Two Car Models, New York Emblems, Discontinued
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM
The Lincoln Town Car, left, and the Ford Crown Victoria.
They are the muscular, leg-roomy fixtures of New York’s
crowded streetscape, the automobiles that came to represent the
city.
The Ford Crown Victoria served as the mainstay of taxi and police
fleets. Its close cousin, the Lincoln Town Car, could reliably be
found idling outside Lincoln Center or waiting to whisk a Wall
Street type home for the evening.
But in a little more than a year, both models will go the way of
the Checker cab. Ford Motor Company plans to shutter the Canadian
plant that manufactures the cars and discontinue the recognizably
bulky frame that gives them their shape.
That means the end for vehicles that have come to symbolize the
full spectrum of New York life, from private black sedans purring
on Park Avenue to the ubiquitous sight of the yellow cab, great
equalizer of the varied urban tribe.
“These cars are a facet of people’s everyday
experience,” said David Yassky, the city’s taxi
commissioner. “Whatever takes their place will have a real
and tangible influence on the city’s aesthetic.”
Passengers should prepare for a bumpier, more cramped ride. Forget
roomy trunks that fit a French-door refrigerator; the older models
are yielding to smaller gas-and-electric hybrid vehicles with
knee-bumping back seats and flimsier frames.
The impending departures have left New York’s livery world
scrambling. The Taxi and Limousine Commission is holding a contest
to design a new taxicab to replace the city’s 8,200 Crown
Victoria yellow taxis. The Police Department will lose a
fast-accelerating sedan it has depended on since 1992. And the
black-car industry must replace 75 percent of its fleet.
Prophecies of the cars’ demise have come and gone: they
survived one death notice in 2006 when Ford moved production from
Michigan to Ontario. But widespread regulatory reform and industry
financial troubles mean this is the true end of the road.
The company says it concluded that sales would drop off in coming
years as more states required police and livery vehicles to meet
stricter environmental standards — a high hurdle for gas
guzzlers like the Crown Vic and the Town Car, which get about 16
miles a gallon in the city.
Fickle consumer tastes have also played a role: the models sell
well with commercial fleets but not individual drivers, who tend to
prefer slimmer sedans. One exception is the retiree market in
Florida, which has a fondness for Town Cars. (The Crown Vic is now
sold only to commercial customers.)
In other words, the lighter, greener hybrid has triumphed.
“We need to move onto an improved, more sustainable
product,” Rob Stevens, Ford’s chief engineer for
commercial vehicles, said in an interview.
But some drivers and fleet owners maintain that the Town Car and
Crown Vic are uniquely well suited to their task of comfortably
ferrying all manner of city dwellers, from expense-account Wall
Street bankers to criminals handcuffed in the back of a police
cruiser.
“It is large, it is safe, it is easily repairable,”
John Acierno, president of the Executive Transportation Group, said
of the Town Car, which makes up more than 80 percent of his
1,800-car fleet.
“When you think of a black car or a limousine, your
mind’s eye sort of goes to it,” Mr. Acierno said.
“If there’s one sitting in front of a building, you
think the car is waiting for someone.”
The cars also deliver a particularly smooth ride, die-hards say,
thanks to a forgiving suspension and the sturdy steel frame that
underlies both models. The Crown Vic’s plush leather back
seat can resemble a sofa on wheels.
Replacements have begun to crop up in the city’s fleets, but
some owners of yellow cabs say they are unimpressed.
Ronald Sherman, the president of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of
Trade, which represents 28 large fleet owners, said he had seen
would-be taxi passengers ignore Chevrolet Malibu or Ford Escape
cabs, opting for a longer wait in order to grab the more spacious
Crown Vic. “These minis are ridiculous; passengers do not get
into them,” Mr. Sherman said, asserting that the smaller back
seat and low headroom made the hybrids uncomfortable and
potentially dangerous for riders.
Kevin Healy, another fleet owner, agreed. Of the Volkswagen Jetta,
another alternative taxi, he said: “Literally, I can’t
get in. And I would need a doctor to get out.”
Despite such objections, New York City’s government is intent
on greening its car fleet. A mayoral mandate is in place to depose
the big gas guzzlers of yore: commissioners now drive hybrids, and
the Police Department has reduced its Crown Victoria count to 1,400
cars today from 1,800 in 2006.
The city also wants to establish fuel emissions standards for
taxicabs. Those regulations have been held up in court, but owners
have pre-emptively started to adjust. Crown Victorias still account
for 60 percent of yellow cabs, but their dominance has been
threatened by growing numbers of Ford Escapes (2,637 cabs) and
Toyota Sienna minivans (1,381).
The Lincoln Town Car remains a common sight on Park Avenue and
outside the city’s gilded corporate headquarters. But there
are signs that its clients’ tastes are changing, too.
Only half of the cars idling outside Lincoln Center on a recent
weeknight were Lincolns. Instead, well-to-do clients stepped into
Cadillacs, Mercedes-Benzes and a BMW.
A similar scene unfolded on a Wednesday morning at the Loews
Regency Hotel, at Park Avenue and 62nd Street, where power
breakfasters opted for Ford Expeditions, Lexuses and a Toyota Camry
hybrid.
For most of the 35 years he has driven his private car in the city
as a chauffeur, Ziggy Kingston used a Lincoln. But he recently made
the switch to a Prius, saying that his clients, including the
30-minute meal maestro Rachael Ray and the actress Sarah Jessica
Parker, often prefer the hybrid.
“It’s a good image for them,” he said, waiting
for a pick-up outside the Barclays building in Midtown.
Gesturing toward a nearby Town Car, Mr. Kingston continued,
“This was the car you wanted when no one cared about
pollution and the mayor didn’t care.” Now, he said,
“you got to go with what the environment is good
for.”
Fleet owners are unsure about what will replace the Town Car,
although Lincoln has created several new models intended for livery
use. But none have the same Yao Ming-size legroom or trunk
space.
Eager to retain the taxi market, Ford is offering a custom version
of its Transit Connect van, whose oblong shape and tall roof
resemble a London cab’s. The van gets 22 miles a gallon in
the city and comes equipped with big picture windows for a scenic
ride. More radical designs have been submitted to the city’s
taxi commission, which has solicited ideas for a new taxicab built
from scratch, rather than retrofitted from an existing car. The
winner, which will not be announced for months, will have the
exclusive right to build the city’s cabs for a decade.
Mr. Sherman, who owns a taxi fleet himself, said that his needs,
like those of passengers, were simple: “What people are
looking for in a taxicab,” he said, “is a safe ride
from A to B.”
"For when the One Great Scorer comes
To write against your name,
He marks-not that you won or lost-
But how you played the game."
-Grantland Rice