For those that don't know, my '97 Town Car Cartier has gotten to the point of being nearly dangerously rusty, holes in the frame, etc.. So for the last several months, I've been keeping my eye out for a replacement. A couple days ago, I found this, and jumped on it for the price I got them down to.. Its from southern Illinois so it has remarkably little rust, especially compared to everything else its age that I've looked at around here. I haven't had a chance to clean it up yet, but I took some pictures on my lunch break today anyway.


1998 Mercury Grand Marquis LS HPP
87,700 miles as-purchased. Dark Green Satin Metallic, Parchment interior.

At first I thought the car was black, but damn nice ride Steve!

Welcome to Whaleland.

Ah, the last of the polished Lip HPP wheels...

Also paint code FU if I recall correctly. Makes me miss my 98 HPP GMQ.

Its just like my 99 except its clean, got HPP's, and isn't a vomcom.

Almost every dark satin green GMs I see are ragged out with a ragtop. Nice to see a good looking one.

Very nice!

That's a very clean car and it looks fantastic. The 98s were a good year for leather quality and a lot of little things that got cheaper feeling over the years. Congrats on the car.

As I've already told you, it's a great looking car, and I'm sure you'll take proper care of it.

Also, seems like you got the car you finally wanted!

Beautiful car, Steve! Nice LS "Ultimate" edition (or whatever was the Ultimate Edition in 1998)

I envy your digi-dash with ALL the information: "Gallons to Empty" and "Instantaneous Fuel Economy" readouts, as well as the much nicer quality leather used inside... both of which are absent on my Merc.

I had a 1998 GMQ LS, which blew a transmission on a trip, and I was forced to buy a new car 700 miles out of state. I bought my 2004, and after I bought it, I noticed the "decontenting" of the digi-dash and the general sleaziness of the seat material.
(Bastards at Ford! )

Looks like a really nice replacement. Early Whales, Aeros, and Boxes are getting hard to find in good shape, so I think you did really good on this purchase.

Looks awesome. Love that color! Nice score!

Man, patience paid off in this case. Beautiful car, Steve.

Nice find!! Looks like new and very well maintained!! It makes miss my 99 with HPP.

Please, for the love of God, oil spray that thing so Detroit doesn't eat it up!

Thanks everyone! I'm happy with my purchase. It was sort of unusual for me to not be in a rush to buy a car. I had a perfectly driveable car to use while I waited for the right car/deal.

Don't worry. I'm (probably) not driving it this winter, thats what the Lincoln will be for. Next spring/summer I plan to wire-wheel and paint the few rust spots under it, it all surface rust, I made sure of that.. The only rust on the body of this thing is a small blister at the top of the drivers front wheel well, which someone has already painted, but I'm going to re-do that and get as much oil/fluidfilm into the fenders as I can to stop/slow any further decay.

The car is not without its faults. Part of the reason I was able to knock them down a grand from their asking price, and got tax/title/registration included, along with a 6-month/unlimited mile powertrain warranty at no cost.. Man, cash sure does talk..lol.

It really seems like the car was well taken care of, but sort of neglected for the last couple years. What you'd expect from "2n owner syndrome", except its a one-owner car. It has 1 newer upper ball joint, 4 new tie rod ends, but basically no idler arm and the sway bar links were missing.. can't figure that out.. The engine had a definite misfire on the test drive that seems to be totally gone after I put a few hundred miles on it. Guessing bad gas? Tank was nearly empty and the oil change sticker shows less than 400 miles since February. The worst issue IMO is the smoke smell, it was definitely owned by a smoker, its not overpowering like the '01 I had looked at the day before (that one made me sad, 40k miles, but completely ruined by being smoked in, everything was slimy with nicotine), but its gonna take some scrubbing to get that smell out.

So far in the last 2 days I've installed front sway bar links, and changed the plugs. I also ordered a fresh set of P71 KYB Gas-A-Justs because the shocks on this thing don't even pretend. Got a set of hood struts on the way too so maybe the hood will actually stay up. It now has the 70mm TB off the lincoln as well, holy hell I forgot how much of a difference that makes on a NPI.

There was 2 other cars I really wanted that popped up. One is a black on black '97 Signature Touring with 80k on it that the guy just wasn't serious about selling. Contacted him several times and he always had some reason why he wasn't available to show the car. He's relisted it several times in the past year. The other was a '01 GMQ LSE with 55k miles, Toreador Red over Parchment, I missed that one by 2 hours. It was gone the same day it was listed, when I called on it they had someone on the way to look at it already that must have bought it because the seller actually called me back to say it was sold.

Sweet ride Steve! That sure is a beauty.
I see your digi dash still has instant economy. That went away by '04, not sure when.