I used to have a Lincoln Town Car, built on the same Panther platform as the Crown Vic and Grand Marquis. It was inexpensive to buy, inexpensive on parts, and generally easy to work on (except for that time I had to replace the heater core). However, the Panther platform was never offered with a manual transmission, and I averaged 18 mpg over the 60,000 miles I put on the Town Car.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.