LTD – was it really limited?

The LTD was more than often one of Ford’s best-selling models, regularly outselling other lines many times over. The LTD nameplate was introduced in 1965 as part of the Galaxie 500 Series, replacing the Galaxie 500XL as the top-of-theline designation in Ford’s full-size series. Eventually, the LTD became a line in its own right in 1967, rather than just a derivative of the Galaxie 500.

During the Sixties, Ford famously ran a series of TV commercials comparing the noise levels inside an LTD with those inside a Rolls-Royce. The surprising winner? The LTD. However, in reality, it was perhaps not that surprising; Ford had spent millions of dollars on research into ‘NVH’ (noise, vibration and harshness) and this was the culmination of all those efforts to make Fords quieter and smoother. The LTD enjoyed a decade as one of America’s most popular full-size sedans (along with the Caprice) until downsizing for the 1979 model year.

Let’s not forget that Ford was the ‘wagon master’, and the station wagon version of the LTD, the Country Squire, was America’s best-selling wagon for much of the Sixties and Seventies. After that, a series of name changes, platform changes (such as to the somewhat utilitarian Panther platform) and changes in taste saw the LTD fade away from the Ford line-up. Ultimately, it was replaced by the much-loved Crown Vic, which until recently was only available to fleet buyers such as taxi firms and police departments.