utilitarian, so it did not come with the sound insulation packages found on the Town Cars, Grand Marquis and civilian Crown Vics. The rear springs were also designed to carry a couple hundred pounds in the trunk, so the ride improves when you collapse the springs a bit with some weight. Cruise control was an option some agencies did not pay for.

I've been following Matt's updates on his CVPI for a while now, and he's certainly done good on his dream to have one in the UK. The way he ended up buying the car, it was meant to be! I have had a number of these vehicles and currently have an export variant of it's sibling - a Mercury Grand Marquis - made for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries; namely Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the UAE. Granted, mine is modified and tuned as such with everything from 15" Wildwood brakes to a custom suspension setup, getting more smiles to the gallon than miles. But with that being said, the appeal of this car is not things like build quality, but rather it's uniqueness is today's world. Traditional American styling, body-on-frame construction, rear-wheel-drive with a live axle, torquey V8 powerplant, split bench seating with a column shifter, etc. and of course, rock solid reliability and ease of maintenance. The only thing reminiscent of such features today are fullsize GM trucks, such as the Chevrolet Suburban, but they've gotten pretty complex over the years as well, with the current generation sporting an independent rear suspension. That said, I grew up around fullsize, body-on-frame American sedans such as the B-Body Chevrolet Caprice, C-Body Buick Electra and Oldsmobile Ninety Eight. This was towards the end of an era, where American cars may not have has the best of build quality, but were certainly ahead in contrast to most regular European offerings in terms of how they were equipped; automatic transmissions, air conditioning cruise control, power driver and passenger "pillow" seats and lumbar, courtesy and opera lighting, etc. Not many affordable European cars of the time had power windows on all four doors, for instance, unless you went for something upper market. Often into the 90s, you'd find driver and front passenger windows were power, but the rears were manual on something like an Opel Astra. Obviously today, with globalization as mentioned in the video, cars are pretty much the same the world over. There's nothing, IMO, that distinguishes a Chevrolet Traverse from a Hyundai Palisade or a Honda Pilot and they all equally have their problems, such as excessive carbon build up with direct injection, as one example, that may require head removal and walnut blasting as "maintenance". In short, with the Panther Platform, the KISS principal applies. Simplicity is king.

Great video! Couple of notes: The 06 onwards have a rev counter as well as an idle hours counter (to give an idea of when oil changes were due). Yes, 03 onwards with the wider track and rack and pinion steering are far superior handling cars to be honest. The year most guys prefer is 04, so rack and pinion steering but with the cable throttle that was replaced by drive by wire from 05. Cruise control, power seats, CD player, carpets were all options. Finally a cracking Easter egg you missed is the certified speedometer writing around the speedo. Can't wait for Matt's take on the Fairmont now!

Should have told you, cup holders pull out from under the radio but are tiny!

Having watched part one yestersday, we watched the film 'Cop Shop'. To my delight, a number of Crown Vics starred in the movie, with references to them in the dialogue which I was gleefully able to explain to my bemused wife.

This brings back memories of my Ford Crown Vic which was a 1999, when I lived in the States back in 2011. Very simple to maintain and keep on the road. I like the sound of slow speed auto changes, mine had air suspension, where the police spec ones have springs.

When I was growing up in the 1980's, this was the type of car that your grandparents would own (besides being the local cop car and taxi!). Ford also made a wagon version of the Crown Victoria for the first generation of the Panther platform (Clark Griswold's Family Truckster in National Lampoon's Vacation was a modified Crown Victoria Town Squire wagon). It was even available as a coupe until 1987...us gen X kids didn't think that they were very cool until we grew up and had kids of our own and lamented the distinct lack of rear wheel drive Body-on-frame v8 powered wagons with a cool 3rd row rear facing seat and fake wood grain panels 😢

I have an '02 Crown Victoria that's been in the family since new. It's got over 200,000 miles on the odometer between me and my Dad and has been all up and down the east coast of the US. It tickles me to see someone from another country experiencing and enjoying this car.

Canadians tend to get miffed when you refer to the USA as "America", because Canada is very much part of North America. For a while, the Crown Vic (and Mercury Grand Marquis) were legally considered to be imported cars in the U.S., because they had less than 75% U.S.-made parts content. This also helped improve Ford's corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) because back then it counted domestic and imported models separately, so moving the Crown Vic to the imported column made the rest of Ford's domestic models less gas-hungry on average. Once that rule ended, Ford started using U.S.-built rear differentials in the Crown Vic, bumping its U.S.-made parts count back above 75%.

