We all long for what we never had. Apparently, somewhere in Europe, an urge has emerged for ‘luxury’ as only American makes knew how to make: In unapologetic over the top excess. And this ’77 LTD is close to the zenith of the breed; imposing and impossible to ignore on the roads.
A ’77 LTD in the Netherlands? Yes, as attested by these images at the Cohort by Corey Behrens. And in recent months, the Cohort has witnessed similar vintage American metal appearing in Germany and surrounding nations. It looks like in the land of efficient and taut handling vehicles, a desire for pointless hedonism has materialized as of late.
Longer, lower and wider was not going to last much after the ’70s, and we know Ford almost went belly-up in defiance to emerging trends. But that’s all water under the bridge now. Want to stand out from those fuel efficient CUVs? What better way to satisfy those desires than with Ford’s loftiest wallowing ride?
To see one of these in motion around small Peugeots, Skodas, or CUVs, must be quite a sight. I would certainly get out of the way if one approached on my rearview mirror: Land yacht, the road is yours, strut your stuff!
And where do they buy them? These Fords are rather known for their biodegradable properties, and I never got to ride one in my life. Rarely ever saw any, actually. Yet here’s one, looking as if it has been on the road for only a few years. What kind of special Craigslist connection these Europeans have? One linked to 1997? (Update: It was sold new in the Netherlands).
Aside from the missing hubcap, this sample still carries every bit of ‘luxury’ trim fairly intact. True luxury? I wouldn’t take one to the Cote d’Azur, but I would without hesitation drive one in a Columbo episode to a baddie’s mansion in Beverly Hills.
To those with keen eyes, yes, there’s a trailer in back. How ’70s can you possibly get? Only an Airstream trailer is missing to complete the full-American experience. The whole package is quite the time machine, and I almost feel my skin itch from polyester-shirt memories.
While I don’t have personal experience with these, I do have pop ones. And there’s no way I can see one without thinking of Charles Bronson’s Mr. Majestyk, with Airstream trailer included.
I know I’m off by a few model years, but Mr. Majestyk is one cool dumb movie, has tons of Fords, and the coolest Ford F-Series pickup chase ever filmed. Fords of the time may have rusted away, and the whole brougham period seems rather quaint and gimmicky now, but that Ford pickup does take a beating on that chase. And how can I not develop some admiration for the brand after that?
(For the F-Series chase, the Youtube link is HERE). For admiration and loathe on the LTD:
Vintage Review: 1976 Ford LTD – All Is Well With The American Dream
Once owned a 72 LTD convert. Beautiful, spacious, powerful, and LUXURIOUS. FMC was King of the road in the 70s, especially with upscale vehicles. Have also owned GRAND MARQUIS and TOWN CARS from late 70s. FMC continued to produce these magnificent OTT Land YACHTS through 1978. Wish I had kept one or more of mine. Even downsized early 80s Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, and TOWN CARS were much more appealing to traditional American luxury vehicle buyers. Currently have beautiful low mileage 2007 TOWN CAR Signature Limited that I will never let go. Not quite as OTT excessive as earlier TOWN CARS, but the LAST generation of REAL American Luxury Sedans. It is rare to see a 70s LAND YACHT amid sea of Small cars, SUVS and crossovers Even here in the USA 🇺🇸. Have had numerous offers to buy my Town Car. Even these are becoming an endangered species.
The broughamest of the brougham! Definitely a statement car in the Netherlands. The Dutch are well known to have a sizable cult of American land barge lovers, but usually the pictures I see are of more cherry examples.
I spotted a few trim items missing. The hubcaps are period and brand correct, but not model correct. Those Ford hubcaps were not on LTDs at the time, IIRC. Also this is a Landau, which came with a half vinyl roof standard on coupes, full vinyl available. And judging by the fender trim, this one originally had fender skirts. Looks in nice rust-free condition, though.
….a picture of a less cherry example:
Great pic. Close to reality, circa 1980. Only missing peeling bodyside trim, rocker panel, and rear wheel arch rust perforation, etc.
In other words, it’s in an excellent condition!
Indeed. There’s an excellent reason the producers of 1989’s Uncle Buck, chose a steaming pile Mercury Marquis as Buck’s car. It wasn’t happenchance at all.
Nice one! That probably wouldn’t be allowed to enter a car show in the U.S., unless it was the Concours de LeMons.
“What kind of special Craigslist connection these Europeans have?”
In case of this March 1977 LTD, none. Because it was delivered new here which makes it extra special. Most have rotten away and it is pretty rare to find such a car delivered new in the Netherlands. Current owner since March 2018.
Cool! I can’t imagine finding my car online.
Since you have never even ridden in one, it’s amazing how you stereotype them too. These were incredibly solid and dependable rides. Wallowing? Not any different from the competition. Hedonist? No – these were family rides for average folks, not Hollywood hedonists. While I would shudder to think of steering this around Groeningen, Amsterdam or anywhere in Friesland, the Ford wasn’t designed for the Netherlands – they made other cars for that market. Good cars too.
