An Ode To The Crown Victoria, a post on design philosophy.

By request, I'm going to talk a little bit about what has changed in how we design cars, and why this ugly, lumbering boat of a car was a favorite of taxi cab companies/police departments long after it stopped being made

Carroll Shelby, who you might recall as Matt Damon in Ford v. Ferrari, once famously said "Horsepower sells cars, torque wins races." When Ford released the 4.6, the most expensive to engineer engine of all time that powered the crown vic and the mustang, it was panned.

It only made 190 hp with single exhaust (239 with dual) and sported a single overhead cam. It's intention in design was to replace the venerable Windsor V8, a 35 year old pushrod engine famous for it's durability and versatility. Most critics believed it was a step down.

Lower displacement, less horsepower, single overhead cam instead of dual-- But in spite of all this, it became a favorite of fleet service vehicles, so much so that the humble Crown Victoria is still in service in many police precincts, firehouses and taxi cab fleets today.

The answer is really quite simple: serviceability. This car made by union workers in Detroit was the last vehicle engineered using old American design philosophy and production in mind.

Rather than being unibody it's what's called Body On Frame.

This is an old fashioned way of designing cars that means a rigid ladder like structure is what acts as skeleton. It's heavier, more expensive to build and flexes a little while driving. However, it's also much more serviceable. If the vehicle is in an accident you can replace--

body panels rather than the entire car, with much lower frequency than a unibody design.

It's rear wheel drive rather than front wheel drive. FWD cars are easier to manufacture because the entire engine, transmission and front axle can be assembled at once during construction.

But a transaxle is inherently more complicated to service and more prone to failure, as it works as a sort of transmission, axle and differential rolled into one rather than these being separate components. This spells out a lower lifespan and higher service cost of the component

So because of the simple design, low cost of lifetime maintenance and ability to continually rebuild the car no matter what happens to it, you can keep it running forever. That's why it's not unusual to find them on Craigslist or auction with 400-600k miles on the chassis.