The Crown Victoria is ending production. After 32 years in production, the last Ford Crown Victoria rolled off the assembly line Thursday. It's a record that surpasses all other North American vehicles, including the Model T. Its final destination, however, isn't a museum in Detroit or a American collector. It's being sent to Saudi Arabia. The factory in Ontario that's been building America's favorite cop car and taxicab will close, likely putting 1,200 people out of work. The 44-year-old plant, in Ontario, made Ford Mavericks and Pintos in its early days. It will be the 27th plant Ford has closed since the recession began. The Crown Victoria was a big rear-wheel drive sedan that shared its platform with another almost-bygone staple of city streets, the Lincoln Town Car. "The Crown Victoria is certainly in its construction a very traditional vehicle," said Casey of the Henry Ford Museum. "One of the defining characteristics of Crown Victorias was they were all body-on-frames, as opposed to the unibodies they were using on the Taurses and the Five Hundred and the revived Taurus." With unibody construction, he said, "once the cars were completed, you couldn't unbolt the body and take it off, as you could on a Crown Vic." Crown Victoria's will continue to be manufactured in Australia and also be used by Japanese police forces.