Would I want to buy one – no, but I wouldn’t turn one down. What keeps me from them is the massive waste and inefficiency in the aged RWD design. The Panther body which replaced this was a needed refinement. It took Ford a few years to get the Panther into the two million seller it ended up becoming. Even Ford in 1980 was convinced that the Panther was still too large for a fossil-fuel-less future, as predicted by Washington.
This was a fine car of the first half of the 1970s. I didn’t know until recently how good these cars were, and discovered that here at CC. My uncle, who worked for Ford during this era, kept telling me that they were good cars – but I wasn’t open minded after having been repeatedly told how wasteful, wallowing and embarrassing they were – by folks driving Volvos, BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, and other “better than American” cars.
I’m wiser now and I owe it to my Ford family to defend these fine automobiles, so I have to tell you, dude – you are way off about this ride.
Amen! These were comfortable, well-made and reliable vehicles that satisfied millions of owners. I enjoy watching episodes of “Cannon” and “Barnaby Jones” just so I can see all the “courtesy” vehicles provided by the Ford Motor Company (especially those full-size Mercs).
lol These were glorious rust buckets. Lucky to get a few years out of them, before they started to show serious (or terminal) rust, wherever road salt was used. Much of Canada, and the US Northeast. A great symbol of Ford’s 1970s contempt for consumers.
As many American and Canadian consumers tolerated this nonsense. That is, until they found other manufacturers, that gave them better value.
My family had LTDs, Pintos, Mavericks, Comets, Ford pickups, during the 1970s, and they all rusted like crazy. None of them lasted remotely near a decade.
Wallowing? Not any different from the competition.
Compared to GM’s new ’77 B-C Bodies, these truly were wallowing barges. And even compared to the previous larger GM cars, these big Fords were mushier.
He wasn’t referring to the original buyers being hedonists; he was (presumably ironically) referring to the Dutch/European buyers of them. To own one of these in Europe is very much making a statement, unlike in the US in 1977.
Defend these wonderful “fine automobiles” all you want, but maybe not quite so vociferously.
In case you need a refresher in these, here’s a link to a vintage review where the key headline title was “It Has Nothing That Could Be Described As Handling”.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/rt-25th-anniversary-review-1947-and-1972-fords-rts-first-road-test-revisited-and-compared-to-a-1972-version/
I will attest to Paul’s assertion that wallowing is an accurate description of the LTD. Throw in sloppy if you want.
The vast majority were equipped with a base suspension that was tuned for a smooth, quiet ride. That, it did deliver.
My father purchased a 1976 LTD new. It lived among a ’76 Cutlass, ’78 Caprice, and ’78 Delta 88. The older A body Cutlass and the B bodies had very similar ride and handling characteristics, and were a delightful blend of handling and ride.
I did have a 1972 Pontiac Grandville to contrast with the LTD. While a barge, it never felt wallowing and sloppy in the way the LTD did. In fact, the rear end always seemed a bit stiff, the ’77 up B bodies had a better ride.
I rented one of these brand new in Florida.
1. It was a wallowing beast.
2. I literally could see the gas gauge move/drop when driving.
I can attest to their well built qualities. I worked on vary many of these cars and got to drive them. The suspension parts including shocks were superior to the other 2 of the big 3. Working at independent shops one sees everything. Ford was determined to have the smoothest quietest ride and by and large they did. Fit and fit was the best of the time. Handling became somewhat wallowy to achieve this cacooned ride.
Add rear doors and change the color to cream yellow and you’d have a copy of my first driver’s ed car. I don’t remember too much about it because I only got to drive it a couple of times before class was put on hiatus for the winter months. It was definitely comfortable, with cloth seats. Power was smooth and adequate, probably coming from a 400 cubic inch motor. Although I’m basically a Chevy guy, I thought this generation of Fords were pretty decent looking.
When class resumed in the spring, the LTD had been traded in for a new ‘78 Ford Granada 6 cylinder. I was the lucky first student to drive it. While the Granada had it’s good points, it was no match for the LTD when it came to smooth, classy comfort.
The comfortable suspension tuning these cars have must be good on smooth roads we have the occasional smooth roads and there are some Sunday driver big soft tanks like this over here $10 + per gallon gas makes them expensive to feed, but those people who have gone to the eye watering expense of importing and compiying such cars find a way to drive them.
Say what you will about these, but one never forgets his first car or first love.
The one pictured below was not mine, but it totally could have been. The pictured LTD is an LTD Brougham, where as mine was just an LTD. Mine also had the base LTD/Galaxie wheel covers, the plain stamped “FORD – FORD – FORD” ones that JPC doesn’t like. Otherwise, it’s a dead ringer, right down to the colors.
Back in the day, these were very popular. I can’t recall the comedian who said this, but he said, “What does LTD stand for? Limited? It can’t be that. What the heck? Didn’t Ford make like a million of these things?” – or something along these lines.
