Think of it as a union of holes.

Lace curtains.

That sounds too fancy. Remember, this is a Ford, not a Merc or Lincoln.

Weight reduction.

I know the feeling. If the Town Car's rocker covers attached the same way a CV/GMQ's do, I would not have them. There is nothing left of the rockers on that car, just the inner "rail" that is the pinch weld where the panels all come together. I had a habit of knocking my shoes on the rockers when getting into the car if they had snow on them. I had to stop doing that because of the piles of rust I was finding in my parking spots. At least I knew where to park.

I am legitimately surprised the LTC still even exists. The last time I saw it was I think STAP 2014 (?) and you could see through the trunk THEN.

Me too, actually. When I bought it, I thought I'd be doing good if it lasted 2 years. Its been 8. I haven't driven it regularly in almost 2 years, but there's nothing keeping it out of DD status besides the fact that its an "extra" car at this point and I still haven't decided what to do with it. To put it back on the road right now, it would need 1 tire and a battery. It was going to get a set of snow tires, but then I bought an Audi I didn't need instead.

Well, last night was fun. I went to pick up a pizza and realized my headlights weren't working. I was really in the mood for pizza, so I did the right thing and just held the brights on the whole way there and back. Oops.

Called the dealer this morning and scheduled the LCM recall appointment. Can't wait to see their reaction when I bring that turd through the bay doors.

Today, I took the LX in to Classic Ford (Mentor, OH) for the LCM recall repair. Previously, I'd had the recall performed on my '04 MGM at Ganley Ford (Middleburg Heights, OH) and it was done in under an hour. The service adviser, Olivia, had quoted me about the same time.



I was rather shocked when Olivia came out to the waiting area a short time later and said that in fact, they were anticipating a 3-4 hour total job time once the car was actually out of queue and being worked on.

I sighed and figured I would have someone come pick me up; Olivia then offered to try and find a loaner despite this not normally qualifying. She wanted to 'make it right' that I was quoted a waitable time that she didn't think the dealer would be able to honor. So I agreed, and a short time later, was placed into a 2019 Ecosport.



I decided to see if the vehicle lived up to its name by giving it a healthy hit of the gas pedal getting on the highway. Nope, no 'Sport'. Let's try Eco by resetting the MPGs and cruising at 80mph for a while. Nope, nothin' doin' there either. I was around 27mpg at that cruise speed. I finally got it up into the 30s when I exited onto a secondary highway and cruised at 55mph:



I'd like to know who decided that a fridge-opening tailgate was a better idea than a liftgate.





I got home, made some lunch, and got a call about 30min later saying the car was done. Apparently, the 1hr fix is still do-able. So I went back in the Ecosport and saw my first Coronavirus patient.



Not sure why they left the Vic inside - maybe they didn't want it trashing up the outside of the dealer.



And all is right in the world again.

Huh. Your '04 and my Town Car have very nearly the same odometer reading. Townie is at 147,6xx right now.

I doubt the 04 will see 150k.

That tailgate looks MASSIVE! And it's kinda funny it has a strut to help it.

It's as wide as the car itself, but that picture makes it look even bigger.

I kinda dig the tailgate. Don't know why.

The rest of the car just looks wrong, however. All the proportions are off.

I can assure you that the tailgate is asinine in person. No reasonable adult would say "boy, sure am glad this isn't a liftgate, the side open is way better"

I guess I'm not a reasonable adult. I made my Ranger's tailgate into a Magic Doorgate:



Really helped with loading heavy stuff.