Junkyard Find: 1973 Ford LTD

Every time I see a junked Ford LTD of this era, I recall my early-childhood memories of my grandfather's '69 LTD hardtop. My parents had a '67 Ford Custom and a '49 Cadillac sedan at the time, and I thought Grandpa's super-clean LTD was the most luxurious transportation imaginable. Nowadays, of course, most big Fords of the 1965-75 period that one encounters are total hoopties… but even a junked Early Malaise Era LTD still retains a bit of its original class. You know, the '73 LTD really was a better deal than the '73 Jaguar XJ6! Lowriders, hot-rodders, and ironic rockabilly hipsters don't care for big Fords. They suck alarming quantities of gas, so it's hard to justify one as a cheap beater. Mostly, these cars just get used up, then sit in a forgotten driveway for decades before getting crushed. These cars were very comfortable, and held together reasonably well (as long as you didn't mind electrical problems and lots of front-suspension looseness after 50,000 or so miles). This one boasts the shockingly heavy but torque-centric 429 engine. Real-world highway fuel economy was probably just barely into the double digits, which became an issue not long after this car was sold. Look, it's one of the infamous Park-To-Reverse Settlement stickers! from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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