426-Mile Ford Crown Victoria Unearthed in Texas May Soon Go to Auction

One of the nicest remaining Panther bodies emerges from the shadows.
Survivor 2006 Ford Crown Victoria. A full-size sedan in dark red from various angles.
Kevin Landon on Facebook, used with permission

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The Ford Crown Victoria is in a strange place as classic cars go. Its former ubiquity lends it widespread appreciation, but also means it has been treated as disposable. That means few great examples of this workhorse sedan are left, and the ones that are happen to be highly coveted among Panther platform-philes. And they’ll be clamoring to own this low-mileage 2006 Ford Crown Victoria survivor that will likely go up for sale on Facebook.

Posting in a Facebook group for low-mileage cars, Kevin Landon shared images of the dealership-fresh car along with the story of how it was preserved. Landon says the car was purchased new by his aunt, a longtime Ford gal who had started out driving Bronco IIs back in the 1980s. She migrated to the Explorer after the Bronco went on hiatus, then into her first of a trio of Panther bodies: a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis. She followed this up with a 2003 Crown Vic that she liked so much that she bought a brand-new 2006 model to replace it—except that car never really took to the road.

For reasons that aren’t clearly explained, Landon says his aunt continued to drive her ’03 Crown Vic until 2016. Instead of taking the ’06 out of the garage, as it had been kept registered through 2015, she switched to a Honda CR-V. This seems to have been her final car, as Landon indicates his aunt passed away this year, leaving her preserved Crown Vic to her family.

As it stands, the car is believed to have more or less sat for its entire life. Landon says Carfax records its original purchase in Louisiana in 2006, then a replacement battery in 2008. The next bullet in its service history was June 2015, when a Lincoln dealer in Texas noted 426 miles on the odometer. That’s the Ford’s most recent known mileage reading, as Landon has not yet responded to our inquiry as to its current mileage.

While Landon initially said the car wasn’t up for sale, he has updated his post in a way that suggests it’ll be sold. Its low mileage alone has many Panther body owners excited, and they’re pointing out details that indicate mileage isn’t all that’s unusual about this Ford. Some commenters remark on the apparent rarity of its body-color grille, console shifter, and LX Sport trim. Crown Vics may have once been cheap car icons, but this one certainly ain’t changing hands for pennies. Who knows, maybe it’ll set a Bring A Trailer record.

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