New Experience - Crown Vic - Breaks Itself!

[ekpolk]

Well, the last 24 hours have involved a substantial amount of automotive weirdness. Yesterday, I was headed back to the office, and was almost there, driving the Camry-hybrid. A couple of fairly scruffy 50-somethings, barefoot, wearing pajamas and driving their mother's fairly new Town Car pulled out right in front of me, having blown off a STOP sign. Anyway, I slammed the brake pedal, went full anti-lock, but it was too late and I crashed into their front passenger side. After the police formailties, I was able to limp the car to the Toyota body shop. No bags fired. Damage is estimated between $3-4k. Hood, bumper cover, L light assy, and fender will all be replaced.

Incidentally, I am fine -- much better than the car...

So now I get to the point. My rental replacement is, of all things, a near-new 2011 Crown Vic LX (must be a fleet sale thing, I assume???). Actually it's nicer than I expected (but also slower than I expected -- the 4.6 is a good engine, but the CV is pretty massive...).

Anyway I watched in astonishment today as I adjusted the power seat, with the cup holder/tray thing extended from the dash. I have short legs and a long torso (six ft tall overall), so I prefer a close up/tilted back driving position. While setting this position, I watched in amazement as the forward part of the seat hit the cup holder, pushing it up and causing a bad "cracking plastic" sound. I stopped it before it broke it all the way free.

So, anyone ever seen a car break itself like this before? I should add that my intent is NOT a veiled suggestion that Fords aren't good cars. This CV is otherwise impressive, but this one oddity is, well, very odd. At least to me...

Guess I had better go shoot a photo too...

 

[Artem]

Need pics of the self destructing cup holder.

 

[daves87rs]

Originally Posted By: Artem
Need pics of the self destructing cup holder.

Agreed! Glad you're okay though.


Sounds strange but I've seen some interesting ones...

 

[hate2work]

Glad you are OK, but...

I sprayed Coke all over my screen when I read this...

"A couple of fairly scruffy 50-somethings, barefoot, wearing pajamas"

Do grown men wear no shoes and pajamas when driving? The mental picture of that cracked me up

 

[jaj]

That's ok - I got past the image of the two women, but I'm still stuck on figuring out how they broke the cup holder in the '11 Crown Vic. It's just not coming together for me... is this some kind of "tornado caused by the beat of a butterfly wing" thing?

Originally Posted By: hate2work

Glad you are OK, but...

I sprayed Coke all over my screen when I read this...

"A couple of fairly scruffy 50-somethings, barefoot, wearing pajamas"

Do grown men wear no shoes and pajamas when driving? The mental picture of that cracked me up

 

[austinlunsford]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk
Actually it's nicer than I expected (but also slower than I expected -- the 4.6 is a good engine, but the CV is pretty massive...)

and the fact that ford doesnt give it its proper power and torque potential...

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: jaj
That's ok - I got past the image of the two women, but I'm still stuck on figuring out how they broke the cup holder in the '11 Crown Vic. It's just not coming together for me... is this some kind of "tornado caused by the beat of a butterfly wing" thing?

Originally Posted By: hate2work

Glad you are OK, but...

I sprayed Coke all over my screen when I read this...

"A couple of fairly scruffy 50-somethings, barefoot, wearing pajamas"

Do grown men wear no shoes and pajamas when driving? The mental picture of that cracked me up

I'm sorry jaj, this is really two threads for the price of one. I ended up with the temp-rental Crown Vic AFTER the two bozos in the Town Car trashed my Camry. They are men, by the way. I'll post some pics of all the drama shortly, including a nice one of one the opposing scruffy, barefoot driver.

I never would have gotten to try a nice Crown Vic (still nice even with the auto-destruct cup holder feature...) were it not for this crash, earlier in the day. I will also add (ooops, here's yet another thread within this one

) that as much as I don't care for insurance companies, USAA gets it done. They're doing the repairs (will get their money back from Regressive, the at-fault carrier), and they're waiving my deductible (a small gesture; I'd have gotten it back via subrogation at the end of the day, but still nice).

Can y'all tell that perhaps my mind is still in OD over this little drama???

 

[rshunter]

Glad to hear that you're okay. Poor Camry, a car always seems to resent having been relegated to the body shop.

As to the Crown Vic, you can hardly describe the fact that you powered the seat forward into the cup-holder until it broke as "auto-destruct". I'd say the Crown Vic didn't exactly "break itself", it had more than a little help...

 

[hardcore302]

I wish I could use the cup holder, that darn computer is in the way.

 

[LS2JSTS]

Glad everyone walked away safe and sound.

USAA is a fantastic avenue for the those with access to it.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: rshunter
Glad to hear that you're okay. Poor Camry, a car always seems to resent having been relegated to the body shop.

As to the Crown Vic, you can hardly describe the fact that you powered the seat forward into the cup-holder until it broke as "auto-destruct". I'd say the Crown Vic didn't exactly "break itself", it had more than a little help...


Ummmm, I'll respectfully disagree with you on that. While again, this CV is an impressive car, and I've been enjoying driving it (though it guzzles fuel compared to a Cam-hyb -- surprise, surprise...), I would expect the engineers who designed it to be swift enough to set the thing up such that one factory included part does not have the capability to easily destroy another factory included part during perfectly normal operations. A customer should be able to use the cup holder, and run the seat wherever the track takes it, without having to worry about one destroying the other. IMO, anyway.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Originally Posted By: hate2work

Glad you are OK, but...

I sprayed Coke all over my screen when I read this...

"A couple of fairly scruffy 50-somethings, barefoot, wearing pajamas"

Do grown men wear no shoes and pajamas when driving? The mental picture of that cracked me up

It's northern Florida

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

As big as Crown Vic/Grand Marquis are, I've always felt cramped in them for the size of the car. I think there's more space in the trunk than the cabin.

 

[JimPghPA]

Another one of Fords better ideas.

I remember the when the company I worked for bought a new 1980 Ford van for the year and a half job they had going on with a crew of our people working on electronics at the Ford company in Detroit. They got a flat from going over a RR track. When the tire was flat the jack would not fit under the van to lift it so you could change it. They called us up and asked what should they do? They were told to talk to Ford and ask them if this was another one of there better ideas.

 

[Pablo]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk
A couple of fairly scruffy 50-somethings, barefoot, wearing pajamas and driving their mother's fairly new Town Car ...


Yeah pics or it didn't happen.......

 

[Hokiefyd]

The Panthers have never been all that space-efficient. Or fast. But they're good cars. We had a '92. I don't remember it actually having cup holders in the first place, so they didn't destruct on ours.

 

[ekpolk]

OK Pabs, since you insisted

, meet the scruffy PJ guy:

Here's the damage to my car:

And here's the Crown Vic cup holder. Note how the seat is beginning to push up on it. There's more travel to go. Yes, I have just enough common sense NOT to push it any further...

 

[Eddie]

Some days you are a windshield & some days you are the bug.

 

[eljefino]

This sounds like a "leftover parts" car.

Late 2002 saturn SLs had aluminum rims because they were still floating around the factory.

So you got a bench seat and incompatible console. Funny!

 

[andrewg]

I have an '04 Mercury Grand Marquis that has the same exact interior dimensions. I must say that in order for you to have busted the cup holder you must REALLY have some seriously short legs. My girlfriend is a short lady (not much over 5 feet) and even she has never hit the cup holder when moving the seat forward. Very odd. I'm going to go out into the garage today and see if I can repeat what you did (minus the actual damage of course).