This car began life in the same town it now resides. The original owner was the owner of Eaton's here, who bought a new TC every two or so years. They were always Cartier's. My father was teaching at the local University around this time, but was offered a tenure stream appointment at an East Coast University. To celebrate his new job, he took my grandfather's advice (my mom's dad) and went and purchased a Lincoln. The car had been traded in a few days prior and was at this point approximately two years old with something like 34,000Km on the odometer. It was love at first sight.
The car was garage stored pretty much it's entire life, doing many Ontario-to-Maritimes and the other way around trips during the course of it's life.
Dad had very few issues with the car, and it always worked well for being a vehicle of it's size and mass. It was a factory single exhaust car and dad never felt the need to change that, even though I bugged him about it.
As the years rolled by, there were a couple of issues with the car, I can pretty much recount the entire car's history from memory.....
-Rear brake line burst on the way home from work in the late 90's
-Oil pan rotted out and was replaced in 1998
-Upper ball-joint on drivers-side was replaced in 1999
-Frost-Plug on passenger side blew-out draining engine, ECM killed the engine's power, dad was left on the side of the road in need of a tow. 2000
-Rad hose blew out the next year, same scenario. 2001
-Alternator died, was replaced with the "baby" version, car barely charged at idle, dad didn't know any better.
-TV cable developed slack, car wouldn't downshift when floored. Dad's mechanic worked on it, but didn't know the correct procedure for adjusting it.
-TFI module died, left car stranded in 2001
-Coil wiring harness developed a break in one of the wires in 1996, needed to be fixed.
-Air shock "popped" and needed to be replaced on passenger side in the rear. 1998
That's pretty much it.
In 2005 I got a phone call (I live in Ontario) from my dad, he said he was looking at getting a new TC, that the old girl was having a few issues in recent years and he thought it was time to get rid of her for a newer version.
Since selection in the maritimes was limited, and there were no Cartier's out there (he was hell-bent on getting another Cartier) he had been looking in the autotrader in Ontario, where there seemed to be a number of them.
He found a forest Green 2003 Town Car Cartier for sale for a reasonable price about two hours from me. I went up, test drove it, found a couple of issues and the sale was pending based on those issues being fixed.
Dad then told me that I was driving the car down! So, my wife and my oldest son, who was at the time about one year old, joined me in the car for a 1,528Km trip to my parent's place on the east coast.
When we arrived, my dad surveyed his new purchase and seemed quite happy with it. After a brief tour in it, he handed me the keys for the old girl and said "she's yours!". I was shocked. I had always loved the car, but I was under the impression he was selling her. Apparently not............
Here's a pic of her when I got her:
The car was garage stored pretty much it's entire life, doing many Ontario-to-Maritimes and the other way around trips during the course of it's life.
Dad had very few issues with the car, and it always worked well for being a vehicle of it's size and mass. It was a factory single exhaust car and dad never felt the need to change that, even though I bugged him about it.
As the years rolled by, there were a couple of issues with the car, I can pretty much recount the entire car's history from memory.....
-Rear brake line burst on the way home from work in the late 90's
-Oil pan rotted out and was replaced in 1998
-Upper ball-joint on drivers-side was replaced in 1999
-Frost-Plug on passenger side blew-out draining engine, ECM killed the engine's power, dad was left on the side of the road in need of a tow. 2000
-Rad hose blew out the next year, same scenario. 2001
-Alternator died, was replaced with the "baby" version, car barely charged at idle, dad didn't know any better.
-TV cable developed slack, car wouldn't downshift when floored. Dad's mechanic worked on it, but didn't know the correct procedure for adjusting it.
-TFI module died, left car stranded in 2001
-Coil wiring harness developed a break in one of the wires in 1996, needed to be fixed.
-Air shock "popped" and needed to be replaced on passenger side in the rear. 1998
That's pretty much it.
In 2005 I got a phone call (I live in Ontario) from my dad, he said he was looking at getting a new TC, that the old girl was having a few issues in recent years and he thought it was time to get rid of her for a newer version.
Since selection in the maritimes was limited, and there were no Cartier's out there (he was hell-bent on getting another Cartier) he had been looking in the autotrader in Ontario, where there seemed to be a number of them.
He found a forest Green 2003 Town Car Cartier for sale for a reasonable price about two hours from me. I went up, test drove it, found a couple of issues and the sale was pending based on those issues being fixed.
Dad then told me that I was driving the car down! So, my wife and my oldest son, who was at the time about one year old, joined me in the car for a 1,528Km trip to my parent's place on the east coast.
When we arrived, my dad surveyed his new purchase and seemed quite happy with it. After a brief tour in it, he handed me the keys for the old girl and said "she's yours!". I was shocked. I had always loved the car, but I was under the impression he was selling her. Apparently not............
Here's a pic of her when I got her:
Comment