Ford Crown Victoria

Ford Crown Victoria in Hells Canyon – Click above to watch the video after the jump

The signs have come down and retail production ended back in October of 2010. Now, the very last Mercury model has rolled off the assembly line. This last Mercury somewhat fittingly takes the form of a Jeff Glucker

Ex-Bondurant Cobra-engined Roush Ford Crown Victoria – Click above for high-res image gallery

If it weren't for the somewhat obsessive and frankly narrow-minded love by taxi drivers and police officers for the body-on-frame Ford Crown Victoria, we'd imagine the old Panther platform would have been put out to pasture a very long time ago. As it stands, though, New York cabbies especially seem hell-bent on keeping it around on life support as long as possible.

It used to be that every full-line American automaker offered a version of its mainstream full-size sedan to make it appropriate for police duty. By the time 1996 rolled around, the Chevrolet Caprice, which was the last would-be competitor to the standard-setting Ford Crown Victoria, was discontinued, leaving the lucrative police market to the Blue Oval Boys.

Ford Motor Company and the leadership of the Canadian Auto Workers union have reached a tentative agreement after a marathon four-day wrap-up to negotiations. Union membership needs to approve the deal, which will guarantee a Great White North presence for Ford until at least 2012. Voting is underway this weekend, and if approved, the CAW will be responsible for building 10 percent of Ford's North American production, down from the current 13 percent, which the union had been trying to hold on t

It's hard to turn away as loyal customer base as Ford has for its Police Interceptors, but the writing is on the wall for the Ford Crown Victoria, and has been for some time. The full-size sedan is based on Jurassic-era technology, and as of last year, it was taken off the

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has wrapped up its latest round of clinical crashing and, as is customary, improvements were seen on newer models, while older vehicles didn't fare quite as well.