In the United States the Ford Crown Victoria was most commonly used as a police or taxi and was comparatively rare in civilian specification. A majority of civilian versions were the Mercury Marquis. Mercury was Ford's upmarket division and the Mercury was considerably more luxurious than the Ford. When you mentioned road noise and suspension clunks you could tell that that was a poverty spec police version. The Mercury Marquis was significantly more refined.

Interestingly, had things gone to plan, the Australian Ford Falcon may well have replaced the Crown Vic in American law enforcement agencies: as late as 2016, just before production closed down for good, a proposal was made to ship 70,000 Falcons per annum to the USA - had Ford executives in the US not blocked the proposal, the Falcon would have stayed for at least a few more years. Instead, Holden in Australia stepped in and shipped lots of Holden Caprices to the US, that became law enforcement vehicles.

Lieutenant Hubnut out on highway patrol in the Crown Vic. Magnificent.

Lovely V8 cross-plane crank noise. At some point it this car needs to meet Binky. Police light on the bonnet and Police Squad music accompanying the arrival into a stack of cardboard boxes. I know it was a trash can in the TV series, but that might get a bit scratchy.

I had a -93 LX spec one as a daily driver here in Sweden for about five years. Can´t tell you how much I miss that car! The road noice Ian mentions, was not present in the LX. It was simply the quitest car I´ve ever owned. And for fuel economy it delivered a steady 10liter/100km, very good for such a large car.

Even if the P71 is not all that nice of a car, it really is something of a historic importance, it's the last body on frame sedan on earth, nobody has made them this way since. Considering that's how the car as we know it started, it's sort of neat to have a fix start and end for this sort of traditional build. It truly is sad to see these just crumble away from the abuse they get in the US due to their low post service cost.

As a yellow cab driver for a bit, I got to try out most of the different panthers, p71's, LX's, grand marquee LS, GS and the air ride versions. The trick to make most money, was to get the softest air ride versions, drive faster without the passenger noticing, due to the disconnect from the road. P71 is clearly faster at full throttle driving, but one can drive a Grand marquee with air ride faster before the passenger complains. Averaged 14,000 miles monthly.

That's a great looking example and in very good condition. It looks all the more better not being kitted out as a police cruiser, but as a regular-looking sedan.

I think some versions did include cruise control, depending how it was ordered. This does not have sound insulation like the equivalent civilian Ford. OHC V8. And yes, four speed overdrive automatic. Not surprised you like this Ford. Excellent review, thank you!

I love the idea of somehow getting a hold of an Crown Victoria like Matt's, to do the rounds to clients in the community (as a senior carer). A smile would be brought to many, many faces. 👍

I also quite like this for it's subtle green detective spec....ness. And chrome wheel trims. Credit to Matt. Looking forward to seeing the review of Betty.

I felt Betty needed another road test camera stuck on her. 😁

Love the video. Nice to see you in an American car. My Dad and had several Crown Vics. One was an '85 and the other was an '83. Both had 351 V8's. We got them when our Township retired them.

To be fair, Canada IS in North America, just not the United States ;-)

Who doesn't love a ruddy great V8 in a tank? soooo cool.

Most excited, to see you driving round my neck of the woods. I even recognised your service station pull off. Whoooaa! 💖

Welcome to Sussex, very much on my home turf there! Local fun fact - you did about a 5 mile stretch of the driving test route along the B/Hill bypass and up the A23, and the Castle Inn you went past near Hickstead services does a very good Chinese. Seen the Crown Vic on Matt's channel and very excited to see you pair up for a head to head comparison. Love this video and glad you enjoyed the car.

That’s a big handsome car! I can totally imagine it crawling around the rain soaked night streets of New York watching out for hoodlums up to no good!

Matt's Crown Vic is the first British Crown Vic I've seen where my instant reaction hasn't been "Ford Timelord" lol

Hi. They make LED bulbs for those indicators which prevent hyper flash/ can bus errors. Panther was introduced around 1979. Have a good day.

