Many auto journalists were keen to take a steaming dump on the grave of the Ford Crown Victoria when it finally ended production in 2012. They lamented that the car didn’t have a suitable powertrain that made reasonable power, modern gadgets like dual-zone climate control, or the latest trend for playing music (quoting Alex Dykes from a The Truth About Cars article: “Bluetooth? What’s that? MP3? Nope. Still, the radio will pick up AM Gold clear across the square states…”) They lamented that the car was a design that more-or-less dated back to 1979, a fair argument, and complained about the vehicle’s length before going into full-on praise mode for overloaded sport-utility vehicles that were all about the gizmos. In hindsight, it’s actually pretty laughable. We won’t lie, the Crown Vic only lasted as long as it did because the Panther platform had paid for itself at least by the late 1980s and every car that Ford cranked out was like printing money. And fleet buyers ate them up because they were really Built Ford Tough. You can do shit in a Crown Victoria that would make any modern car pop a Check Engine light and whizz a little puddle of coolant in terror over.
Meet the MudVic. This is a Crown Victoria that is riding on a lift kit that is meant for a Ford F-series, running 33″ tires. It’s rough, it’s rugged, it’s badass and it was probably pretty cheap to build. And it’s plenty capable, as this footage of the car dredging out a very buried Jeep can prove. Please, try this stunt in a Ford Fusion, let me know how it goes. Just hurry before Ford removes all of the cars from the lineup!
(Thanks to Andrew Crouch for the tip!)
Great, you got your Jeep out and you’re internet famous. Now go bury your Jeep in a big hole and get something else because you’ll be wearing that scarlet letter forever.