"SURVIVOR" Luxury Cars

satx78247 · Feb 17, 2019

Friends,

As numerous members know, my treasured 1986 Mercedes 420SEL caught fire & burned to a "total loss", 2 weeks ago Sunday.

As a result, I started looking for another BIG, comfortable, LOW-Mileage, used car.

As a result of that search, I've now found & am about to buy a ONE-owner 1996 Grand Marquis with 49,000 original miles, i.e., "a cream puff", out of an estate sale & at a LOW price.

Since I found that "survivor", I've found SIX other > 20YO, one-owner, luxury cars with VERY low miles (with 100,000 miles or much less). = Cadillac, Buick, Town Cars & 3 more Grand Marquis.

IF any of you are interested in a NICE/BIG car in great condition for 3,000.oo or less, PM me & I'll point them out to you.

yours, satx

benenglish · Feb 17, 2019

PM sent.

BTW, if you're also talking about large but not necessarily luxury cars, I'm always on the lookout for a Crown Vic in the stretched, taxi version in, in your words, "great condition for 3,000.00 or less". The ones I find are inevitably beaten to Hades and need far more time, labor, and money poured into them than I'm willing to tolerate.

TreyG-20 · Feb 17, 2019

Is the this the beginning of the TGT slab thread?

sidebite252 · Feb 17, 2019

Must have photos

Southpaw · Feb 17, 2019

I know you mentioned the fire elsewhere, but what was the cause of it?

satx78247 · Feb 17, 2019

benenglish,

I generally don't even look at the Crown Victoria as 99% of them are former police cars & are "beaten to death".
(That said, I found a Crown Vic about 120 days ago which was a "lease car" with 73,000 miles & that was driven only by a female executive of a TX oil company. = It was "loaded" but sold before I got to look at it in person.)

My personal interest is in the older luxury cars like the BIG Cadillacs, Buicks, Oldsmobiles, Grand Marquis & Town Cars.
(I also look for S-class Mercedes cars too, though NICE/well-maintained MB examples are "thin on the ground" OR the owner wants a LOT more than they would sell for, as even "collectors items".)

yours, satx

satx78247 · Feb 17, 2019

Southpaw said:
I know you mentioned the fire elsewhere, but what was the cause of it?

Southpaw,

The MB "probably" caught fire, according to the investigator from the SAFD, as a result of a "spark being struck" OR "possibly an electrical short" near the gas tank, while the mechanic was underneath the car & doing an inspection & minor repair.

I was about 15 miles away at the time that the fire started, so I'm going only on what the SAFD guy told me. - I don't know enough about car fires to have a legitimate opinion on the actual cause of the fire.
(He said that a "certain amount of gasoline vapor is always around" fuel tanks. - He further said that that is the good reason that we all learned NOT to smoke while fueling our cars/trucks.)

yours, satx

satx78247 · Feb 17, 2019

TreyG-20 said:
Is the this the beginning of the TGT slab thread?

TreyG-20,

NOT as far as I'm concerned, as my personal interest is in PRESERVATION & restoration of the "ever becoming rarer" luxury cars of the 1960s-1990s period, rather than modifying the cars.

yours, satx

Eli · Feb 17, 2019

The Crown Vics are easy to decode using the VIN, P70, P71, P72, P74, etc.
I had a P71 (Police Interceptor) Crown Vic that was a 'city service' car, driven by City Council member and city officials, but optioned as a police model for parts standardization - this was a common practice for smaller towns for many years. It had the 'deluxe' velour interior, metallic paint, etc., but a very few minor details let on it was a 'cop car' instead of an old man's car. It was a low-mileage 'cream puff' when I found it, 100K hard miles later I sold it for most of what I paid for it.

Eli

satx78247 · Feb 17, 2019

Eli,

When I was a Deputy District CDR of Army CID long ago, the command leased/issued me a metallic forest-green 1985 Grand Marguis with full police equipment, as my "take home car", which I liked very much. = I was "on 24/7 call" in those long-ago DAZE. = I was sad to PCS, OCONUS & had to give the car back to the motor pool.

yours, satx

satx78247 · Feb 17, 2019

benenglish said:
PM sent.

BTW, if you're also talking about large but not necessarily luxury cars, I'm always on the lookout for a Crown Vic in the stretched, taxi version in, in your words, "great condition for 3,000.00 or less". The ones I find are inevitably beaten to Hades and need far more time, labor, and money poured into them than I'm willing to tolerate.

benenglish,

IF that's what you really WANT, check out the local FUNERAL PARLORS. = There are, in my experience, a LOT of very low mileage limos (often with 40K or less of pampering by a funeral home driver) by Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercury, Oldsmobile or Buick for sale from time to time.
(Fwiw, I once worked for SMITH-DATES Funeral Service & drove a lot of families about the county. = The limos were stretched 18-32 inches, SWEET drivers & the ones from our place usually sold CHEAP with 30-35 thousand miles, at about 5-6 years old.)

What I'd LOVE to find at a decent price is a HENNY-LINCOLN or a MIRAGE-CADILLAC Flower Car, as those are about the fanciest "pickup truck" that most people have ever seen.
(Our flower car was a Caddy & it had polished stainless steel exterior trim rather than chrome, 100% cotton velvet/navy blue interior with real ROSEWOOD interior trim.)
What I said "under my breath", when I found out that they sold it when I was in VZ, is UNPRINTABLE. = "Buck" Bates had promised me "first refusal" on the flower car. - I had waited for > 3 years for the boss to finally decide to sell it.

yours, satx

mroper · Feb 21, 2019

YEs I would love to have a caddy flower car to go with My El camino

"SURVIVOR" Luxury Cars

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