It is always interesting to see USA cars in places that you don't expect them to be. The Crown Vic you are driving is the cop spec one. The consumer ones had a more floaty suspension so that you don't feel most of the road imperfections. The noise could be the type of tires (or tyres for our UK friends). A consumer spec Vic and the Grand Marquis had squishy Continentals on them. To be honest, i always found the Vics and Grand Marquis to be a bit cramped inside. The dead pedal (where you rest your left foot) stuck up way too far and was not comfortable to me. Back in 2009 my folks were replacing a 1993 Ford Taurus and were looking at a new 2009 Grand Marquis. My dad test drove one and found it too cramped in the drivers side and they ended up with a 2009 Taurus which while having a smaller foot print was more roomy inside and was more comfortable to ride. You mention the Vic's dated layout. Well the interior design does date back to 1992 with the dashboard debuting in 1995. Later Vics had a idle counter as despite all the high intensity cop chases on TV, most police cars hung out on the side of roads or parking lots idling for hours (though if car chases are your thing, watch the car chase in the movie To Live and Die in LA where a cop/government spec Impala is put to its paces)

I agree the Crown Vic doesn’t have the V8 burble like V8 s of the sixties and seventies.I used to have a 1992 Mecury Grand Marquis,which was the posh version of the Crown Vic same engine 190 HP.

I have fond memories of riding in Crown Vics and Lincoln Towncars in 2003 in the USA.

There was a Crown Vic and the Mercury equivalent for sale in my area, The Mercury was in old lady driven condition, low miles with a graze down the passenger side, not a deal killer, but is was out of my price range, and with the present situation with gas prices, my Ford Focus for instance, that used to cost $40 dollars to fill up, now cost $70, so it’s not the best time to buy a V-8.

Boating on the main road. I can feel your excitement. I drove a civilian spec crown vic in 2011 when in the US. Love them to bits Magnificent engine sound 🤎🤎🤎

Great to see a road test again, and what a car to do it with...

An interesting fact is that many of the taxis are former cop cars. Also, the civilian versions of these cars were really marketed towards a senior citizen demographic since younger people really didn't buy them. Many civilian owned old P71's were owned by people who wanted to drive a car that instilled fear in other drivers, especially the white ones with blackout window tint that tended to be the popular unmarked cars. No one ever thought a black grille Crown Vic was anything but a cop since the chrome grille was the civilian variant. Also, the P71 had a different frame than the normal cars with extra strengthening done to it for better handling.

That family of cars, particularly the early-mid 90s versions, are some of the best beater cars ever. They last forever with basic maintenance and get surprisingly good gas mileage for what they are. If you find one cheap in good shape, they're a great bargain. I bought a '94 Lincoln Towncar years ago with 187,000 miles on it for $1200, and put another 100,000 miles on it with basic maintenance, including several cross country trips. And yes, I did get close to 30 mpg US at a couple points.

I would love a Crown. Matt has done very well with his purchase. You should of kept driving and gone home Miss HubNut would be pleased Lol

Nice road test! These were tough cars; our local police force (fairly small town) still has a couple, though they've largely switched over to the Ford Explorer. On YT is quite a harrowing police chase which took place in Seattle several years ago; the main pursuit camera car was a Crown Vic, and practically the whole North End police force was out, tracking down a car-thief, who finally ended up in a Camaro. The camera car "pitted" the Camaro at one point, but he got away; the Vic kept going strong. A bit later, the view switched to another car, an Explorer, which rear-ended the suspect, not too hard, but it was enough to put the Explorer out of commission. The suspect was caught...it did not end well for him at all (shots were fired)...

Big thanks to Ian and Matt for buying these cars and letting enjoy them via You Tube

Nice review Hubnut. More please - you're actually really really good at it!

It is a 4 speed automatic. In drive, it will shift through all 4 gears. If the overdrive on the end of the shift lever is turned off, the car will not go into 4th gear. If the shift is in 2, it will start in 2nd gear and stay in 2nd until it is manually shifted into D.

My late brother was a retired cop and he said that his cohorts liked the Ford over the Chevy Caprice because the Chevys tended to fall apart, aka, cracking in half.

Ian sorry to Furious but I prefer the Aussie car. It seems more modern, with almost a Jaguar-like look to it. I have driven an Aussie Ford similar to that and they are sweet - you weren't crazy to import it. Those Aussie Ford 6'es are great engines. It's not just that it's more convenient being a RHD car in the UK.

4:21 the giggle you get when driving a "slow" car fast is just so relatable

Reminiscent of an Australian 5L Fairlane except the Fairlane has a lot more toys to play with. I have a 120.000 KM 5 LT NL Fairlane Ghia and love it.

