The one I'm considering looking over is an 89 so no Bosch injection there.

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Nope. This was a total Bosch system. Every single part of it. And it sure made buying parts for it hard. Most parts books don't even list them.

Ford only had the total Bosch system for a few months; most sources say six. It was if Ford had Bosch design the system and then they built engines with it until they could figure out how to do it themselves.

On the one hand.... The system worked great. I never had any trouble out of it until the fuel pump burned out. On the other hand... Parts are impossible to find and expensive when you do.

I can't comment with personal experience for that model, but my grandparents always bought Mercury Grand Marquis (at least 3 generations of them) and my father (their son-in-law) drove all of them for long trips and he said that while that model rode decently well, the handling and steering was so bad it was scary to drive (to be fair, he had been driving imports for 20 years before that point, Mercedes, Isuzus, & Subarus). So unless these police suspension upgrades are any good, don't expect curves to be give you anything but motion sickness. Now I do have experience with the last two generations of the Grand Marquis (which can also be found for not much money), and I will say they seem to be pretty reliable and cheap to run, ours is a 96 (was my grandparent's) and is about to hit 200,000 miles and was not well maintained for its first 100,000 miles by the dealer but nothing major has gone wrong with it. Very solid drive train, just the transmission is a very slow. My grandparent's last Grand Marquis was a 2006 and it hasn't done many miles (around 48,000) but overall seems to be a much better built car than the 96, with much better handling characteristics, better transmission and rides better also.

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

On my '86 Town Car, good tires run at 36-37 psi along with cop shocks got the handling into acceptable territory. The transmissions tend to go long before the engines, but are inexpensive and not hard to swap. Crownvic.net has a lot of information on these cars.

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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 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

I wasn't arguing--just stating that that was news to me. Still not arguing.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Those transmissions will last as long as any slush box as long as it is serviced correctly. Change the fluid and filter about every 30,000 miles and drain the torque converter to change it all. In hot conditions, change it more often. The ATF life is cut in half for about every 15 degrees over normal that it runs.

Since most people don't drive 30,000 miles per year if they will simply change it every fall after the summer high temps, these boxes will last a LONG time.

These panther platform cars can really take it.

Here's a 1985 going through its paces. The 1987 one you are looking at is the last year of ther body style before they got updated in 1986...

To Live and Die in L.A.(1985) - The Car Chase part 2 - YouTube

Look at 2:27 - 2:32 at th3e jump! Stunt man almost broke his back on this one, I heard

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)