It was a very comfortable and quiet highway cruiser. Its base smog choked 351-2V Windsor engine was very much underpowered, but it got the job done, reliably.
And rust? Ok… I’ll believe that simply because these did not survive in great numbers on the overly salted roads here in Maryland, but although this is anecdotal evidence at best, that never happened to my ’73 LTD. But then again, I have this magical stuff called “car soap”, and with a rag and bucket, and oh yeah, water to rinse it off, this was never a problem for my LTD. Mine looked great until my sister got ahold of it in the eighties and totaled it. 😢
That was Jerry Sienfeld who did that bit on car names. It was pretty funny.
Car names are so stupid, aren’t they? No baron has ever owned a LeBaron. Or the Ford LTD. LTD — Limited; it’s a limited edition. What do they make, 50 million of those? Yes, it’s limited to the number we can sell. Or when they try and mangle a positive word into a car name. You know how they’ll do that? The Integra. Oh, integrity? No. Integra. The Supra or the Impreza. Yeah, well, I hope it’s not a “lemona,” huh? Or you’ll be hearing from my “lawya.”
Despite all their faults, huge size and inefficiency, the big three’s big cars were generally decent cars for their times, and certainly far better than their efforts on compacts. You were lucky with your Ford if rust didn’t get to it. The late 60s to late 70s Fords were horrendous rusters, to the point here in Canada that I recall our used car guides saying the LTD was as good as the Chevrolet but don’t buy due to severe rust issues. There were secret warranty and lawsuits that resulted. Paul also wrote an article.on Ford’s rust issues from this era.
Rather than ornate decorative trim pieces, they should have integrated harmonica holders into the headlight doors.
The right car at the right time.
Approximately 7,850,000 full-size Fords and Mercurys were sold over 1968–1978. This makes it the second best selling Ford automobile platform after the Ford Model T.
Wikipedia
This owner appears to be missing out on the full experience – the hood ornament is missing. Also, the side trim on this one looks like it was originally one of the cars equipped with fender skirts. I can’t say as I blame the owner for taking them off of this one – Ford offered skirts but never removed the lip over the rear wheel opening that announced the skirts as afterthoughts. Cars like the Marquis and the big Chryslers mounted skirts flush with the rest of the quarter panels and skirts looked much better on them.
My experience was that after maybe 1973-74, the worst of Ford’s rust problems were behind it. The 75-78 cars didn’t seem to rust any worse than anything else in that size class. And I will echo some comments above that Ford’s fit/finish and interior materials quality was better by quite a bit than what Chevrolet was offering, especially in 1975-76. That said, I still don’t love these.
In 1988 I inherited a ’78 LTD from my father, and it was rust free until I got rid of it despite being a daily driven suburban Chicagoland car which also had made repeated cross country trips to Colorado and points further west. As far as its handling went, it was not noticeably different than the ’78 Caprice which I also had inherited and switched off driving day by day. In addition, I had inherited a ’74 Country Squire wagon in ’82, and as I have addressed on this site before, that car was equal to almost any task, and it too handled just fine. From the early fifties throughout his death in the early 2K’s my father kept both a full size Ford and Chevy year in and year out, and the greatest difference in handling either of us noted (with both brands) was that which came about with the brand of tires installed. And yes, I never babied any of them. The biggest difference which we experience with any of the sixties or seventies models (Ford or Chevy) was how much easier the Chevrolets started than the Fords regardless of the season of the year.
My aunts friend had a (new then) “75”, one of these. I remember her showing up in it at “Burke Lake Park” in VA.
To my “mid teenage, eyes”; it was soo impressive.
As I recall, was sliver, blue half top, blue inside. Thinking the wheel covers may have been blue in the centers. Too long ago to recall.
I know they still had it in “1980ish”.
They had a carport but not an actual garage I believe. H’mm.
For some reason I’d forgotten that when I worked as a transporter for Hertz in ’77 and ’78 I never got a chance to drive one of these…they weren’t part of our location’s fleet, the LTD II and Thunderbird were common rentals instead. Also never drove a Maverick for them. But at home my parents had a ’73 Country Sedan with the 400, so I did drive one outside of my job.
These were big comfortable cars, but after the ’73 fuel shortage, these became much less popular due to uncertainty with fuel. My Mother drove ours most weekdays, but my Dad wanted her to also be able to drive his car which had been a small import with a manual, but starting in ’74 he bought his as automatic, so Mom could drive it (she was never comfortable driving manual despite learning to drive on a semi-automatic Chrysler).
We had a ’69 Squire before that, with the 351. The ’73 was lower trim but had more options including our first power locks, air conditioning, and AM/FM stereo.
I used to take these for granted, but now that they’ve pretty much disappeared, and also I’ve aged to the point where I appreciate a nice riding car with slightly higher seating, not as high as most trucks, I wish I could buy one of these new. Unfortunately wouldn’t want to take the chance buying a 50 year old one as my only car (I only keep one car at a time).