I love my 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis which I bought in 2013 for $3500. It's very quiet, but is a bit higher end, with sound insulation. Old-school as hell; I can't imagine driving a new car. It's unbelievably cheap to buy and own, aside from the gas mileage, which is certainly not worse than any and better than most SUVs. New car owners pay a fortune in yearly registration fees, mine cost $137 this year (in California!). Parts are inexpensive, always available and easy to install so the labor is cheaper, too. Mine has 109k miles (175k kilometers) and is good for at least another 150k. People are very much appreciating the Crown Vics and Marquis more here now, for all the reasons given. I used to drive Lincoln and Cadillac limos in NY in the 80s, and have been into the land yachts ever since.

I love the comparison between the Fairmont and the crown Vic. Was wondering if you guys would team up and do it! 👌🏻👍🏻

Matt is very lucky to have found that lovely crown vic and a great spec a detective pack car as well I agree Ian most I have seen over here are the police spec ones so nice to see a change have always liked them and when I went to Colorado they were everywhere Hope you enjoyed your drive Ian

Love the noise of a V8 And another great video has always Ian and miss hubnut and hublets and hubmutts 👍

Very cool review. Side note: Warninglid was going to be the venue of the Europa Truck Trials in 2000, i can see why the venue changed now. Also Pease Pottage services there as well.

Hopefully, this was a good opportunity to determine what common parts if any, the Crown Vic shares with the Fairmont. The rocker switches, for example.

Sounds amazing! I like the cup holders. After all, there's no tea shelf or even a coffee shelf.

There are some rather mad machines over here in North America. The Mercury Marauder and the giant jelly bean shaped Impala SS are fun, but humongous. The crazy monsters are the piles of GM and Lincoln cars that went front wheel drive in the 80s, but still have monstrous v6s and v8s up there!

The V8 sounds pretty epic

The Crown Vic, one of Jack Reacher’s favourites (or possibly Lee Child’s). Enjoyed this one even though I am subbed to FD as well.

This is a police interceptor version. The suspension is much stiffer than the civvy version. The civvy one wallows and rides like a marshmallow. Also as noted the police car has no sound insulation pretty much.

Only when I saw this video did I realise how much I've missed the wiper testing.

These were/are rugged cars. You can find videos on RU-vid of gearheads doing an automatic to manual transmission swap. There is a fellow in Canada who builds and sells a pedal conversion kit. You put in a manual transmission from a Mustang, bolt on a turbo or supercharger, and burn rubber at the dragstrip.

Fun fact: the Crown Victoria was significantly outsold by it's slightly posher Mercury Grand Marquis twin

Love big and wafty and good effort from Matt. Had a Nissan Maxima '96 2.0 v6 many moons ago in more or less same colour for a few years loved it. I worked for MB for 11 yrs so do big expensive wafty too but my heart remains with the two part ex's i drove one being a 7 series 90's BMW ( hard to beat) and a Ford Granada Scorpio you know the type before the design team found a huge bag of Colombian marching powder.......... Great content as usual.

The Panther platform is as tough as any car built anywhere.

Wow what a beast. Lovely noise on acceleration

ah the Crown Vic. The greatest "Sedan" to ever come out of America I was very sad when they stopped making it. Its the one car I'd like to own here in the uk.

The overdrive on that is an electronic control. Basically it's not a lock so much as allowing the transmission to shift into overdrive. If you were some place mountainous like Norway or Colorado you'd turn it off. For England, leave it on all the time unless you're driving up or down Hardknott Pass or something.

I wonder if one of those folding tables from a mk1 Honda CR-V would fit in the centre to improve the tea shelf/cup holder.

At one time, there was an after-market cup holder that looked rather like a saddle with pottie holes in it, that sat between the seats in the gap However, they did slide a bit, and without precaution tended to pool the tea/Coffee in the foot well. Shades of Jake and Elwood. (Wait, that was a Dodge Monaco)

Fuel consumption isn’t that bad. Driven hard my 1995 MX5 1.8iS does only a bit less around 9L/100. Thanks Iain for giving the conversion from mpg to L/100. I wish more RU-vidrs would do that. It’s a pain having to get out my calculator every time, I’ve been out of the UK for too long to be able to easily get my head around that one! MCM causes me similar problems by quoting power output in Kw with no « translation » to HP

Yeah, its awesome. They say they can go on forever, even in the harsh police duty.

