I wonder if the Falcon platform could be stretched lengthwise to accommodate the Crown Vic's size. Interestingly, GM is also reportedly looking to it's Aussie unit (Holden) for development of an affordable RWD platform.
The Crown Vic, Grand Marquis, and Town Car certainly have a big hold on the fleet market (police, taxis, limos, etc). The fact that the platform is old enough to have paid for development costs long ago only allows Ford to further focus on that market. Still, as runuts pointed out, Chrysler could give them a run for the money there with the new Magnum and 300. I also think that Ford believes they're going to have to do SOMETHING some day.
On the private consumer side, the buyer group for these cars is, admittedly, old. Ford faces having their consumers eventually, well.... die, for lack of a better word. The question is, do they go after the private side with a new model aimed at somewhat younger buyers or do they stick to fleet? Or maybe a mix of the two. If they go after the private buyers, the have to come with a product different than the new 500 and Fusion sedans yet it must be very competitive. If they go after the fleet, it has to be cheap to build (as police officers don't exactly NEED loads of leather and wood) and tough. To do a mix of both would be pretty hard, I'd imagine.
Ford's in a bit of a jam. It'd be best to just leave things the way they are, but they know they can't ride that horse forever. Good luck to them, whatever they decide to do.
Mike Cervantes
AutomotiveArticles.com Editor-in-Chief