This is a rather long set of comments, so please skip if you don't wish to read these few paragraphs! ---Regarding towing with the 2007 Lincoln Town Car I would like to add a few comments. I myself am about to set up my 2007 Town Car to have the capability to tow 5000 lbs. I have heard in a number of forums by "experts" (I put this in quotes to indicate that they are often actually not experts and commenting with little understanding regarding the topic at hand. This reminds me of the "experts' from the CDC (and other organizations) and their poor handling and mixed up advice during the Covid-19 era over the last couple of years. Again and again the experts got it wrong. In the same way there appears to be a lack of understanding about the Panther platform regarding towing. I am no expert, but I have some experience regarding the Town Car in the recent past & if you would like to educate me then go at it, after reading my comments.
The Class III 5000 lb trailer tow option was available on the Town car and the Ford Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis in the 1970s, 1980s, and the 1990s up through the 1996 model year. I know this partly because I ordered four of these options (one in the 1970s, two in the 1980s, and one from the 1990s, from the factory on new vehicles, back in the day. The last one I ordered was for a 1993 model. I have the Window Sticker. The option on the sticker was labeled "Trailer Tow III" on the sticker, and cost $417.
For the 1997 model year Ford bean counters, accountants, and product planners canceled the option. This is not an axiomatic put down of bean counters although they are often seen as evil inside a company and with some verification when the cost cutting does away with features or benefits that were useful. One reason to eliminate an option was because so few people were ordering it. As far as I recall, every time I went in to order a Lincoln Town Car with the Class III trailer tow package the salesmen seemed confused and appeared to have no idea that it was even available until I had them look it up in their dealer order book! In fact to this day the issue of incredibly inept, poorly educated salesmen is an endemic nature of modern dealerships and pointing it out to the manager or owner as I once did got a collective yawn while saying something like this: "salesmanship is about personality, son! Nobody asks about them there features you're talking about!" This was astonishing to me as a young fella yet ignorance of the product that was being sold was over the place at least in the former Big Three dealerships that I visited in the 1980s & 1990s & early 2000s. They found enthusiasm about their own product to be rather bizarre (unless it resulted in a sale, and even then it was a muted and boring quality to the average salesman). --Maybe that is partly why I haven't bought a new car in decades!
Going further on this topic of massive ignorance about the Class III Tow Package, & general indifference about their own products' features and benefits, I have a question for anyone out there: --Did you ever see Ford advertise this capability on their Panther cars? Was it ever mentioned even in the back of the new car brochure? Did you ever see an ad with the happy man towing a sizable trailer with his Ford Crown Victoria, and the headline: "It's Not Just the Trucks that can Tow!!"? It seems that Ford's main reason for keeping this tow package was to compete with the competition---and not to beat them!
--As most of you know, Ford's main competition for large rear-wheel drive 4-door sedans in 1996 was GM with their
Buick Roadmaster, Chevrolet Impala, and
Cadillac Fleetwood models that had towing packages as well, including one on the
Cadillac for 7000 lbs!! As many of you may recall, those vehicles, along with their heavy duty tow packages, were eliminated for the 1997 model year & Ford knew about it & instead of doubling down on their competition & pushing the tow package with some advertising & some dealer training at precisely the moment when their competition eliminated the package, Ford instead, decided to kill the package themselves even though their Panther platform was fully capable of handling 5000 pound towing (and likely more), and all of the equipment to do it was already in the system!
The Ford Trailer Tow III option had a number of features on it, that, as you might imagine, helped ensure that the vehicle would not overheat and would include various other sturdier & more capable components: I recall once when I ordered one of these packages it had 13 separate items listed, including, a heavy duty flasher, a wiring harness placed in the trunk to be installed by the owner to connect to the trailer, a separate little power steering fluid cooler, a separate transmission fluid cooler (besides the one inside the engine cooling radiator), a heavy duty battery, etc etc all designed to give the vehicle greater ability to handle the stresses of towing 5000 lbs.
On my 2007 Town Car, which already has more capable brakes than were available in the last year of the tow package (1996), and more horsepower (239 hp) than my 1993 model (which had 210 with the dual exhaust), and a stronger rear axle (31 spline instead of 28 spline from 2005 on), & a slightly better shifting a/t, I plan to add the following features:
- A separate large transmission fluid cooler (bigger than the one they ever put on the vehicle from the factory & which will bypass the cooler in the radiator;
- New Brake rotors & pads
- New tires. I plan to use P235/60 TR or similar (Standard was 225/60 R) unless some of you have a superior suggestion.
- New heavy duty universal joints (probably solid since I am not driving much these days and the solid ones are stronger I believe, for the price, than the ones that are hollowed out more to provide ways for the lubricant to be dispersed (unless you buy super duty racing parts, etc.) --Please educate me on this if I am off base; a 5000 lb tow hitch.
- A power steering fluid cooler (especially since the 2007 models had some concerns from EPA interference with mpg ratings, convincing Ford to weaken the power steering pump a little & then change it back to the 2006 standards for 2008 model year!).
- I already placed police springs & police shocks in my 1996 model so I thought I would instead try the heavy duty (for limousine use) rear air bag springs, as I imagine they will be up to the task & handle the tongue weight of a well balanced trailer.
- Police shocks at all four corners (KYB from Japan is what I used on the 1996 Town Car)
- Of course I have already changed all the fluids in the car including the power steering fluid (as I did with my 1996 model), engine coolant, brake fluid flushed, engine oil (using Walmart synthetic but using 5W-30 not the 5W-20 Ford recommends. --As most of you know, Ford altered the oil specifications to 5W-20 to help the vehicle get better gas mileage, which in my mind, is ridiculous & yet another example of the Green Insanity affecting automotive design especially since this nation is overloaded with oil & natural gas reserves. Although I don’t think 5W20 is harmful, I myself tow almost exclusively in the hotter Summer months, & thus I believe 15W30 will serve me a little better), etc., ---and all filters changed including the fuel filter. Since the vehicle is only going to tow about 4500 pounds a total of about 4 times a year (30 miles a trip x four trips =120 miles) on mainly flat ground and at speeds of 50 mph or less, and at temperatures almost always below 100 F (I am in Michigan), this should be sufficient to protect the vehicle. Now I am aware that these upgrades will not include the stiffer (numerically higher) 3.27 rear axle gear, however this is not of great concern as I am not traveling on hilly or mountainous terrain, and I am aware of shutting off the OD (overdrive) feature whenever there is a hint of hunting between 3rd & fourth gear. Since my trailer does not have a huge number of lights (as on some trailer homes), I will not have much concern over the need for a heavy duty flasher for turn signals, etc. If any of you men who have more experience than me wish to educate me, please feel free to do so, and I will take note!