Ian you should come back to Australia and do some road tests 👍

It is a four speed automatic gearbox. The 2 spot on the gear selector actually holds third.

This car is in the same colour green that I am experiencing with my envy. It's one of the cars I miss from when I was in the states with work well over a decade ago. That engine sound will live with me forever, the civilian versions that handled like a drunk mattress rowing the wrong way up Niagara Falls compared to European cars. so I miss the handling less so. Those were the days.

Hi Ian another great road test as always

Great review, I now want one. Bah. I remember the 2.8i Capri police cars in Manchester during my Student days 👮‍♂️

You would just be forever pressing that throttle pedal and listening to that glorious noise

I really enjoy your car reviews. Very enjoyable and entertaining as always.😁

I drove Crown Vics starting in the early 1980s, up to 2009, on the Job. The early 80s ones had crap overdrive transmissions, which got fixed with this later body style. The ones with the 355 rear ends were noticably quicker and would pull top end better. Tough cars, room inside to work properly and good performance. Their demise made Coppers everywhere sad.

I reckon we need to see Hubnut compete in the Freedom 500 😉

I once drove past the Ford plant (Talbotville Assembly) near St Thomas, Ontario, and the lot outside was just a sea of unmarked yellow Crown Vic taxis.

Fabulous review, Ian! Can't wait for Mr. Furious video's 😃

I live in the UK and would love to own my own CVPI - sadly I live in a little village with tiny litte roads and I don't think a big american sedan would suit it very well! great video though! Shame we didn't get this car over here, but I 100% understand why that never happened!

The AU's were / are great but I really wish that you had bought the Ghia model Fairmont as it was the first of the Falcons to IRS (with LSD) and was on a whole other level compared to the standard Fairmont's live rear axle. Also the Ghia's had a VCT engine with (or an old Windsor V8) which was much more livelier. and then there were the TickFord options such as bigger brakes, Momo steering wheel, sports suspension (lower and a bit firmer), 17' wheels and a body kit. I always preferred an optioned out Ghia over the XR6's & 8's which were really sporty povo' packs. If you'll ever back down under you will have to try the entire AU model range including the Fairlane's and LTD's. Then you can charter a cargo boat to take them all back with you. 🤣 Thanks for the great vids. 👍

The Crown Vic weighs around 300 kg than your Fairmont which would explain many of the handling differences. It's closer in weight to a Ford Territory, but with a lower centre of gravity presumably.

We need a hub note goes global in America!

That beeping when you started the car sounds exactly like a Mk1 Focus.

This guy is really whipping it 😅 I would be driving like a grandpa with uk gas prices.

Great Review Ian, the noise especially I love, you cannot beat a lovely V8!! So question is what do you prefer the Crown Vic or the Fairmont? Love the Hubnut style Cup Holder!

I like these older crown Vic’s cause they’re drive by cable instead of wire. Although I like the transmission in my 2010 crown Vic Police Interceptor better, because it’s the 4R75 instead of the 4R70 like these older ones. 4R70s are great too, they just aren’t as overbuilt and can’t take as much abuse. But I like the pre 2005s simplicity better overall.

Oh well if I cannot have a 63-66 Lincoln Continental in England (apparently cruises at 10 mpg) then a Crown Victoria would have to do LOL -amazing they can get 30mpg out of it.

lived in canada from 2007 to 2013 those cars where built in St Thomas Ontario , i love these cars and the Mecury version which was the Gran Marquee or the one i always wanted the Mecury Marauder.

Nice to see you both swapping cars, crown vic is nice old design, simple but effective, I think they designed the cop spec ones to be able to drive straight up a kerb at high speed hence it handling the lumpy UK roads quite well. Rear drive 4 door three box saloons (sedans) are way better than this muck you see driving around now. I keep a couple of omegas and one senator with the straight 6 gold seal engine, these were the UK favourite cop cars until everything went blobby and boring, so trying to retain some of that old school feel with my collection!

The only thing lacking, is an air-freshener, which gives off the scent of freshly cooked doughnuts!

Two different answers on Two different continents to quite a similar requirement. Both need to be tough, reliable and long lived; capable of munching the miles without missing a beat on a mixture of well paved roads and rough poorly maintained roads. From the Australian towing figures you claimed for Betty in Matts' video, if it had been legal in the UK you could have trailered the Crown Vic from the port with Betty.