1999 Mercury Grand Marquis
 

Generally speaking, a good car? Looking at one today, a one owner with about 143k on the clock.

Good cars, they sell for peanuts. $2000 would be tops on the price if its in excellent condition.

Give it a good rev right after starting it up. Blue smoke, she's got some oil going past the rings. Pretty common for the cars, but they can go forever like that without getting much worse. Just a good bargaining point. ;)

Make sure all the windows work too. Chances are at least one is not working.

I had a 1999 Expedition, with the same 4.6 triton V8 and 4R70W transmission, for about 94,000 miles, and the drivetrain held up well. Ford was recommending 100K mileage intervals for spark plug changes at that time, and sometimes the plugs didn't want to come out after that long, unless some of the head threading could come out with it.

This is basically the same drivetrain found on Crown Vic taxis and police cars, so it was a proven item, even back in 1999 (debuted in the 1991 Lincoln Town Car, followed up by the 1992 GM's and CV's).

thanks, I read about the 4.6, earlier models, having valve seal issues and smoking/using after some mileage. Ford upgraded and I think this vintage is after that issue. I did read about the nylon intake having some problems, but there is a metal infused replacement one now.

and, from what I read, the 4.6 2 valves have a regular one piece spark plug. still potential for cross/stripped threads if not changed correctly, but not as bad as some of the modulars.

Correct. You have to go for the three-valve engines for those weird plugs. I don't believe that the 3-valve head was ever used in automobile applications. It didn't even exist in 1999. The 5.4 2V tritons had more of a rep for spitting out sparkplugs.

yep, I read that too. thanks for verifying. Would you have any idea of MPG I might get?

High teens city, mid 20s highway.

I like that. Ramcharger is </= to 10 MPG.....:(

There is a forum out there for all Panther body cars (Town Car, G.Marquis, Crown Vic). I believe it is called crownvic.net or something.

Lots of online forums, spare parts availability, etc. for these cars. They were cop cars and taxis for a reason.

I know of a guy who has at least 6 of these cars.. he works on them himself and when one has a bad engine, he just grabs another and swaps. He said they're very basic to work on .. he said about as easy as a basic Honda or Toyota!

Wait until the heater core goes out.
 

It did on our '96 Vic. Twice.

You might have some regrets, just sayin'

What are you willing to pay? What condition? What do you want to use it for?

I like 'em, but I wonder if driving a grampa-car armchair on wheels is the best way to make your very existence an act of rebellion... :P

I have a freind who owns a grand marquis model year 1999 - very tough car, I redid the front end on it - cheap as peanuts spare parts and nearly everything is available in a vareity of flavors.

engine busted - no problem - new rebuilds are available for bargains. They are quite easy to work on too. If you have a heavy sturdy jack n stands and both metric and SAE tools.

Its not like japanese cars where you can just have a 10, 12, 14, 17, 19 mm sockets and undo the whole car.

I'm watching for one too, only in the CV interceptor iteration.