This past week since I was on vacation from school, I went to visit my friend Jake in Portland, ME. This would be my 4th time there, and my 3rd time renting a car. The first time I went (last August) was actually my first car rental ever, and I got a Chevy Impala LT which was very nicely equipped and I enjoyed quite a bit. The second time, a few months later, I got a relatively poorly equipped 2012 Malibu with a POS Ecotec I4 engine. They also didn't waive the age differential even though I had used the PC which would have it waived. Needless to say, I booked a full-size with some reservation in my mind.
However when I finally got there, I get to the desk and the extremely friendly agent asks if a Crown Vic is okay. Having ridden in so many Crown Vics in my life (since they make up the majority of the yellow cab fleet here in NYC) I've always wanted to drive one of these, just once. I figured this would be my chance
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(Please forgive me for the image URLs -- there's no way to easily size down an image preview for forums like this.)
2011 Ford Crown Victoria LX Sedan
Car Description: N/L CROWN VIC S
Class: G
Note: I had reserved/paid for F, and received this as a free upgrade. I have #1 Gold Club and I used the USAA CDP, as well as a PC which saved me $5 a day.
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The 2011 Ford Crown Victoria LX was its last model year sold in the USA. It only came in the LX trim. The 2011 model was only available through fleet sales, but the best estimate I can come up with for a MSRP is $31,180. The car had 17,648 miles when I picked it up, and I took it a good 272 miles while I had it over 3 days (this was also my longest rental as of yet). It wasn't very well equipped (although there isn't much that a Crown Vic can be equipped with, anyway), but it got the job done and I was honestly pleasantly surprised.
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Powertrain: The Crown Vic is equipped with a 4.6L "Modular" V8 engine which makes 239 horsepower and 281 lb-ft of torque. It's paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission (shifted via a stalk behind the steering wheel) and a RWD drivetrain. I've always been a fan of how it sounds when you start off in first gear, and I had a really good time playing with the howl. It gets 16/24 miles per gallon (city/highway), and I averaged 19.2 while I had it. The tank holds 19 gallons; one thing to keep in mind that this car was FlexFuel capable.
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Ride/Handling: The V8 was built to be smooth, and this is exactly how I'd describe this car. You really don't feel it changing gears (you hear it stop howling after first gear but that's about it). It revved very low, even at high speed, which was great when doing highway driving. On the other hand, it didn not accelerate quickly -- by the time you finish reading this sentence you probably wouldn't be at 60 yet. The suspension was very soft; for example, I didn't know I drove over railroad tracks until the lights started flashing after I went over it. It's as if you're driving on a cloud. Steering is very firm, which is probably for the best since you don't want to take a turn too sharply in this thing -- it's a REALLY big car. I was concerned about the RWD since there was a chance of snow Friday evening; the desk agent said since it was such a heavy car she thought I'd be okay, while everyone here on FlyerTalk disagrees. While I did skid a tiny bit in some of the slush I encountered, I didn't really have any problems with it. If I lived in Maine year-round I would definitely not want this car though.
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Interior: Like I said, the Crown Vic was very basically equipped. If you take a quick look at
this ride report on the National forum, you'll get the idea of how basic the Panther platform vehicles are. From what I can tell, it came with the comfort appearance package which includes leather seats and heated power mirrors. The steering wheel is also wrapped in leather. The driver seat also has electronic lumbar support, and is fully electronically adjustable, whereas the passenger seat has manual controls. The Crown Vic can legally hold 6 people -- the front row is a bench! Or, you can put down the armrest, which is in a really nice position (at least I found it to be well-placed); the driver and passenger have separate armrests. It really was quite comfortable. On the dashboard is an information screen which includes Trip A/B, fuel range (in miles/km), timer, average fuel economy, or instant fuel economy (shown via a bar graph, not an exact number). Other than that, you get the basic climate control system (which does show outside temperature and lets you program the cabin temperature), the basic AM/FM radio/CD player, and (wait for it) NeverLost! Oh, keep in mind that this car does have a tachometer (I've seen many Crown Vics that
don't have this gauge. Buttons are generally intuitively placed, especially cruise control on the steering wheel. Wipers, turn signals, and high beams are all on the same stalk to the left of the steering wheel, and the gear shifter is to the right. Lights are controlled via a rotary switch (auto, off, daytime running lights, headlights). One thing I didn't like was the cupholders were on the same rack as the ashtray, and didn't feel very sturdy. Also, one of them was inaccessible due to the NeverLost
The trunk is HUGE ^
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Exterior/Design: This car was painted in
Silver Birch Metallic. It could have easily doubled as an unmarked cruiser (all I needed was a few lights and a Police Intercepter badge next to the FlexFuel badge...). The interior was a beige color. It looks as good as any Crown Vic will ever look.
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Features: None other than the standard ones. Electronic lumbar support was nice. The key fob seemed pretty old-school, nothing special about it. There was NeverLost.
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Value: Since I paid for a full-size, this is a thousand times better than the Malibu I had expected to get. Even though I paid more in gas, it was worth it (looking back I wish I had taken the FPO, but I didn't know I would drive so far).
Summary
PROS:- Super-smooth V8 (and that howl!)
- Comfort
- Capacity
- Stability and smoothness
- Very accurate and responsive cruise control
- People always let you pass them or go through the intersection first
CONS:- Performance
- Lack of features
- It's a land yacht
- Wipers don't go as quick as I needed/would have liked them to
- Before letting you pass them, everyone in front of you slows down to the speed limit
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So I can cross "drive a Crown Vic/Town Car" off the bucket list. Would I rent one of these again? If it's winter, then probably not, just to play it safe. Any other time of year? Absolutely (I honestly enjoyed myself) -- but not for long. These will start to get old soon
-J.
P.S. I took a few
videos driving around in this. I'll link them once I get them uploaded -- you'll see just how much fun I had in first gear