2003 Ford Crown Victoria Overview, Reviews, Ratings & Specs

I've driven vehicles in my time (newer sedans, SUV, and trucks) and at the end of the day I will always be hanging my Crown Victoria keys up when I come home. Being a 6'2 individual, it has enough room for me to comfortably sit and not feel cramped like Mr. Incredible (props to those who get that). I also own a 2019 Toyota and I prefer to drive my 18 year old Crown Victoria. I bought it in a private sale for 2,500 with 139K on the odometer and since then I've put a lot more miles on it with no signs of engine trouble and it has power when I need it most. It's a decommissioned Police Interceptor model so the interior is very bare bones. However this car has become our family car as I know my kids are safe as the frame is built with steel in it and it's a tank in general so in the event of an accident we will walk away. I ended up hitting a deer my 3rd week owning it and all it damaged was the headlight assembly (70 dollars for a set of new ones). Some key features of the P71 are heavy duty alternator (if it still works), heavy duty suspension and transmission, oil cooler. Some things to note are you can feel the gear shift when it goes from 1st to 2nd and so forth which is normal for P71s from what I gathered. The oil cooler will extend your oil life (conventional lasted almost a year in this, I have changed to full synthetic since I bought it). One big con is the gas mileage (11 for an average driver in my city) however you can get this up through manipulation of the overdrive gear. If you're on a 35 road, you can speed it up to around 40 if you're comfortable and once you feel the transmission shift to OD (mine does it at the 38-39 mark) then take your foot off the gas and the car practically propels itself pending everyone else is going the speed limit minimum. It also stabilizes it's speed between 36 and 38mph once you achieve the OD shift, I am in no way encouraging speeding in this review but I have improved my fuel economy by doing this. It will only work if you're going at least 35, anything less it will not. One more thing to be aware of is going uphill can be annoying with the OD gear on as the car will start gear hunting and it's very obvious in the P71 model so my advice is to turn the OD gear off via a small button on the top of the gear shift handle when going up grade and turn it back on when you're back on flat road. It is a RWD so snow tire up, but case in point, these cars will take care of you if you take care of them. I'll end this with if you get a P71 try and find out the history of it (state patrol or city law enforcement, patrol car or transport vehicle, etc). It does matter, mine was a state transport vehicle so it didn't see nearly the action of a city patrol vehicle. If you're able get a transport vehicle, followed by a state patrol, avoid city patrol if you can.

I hate that the air conditioning doesn't work, and we have a tough time figuring out what is up with the engine. I like the car in general though, and it reminds me of my grandfather.