Ford Scrambles To Fill Void Left By Crown Victoria Sedan

Brad Brewer, a Vancouver Police Department sergeant, and Mohamed Zakout, a New York City taxi driver, get wistful when they talk about it.

“A lot of people were really freaked out by the Crown Vic going away,” said Brewer.

“This is a strong car,” said Zakout.

The last Ford Crown Victoria, the backbone of many police and taxi fleets for more than two decades, rolled off the assembly line in 2011. Now, Ford, facing the biggest challenge to its police and taxi dominance in decades, is bringing out an array of cars and sport-utility vehicles to keep those sales going.

“The Crown Victoria was a wonderful vehicle and it was difficult for us to see it have to go away,” Gerry Koss, marketing and product strategy manager for Ford’s North America fleet operations, said by telephone. “We started four years before the end date to work on creating these new products so that the industry would have something that was as good or better.”

The bulky Crown Vic sedan traces its roots to two-door, six-seater coupes in the 1950s. A redesign for the early 1990s took on the Chevrolet Caprice and was embraced so widely that its rival exited the market. The Ford became a fleet staple because it was tough, relatively inexpensive to maintain and roomy enough to accommodate police equipment and luggage.

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