Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

[DuckRyder]

I fear you are right about the front end damage

When the difference in paint is obvious in pictures, its worse in person... I personally probably wouldn't consider it because that doesn't speak well for it being properly repaired ...

 

[Cujet]

In that price range, I'd try to find a Golf, Jetta or other sporty hatchback.

 

[supton]

That things definitely had some front end damage and also suspicious that they put an air freshener in there. Pretty sure these are known for oil consumption issues too. Hard pass for me.

How do you figure the front end damage? I didn't see that in the pics, I'm just not spotting that.

Air freshener, ok that does raise a flag, why leave that when everything else was cleaned up? smoker's car?

1.8L engine, that checks out though. It was the 2.4's that drank oil, after 2007 or so. The 1.8's drank in the what, 1998-2002 era? I want to say the worst that this 1.8 would see is an intake manifold leak, I think some of them had that problem, otherwise it's a pretty solid engine with a pretty solid 4AT behind.

 

[Elkins45]

How about this Grand Marquis?

https://www.cars.com/vehicledetail/...oTempest&utm_medium=TRP&utm_campaign=atempest

 

[Delta]

How do you figure the front end damage? I didn't see that in the pics, I'm just not spotting that.

Air freshener, ok that does raise a flag, why leave that when everything else was cleaned up? smoker's car?

1.8L engine, that checks out though. It was the 2.4's that drank oil, after 2007 or so. The 1.8's drank in the what, 1998-2002 era? I want to say the worst that this 1.8 would see is an intake manifold leak, I think some of them had that problem, otherwise it's a pretty solid engine with a pretty solid 4AT behind.

Look at the mismatch color on the bumper. Yes, we all know that those plastic bumpers never match perfectly, but that one is waaay off!

My coworker has one of these cars with the 1.8 and his goes through some oil pretty good. Might be a fluke with that one, but has slowed down using 5w30.

 

[AmBeRnEcTaR]

I know this is of little help but it really shows how thin the market is in the OP's postal code. This is from Vancouver which has one of the most inflated used car markets around since Covid. While keeping relatively close to the parameters stated, this checks in at $6,000 USD with 124,000'ish miles.

https://vancouver.craigslist.org/bnc/ctd/d/new-westminster-2010-lincoln-mks-awd/7585755088.html

 

[Soft Cars]

Something with a Buick 3800 Series II in it. Series III is ok too.

 

[jstert]

look for a non-rust belt, vanilla, mid-size +, 4 dr sedan with a faithful maintenance history, i.e. the kind of old-school car that an old-school grampa would gently own. be willing to fly out to drive it back.