Thanks guys, I have finally done it.
Discussion
Deposit down on a 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis with only 50,000km on the clock (Canadian import). Has been in use as a wedding car and is pristine.
Even better it's way up in Morayshire so I'm getting the sleeper train up and then a road trip back down to London
Thanks for bearing with me after all my posts on the Ford/Mercury/Lincoln. Now I finally get a chance to scratch that itch and if it doesn't agree, I can't see me losing much selling it on, especially down here in London Town. I think the chap in Scotland was finding it difficult to sell due to being so remote.
Will cost me £500 in fares and fuel to pick it up so it's a good thing it's big as I'll be sleeping in it
Right! Flying up to Aberdeen on Saturday morning then a train West towards Inverness. Pick car up then I'll be heading along the shores of Loch Ness down past Fort William and on to Glen Coe. Guest house booked then the next day a long run down to Glossop for a night at another guest house and then Monday morning for Snake Pass towards Sheffield then the run home to SW London.
Lets hope it doesn't break down
I'll do pics along the way.
Lets hope it doesn't break down
I'll do pics along the way.
I've also posted this in Readers Cars in order to hopefully get a wider response. Cheers Mods.
Finally have arrived home in London after picking it up 25 miles east of Inverness on Saturday and doing a bit of a tour on the way back.
Phone pic of the car outside a guest house near Fort William. I'll upload more once I have sorted the camera out.
So it's a 2000, registered here in 2001 and only has 53k kms on the clock. It's immaculate and the interior is like new. No better way to test a new purchase than by putting it through 700 miles of fast but windy A roads in the pouring rain for the first day followed by more of the same the next day but with some sunshine then big A and M roads down to Yorkshire.
Did Snake Pass (A57) across the Moors this morning, which was interesting
although I have to say that the big Mercury did very well and I would have been a lot more confident had I been sitting on the correct side of the car Busy London traffic was an eye opener to say the least and it just made it through the entrance to my parking space.
On the motorway it was smooth and fast and no problem even at 1.0 Leptons. Vague steering caused by the overly assisted power but non of the weaving horror stories that I have read about which brings me to where it was originally from.
I spoke to the garage that sold it a year ago and they told me it was from Canada hence the speedo being in kms but a little research and the fact that the passenger mirror has the standard warning about things being smaller than you think is in Arabic, make me think its a GCC model that was destined for the Middle East.
Its a GS yet has the twin exhausts so higher power and the 40/20/40 front seats of the Lincoln Town Car although the centre bench is missing yet the lap belt is still there. I wanted to check the axle code on the plate on the inside of the driver's door to see if it had the better gear ratios, as it certainly seems fast for a big 'un, but this has been removed at some point.
Anyone know of a way of getting info from the VIN? and if any of you are members of the Crownvic.net forum, would you let the mods know that I have been waiting to be approved for over a week now, ta. Same user name btw.
So apparently the Middle East model has the HPP (High Performance Package) similar to the the cop P71s so this might explain the reasonable handling and quicker response.
Love to find out more of it's history. I have MOTs going back 8 years which would appear to show that the car was originally from down here. Well Slough and Tonbridge actually. Any help would be gratefully received and like I say I'll stick some more pics up when I have sorted the camera cards.
Finally have arrived home in London after picking it up 25 miles east of Inverness on Saturday and doing a bit of a tour on the way back.
Phone pic of the car outside a guest house near Fort William. I'll upload more once I have sorted the camera out.
So it's a 2000, registered here in 2001 and only has 53k kms on the clock. It's immaculate and the interior is like new. No better way to test a new purchase than by putting it through 700 miles of fast but windy A roads in the pouring rain for the first day followed by more of the same the next day but with some sunshine then big A and M roads down to Yorkshire.
Did Snake Pass (A57) across the Moors this morning, which was interesting
although I have to say that the big Mercury did very well and I would have been a lot more confident had I been sitting on the correct side of the car Busy London traffic was an eye opener to say the least and it just made it through the entrance to my parking space.On the motorway it was smooth and fast and no problem even at 1.0 Leptons. Vague steering caused by the overly assisted power but non of the weaving horror stories that I have read about which brings me to where it was originally from.
I spoke to the garage that sold it a year ago and they told me it was from Canada hence the speedo being in kms but a little research and the fact that the passenger mirror has the standard warning about things being smaller than you think is in Arabic, make me think its a GCC model that was destined for the Middle East.
Its a GS yet has the twin exhausts so higher power and the 40/20/40 front seats of the Lincoln Town Car although the centre bench is missing yet the lap belt is still there. I wanted to check the axle code on the plate on the inside of the driver's door to see if it had the better gear ratios, as it certainly seems fast for a big 'un, but this has been removed at some point.
Anyone know of a way of getting info from the VIN? and if any of you are members of the Crownvic.net forum, would you let the mods know that I have been waiting to be approved for over a week now, ta. Same user name btw.
So apparently the Middle East model has the HPP (High Performance Package) similar to the the cop P71s so this might explain the reasonable handling and quicker response.
Love to find out more of it's history. I have MOTs going back 8 years which would appear to show that the car was originally from down here. Well Slough and Tonbridge actually. Any help would be gratefully received and like I say I'll stick some more pics up when I have sorted the camera cards.
Edited by croyde on Monday 21st July 15:53
Well done - nice looking car.
You might prefer to join the Facebook group for CV.net as it is easier and you'll still get questions answered.
If it truly is one that was destined for Arabic sales you may want to check exactly what package you have on it. I say this because I have known one that was dressed as a cop car and ended up being sold to a customer in Germany. This particular one had a performance package which involved the entire CAT system being removed including all the wiring/associated parts that went with it. As a result getting an MOT on it was only possible because the chap who owned it was very good friends with an understanding tester. It was near to impossible to get an MOT elsewhere and retro fitting it was a very expensive option hence it being sold to Europe.
Hopefully you won't have that issue.
You might prefer to join the Facebook group for CV.net as it is easier and you'll still get questions answered.
If it truly is one that was destined for Arabic sales you may want to check exactly what package you have on it. I say this because I have known one that was dressed as a cop car and ended up being sold to a customer in Germany. This particular one had a performance package which involved the entire CAT system being removed including all the wiring/associated parts that went with it. As a result getting an MOT on it was only possible because the chap who owned it was very good friends with an understanding tester. It was near to impossible to get an MOT elsewhere and retro fitting it was a very expensive option hence it being sold to Europe.
Hopefully you won't have that issue.
Gassing Station | Yank Motors | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff