(first posted 05/23/2012) Here we have a rare bird, the Ford LTD II. You almost certainly remember its corporate sibling, the downsized 1977 Thunderbird. The LTD II was a victim of the T-Bird’s success, so much so that it is a largely forgotten car today.
While the 1977 Thunderbird and LTD II may have looked all new, they really weren’t. Under the skin, they were the 1976 Ford Elite and 1976 Gran Torino, respectively. Like its predecessors, the LTD II was all about a soft, Lincoln-like ride, at the expense of any sort of handling and roadholding.
Just like the Torino, a full lineup of vehicles was available in coupe, sedan and station wagon versions. As was the case with most American cars in the 1970s, the basic versions had relatively few creature comforts, but a long option list could correct that if you had the green.
The Thunderbird, which we’ll cover in a future CC, was available in a two door coupe only. It differentiated itself from LTD II coupes with hidden headlights, full-width tail lights, and a unique “basket handle” roofline with an inset opera window in between the front and rear quarter windows.
The entry-level LTD II was the S, which came in all three body styles. While they did feature a 302 V8, power steering, power front disc/rear drum brakes, and an automatic transmission as standard equipment, they were still rather plain.
All LTD II models got those stacked rectangular headlights, regardless of trim level. It appears that this new style originated with Chevrolet on the 1976 Malibu Classic and Monte Carlo. Then Ford got into it with the LTD II, and Chrysler with the mid-size Monaco and Fury in 1977. Finally, the 1978 Cordoba got them. Were there others?
Next up was the LTD II, which had more brightwork and a nicer interior. One of my earliest car memories is of my Mom’s parents’ jade green LTD II sedan, much like the one pictured above. It was triple green: paint, vinyl top and interior. I was extremely young at the time, but I liked that car. It may also be the reason my favorite color is green!
Station wagons were also available in all three series, but showed their Torino origins much more clearly than the coupes and sedans. Naturally, the wood-sided Squire was the top of the line LTD II wagon.
The wagons are also the rarest LTD IIs, as they were only made in 1977. 1978 models would be limited to coupes and sedans. All wagons got the 351 V8. It was optional on other LTD IIs, as was a 400 CID V8.
So, was there a Brougham? You bet there was a Brougham! The top of the line model, Broughams were available in two door or four door versions. You had your choice of a canopy, landau or full vinyl roof, depending on the body style.
While the coupe was rather attractive in your author’s opinion, it never had a chance against the Thunderbird, which outsold it many times over. Actually, the 1977 T-Bird outsold the entire nine-model LTD II line by a comfortable margin. The lower price of 1977 T-Birds vs. 1976 T-Birds and the snob appeal of the Thunderbird name were major factors. Despite this, LTD IIs sold pretty good in their first year, selling 40,000 more units than the 1976 Torino line.
Naturally, the Broughams had the nicest interiors. In addition to the cloth shown here, it was also available in vinyl. Bucket seats and a console with floor shift were optional on coupes. The instrument panel was nearly identical to the Thunderbird’s.
While the LTD II may have looked good to Ford product planning when it was being designed in 1974-75, by the time it came out in 1977, it was nearly a dinosaur. The all-new ’77 full size GM B-bodies were smaller, better handling and roomier than the LTD II, while the 1977 Malibu, its primary competition, was in its last year in a similar size.
The 1978 Malibus – and Ford’s own 1978 Fairmont – would make the LTD II look like an antique. True, Chrysler was in the same boat with its midsize Fury and Monaco lines, but at least they had the mid-size police market. Ford didn’t.
LTD II sales steadily went downhill in 1978-79, with its 1972 Torino underpinnings becoming ever more apparent. After the all-new Panther platform ’79 LTD debuted, LTD II sales got even worse, as the fresh, modern LTD and Fairmont caught most Ford fanciers’ attention in the showroom.
Ford tried to keep things interesting with its Sport Touring and Sport Appearance packages (seen upper right and lower right in the photo above), but it just wasn’t enough, and the plug was pulled early in the 1979 model year with less than 50,000 made that year.
I was prompted to write all this after one of our frequent readers, chrisgreencar, shot this very nice Brougham coupe recently and posted it to the Cohort. I have not seen an LTD II in at least a dozen years (excluding the LTD II-based Ranchero) and seeing it brought back a lot of memories. Too bad about Ford’s timing. I wonder how it would have done if it had come out in 1975?
Wasn’t the jingle, “Isn’t it you in that LTD II ??? You’ll never know till you try”
Try what? Try getting financed in 1977 while working at the Vinegar plant?
Always found these to be handsome cars. They were just overshadowed by their sexier Thunderbird siblings. Think of it this way; the T-Bird was Loni Anderson, the LTD II was the Bailey chick. (See, I can’t even recall her REAL NAME!) I always liked these in the Brougham & the Sports Decor package. There were endless color schemes to choose. BTW, how many people recall that Michael Landon’s co-star, Victor French, drove one of these on the ’80’s show ‘Highway to Heaven?’ His was the more plain-Jane 4 door with no vynil top or opera window. It was light gray with dark blue interior. It had a dent in the fender & one hubcap missing. Come to think of it, the car was perfect for Victor French’s character; kind of scruffy & unpretentious, but likeable! No wonder the angel liked riding in it; it was perfectly innocuous transportation to carry out his mission on Earth.
I always liked the looks of these LTD IIs, up here in Wisconsin there seem to be a surprising amount of these left. I always wanted to take a 77 LTD II woody wagon and put a T-bird nose on it. I remember we also had LTD IIs for Police cars in my town.
My brother owned a dealer demo ’79 LTD II coupe…medium blue with dark blue landau top and blue buckets/console interior. He let my parents use it for long trips because it had more more room than their ’80 Grand Prix (not to mention air conditioning). Unfortunately, in a case of life imitating art, in the summer of 1983 they took my sister to law school in St. Louis–and just like the Griswolds, someone there stole the wire wheel covers off it (while in the hotel parking lot)
Fascinating part of Ford’s history, especially with Iacocca loading the cars down with glitz. (He knew what the people wanted.) I wonder if the 1977 LTD II was conceived as that to begin with, or did the developers originally think that they were simply working on a 1977 Torino reskin? But as the launch neared, and with Ford getting caught with its pants down after the fuel crisis, the survival instinct kicks in: ‘What can we do to downsize?’ Or at least, ‘What can we do to look like we are downsizing?’ Answer in the immediate term: downgrade the nameplates and trade on snob value (which is, as you say, what they did with the 1977 Thunderbird—it also helped that they cut the price), at least till Ford could build more cars off the Fox platform and get the Panther, Erika and Topaz up and running.
Like you, I always found these two Torino-based, body-on-frame lines very interesting, and an insight into how Dearborn got the most out of each investment. Even in Europe and Australia, Ford was marketing more on style rather than substance (vinyl roofs, Ghia badges) during these smog-era years, but, for the most part, it worked, and Iacocca buggered off to Chrysler looking like a product guru.
Here is my 77t-bird.
Here is my 1978 Brougham LTD II . Every things still good shape and 99% original and original paint. . run great. I have to repaint next week to original color light yellow with flat black . 122k miles on it. still awesome , I love to drive around town after work everyday.
Until today still run smooth wiith original motor and every parts are 99% original. if you interesting share ideas pls hola me. im from North Carlina , USA.
Next week going to repaint it. Make her look pretty with original light yellow.
Another pic
I’ve always lothed the Ford’s front styling on these cars, and the stacked headlights just make me scream! It’s like they sat in their pleather seats in a ugly plaid boardroom in Dearborn and took a 10 minute meeting about the frontal styling of the LTD 2 and cougar. “Let’s make the Ford’s headlights vertical and the Mercury’s horizontal, poof, you can’t tell them apart”, OK now let’s go to lunch! I mean the mid 70s were the low point for most of the automotive industry, but Ford was gasping for air with its ” road hugging weight” ads.
My grandmother owned a 1978 Cougar Brougham sedan and a 1981 Ford Fairmont, my uncle a 1979 Cougar XR-7 and a 1981 Datsun 210. My grandfather owned a 1978 Marquis brougham coupe and a 1980 Datsun 210. Since my uncle never flew the coop, all of these cars were either in the garage or driveway at one time in the early 80s. The Fairmont and Datsuns were good cars, all 4 cylinders. Rust claimed the 80 210, and my uncle kept the 81 210 I think until 2000! I think it had less than 30k on it when he traded it on a Toyota echo. The 78 Cougar sedan, I believe a 351 and the 79 XR-7 302 where outdated bardges when new, and didn’t age well. I don’t remember them being bad cars, they just weren’t “great” cars. At least the Cougar hood ornament was attractive.
This is the first family car I can remember us having. I know we had a 1969 Nova before it, but I have no memories of it aside from old pictures. Think we got it in 1980 – my dad worked in the fleet business and bought one of their fleet LTD IIs as our family car. Being a fleet car, it was as no frills as it got – AM only radio, manual locks and windows, cheapo vinyl bench seats, not even the vinyl roof. Kelly green inside and out. Even as a little kid, it just looked and felt so low rent. My dad’s best friend called it “the green slime”. It was so bad that I remember being absolutely thrilled when they finally replaced it in 1986 with a new Caravan – imagine that, a minivan being a step up in coolness!
Grosse Pointe Baroque.
There was plenty of competition, but I’d say these cars (including the T-Bird) take the prize for the most clownish cars of the 1970s. The first Torino in 1968 had a length of 201 inches and weighed a little over 3,000 pounds, less than most of today’s mid-sized cars. By 1976, the Torino, pushed no doubt by crash and bumper regulations, had ballooned out to 217 inches, while the wheelbase had only grown 2 inches. But that still wasn’t quite enough for Ford, so the 4,200 pound 1977 LTD II took a majestic 219.5 inches on the road, while awkwardly perched on a 118 inch wheelbase (nearly a foot of which was still under the hood). Even then, it was hard to look at that car without wondering what was inside that enormous nose and what that giant battering ram of a front bumper was doing to the car’s handling, sitting in the worst possible place for added weight. Ford’s mid-1970s penchant for confused, interrupted, pig-and-a-poke roof lines just added a little comic relief to this parade float of a car. What’s really amazing is how well the zoot suit approach worked with the T-Bird; nearly a third of a million buyers, for 3 years in a row, really thought they were getting a lot of car for the money, at least until they noticed how much of it was filled with air.
Say what you want, but I like my 79 T-Bird and find it attractively styled. As for the LTD II’s, nope, hate the front ends. On that we’ll agree.
Even when they came out, I never understood these cars. They were huge on the outside yet cramped on the inside.
This summer I’ve been driving around in both a 1978 DeVille and a 1979 Lincoln Mk V. The Cadillac has loads of room inside and has a very good driver’s seat. The Lincoln is ten inches longer and still feels cramped with the front seat all the way back.
The Cadillac is a better car in every way except for the brakes. The reasoning behind the huge Ford cars is still beyond me.
Too cramped on the inside but in the daytime you could put two extra passengers on the front bumper in front of the headlights. If the police didn’t spot you!
This has been the Cars Of Barnaby Jones Tribute Hour.
Be badass like Barnaby. See your local Ford dealer.
At the Sign Of The Meh.
As I’ve said before, count on Ford for the best (that is, worst) in broughams.
Take a gander at that front overhang, then tack on a 5-mph bumper!
The worst part? This was designed entirely after 5 MPH bumpers became mandatory. They could’ve made it look somewhat continguous.
OK, I can’t figure this out…the 7th picture down, the station wagon. The inset on the left shows the back door open, and you can see it has woodgrain paneling on it. The longer picture to the right shows the wagon without any woodgrain! Judging by the clothing on the people and the location, it was the same photo shoot…is it possible the car was a ‘mule’ with the woodgrain on the passenger side only? Or did they have two wagons, and if so, why the same light blue?
When the Panther Platform based Ford LTD was downsized for 1979, their new size were a bit shorter than the Gran Torino based Ford LTD II depending upon the body style, the coupes were only half a foot difference in length LTD coupe 209″ vs. LTD II 215″, LTD sedans 209″ vs. LTD II sedans 219″ and wagons 214″ LTD wagons vs. 225″ LTD II wagons. I have created a recently updated side by side comparisons between each available body styles for both the LTD vs. LTD II.
Now the Sedans.
Now the Wagons. I intentionally used matching color coordination on both models to show how they contrast with one another.
Other than the Wagons which I posted were 1979 for the LTD Wagon and 1977 for the LTD II Wagon, the coupes and sedans were roughly based from their 1979 model lineup availability back then.
164 responses before this one makes me wonder what is the record for responses. The LTD II must really hit a nerve or two.
I never understood the appeal of these cars. They are enormous floats without interior room. Sitting behind the wheel the driver saw a distant object on the horizon – the hood ornament. You couldn’t see behind you. The dash was at least five inches too high. All that weight being pulled by that suffocating engine. It road like a yacht.
Sheesh.
Working for Hertz the summers of ’77 and ’78, though I probably never drove the 2 door LTDII, the very first car I drove for them was an LTDII (a 4 door) which I took up to Dorval airport in Montreal (my home location was the airport in South Burlington, Vt.). Drove many of these, as I think they were the most popular rental from our location, as well as Thunderbirds (always got stopped at the border, as a 19 year old driving a new “flashy” Thunderbird, they always wanted to look in the trunk, which of course was always empty). Even rode in a 1977 Mercury Cougar wagon, as we usually went one-way with a spacious vehicle loaded with passengers that made its way around New England dropping off drivers as we got to the sites where the one-way rentals were left.
At the time, my parents had a ’73 Country Sedan, which was even larger, so the LTDII didn’t seem too out of the ordinary….my car was a ’74 Datsun 710 which of course was smaller; my Dad also had a ’76 Subaru DL which was smaller than my 710. Hertz was big on Fords at the time, I drove quite a few Granadas and in ’78 Fairmonts, but strangely no Mavericks and few Pintos. They did have other makes, remember AMC Pacer, Dodge Magnum, Pontiac Gran Prix, Toyota Corolla liftback (met a co-worker 6 years hence who had a 5 speed who didn’t know why it had a light shining down on the shift lever, told him it was to illuminate the automatic shift quadrant on the floor shift) and even a Datsun 510, which was the successor to my 710 (but with the NAPS-Z engine).
Had a good time working for Hertz those summers despite the meager pay which (by the trip) I’m sure ended up being less than minimum wage..hope they are able to come out of their troubles.
I purchased a 77 LTD 2 in 77.Owned it for 14 years.Bright red ,half white front vinyl roof ,bucket seats with gear shift on the floor.Loved the car.
Hello! Terry from Michigan.
Just sharing. 🙂
Was contemplating on selling this because I haven’t had the time and money to keep going keeping it up and prettying it up but I haven’t let it go yet.😁
I still have my Ford ltd2 and it’s still at a little over 56,000 original miles it just needs a paint job and a little more TLC on chrome and the interior when I can get time but, it rides great and hopefully this 2023 summer I can get more done finances allowing.✨🤩👌🏾
They should have maintained the 4 door and wagon versions (Both LTD II and Cougar), and continued production into 1980 on all three body styles into 1980, just as they did with the Granada / Monarch / Versailles models