Ford LTD II

The Ford LTD II was a short-lived model lasting only 3 model years, being produced from 1977-1979, and was a continuation of the 1972-1976 Torino platform. There wouldn't be many changes in those 3 years before being discontinued after 1979.

Here's a quick rundown:

1977-1979
The LTD II debuts as a restyled Torino, using the former Torino's chassis and running gear. The LTD II also shared the same platform as the concurrent downsized Thunderbird, which was repositioned to replace the Torino-based Elite to more directly compete with other personal-luxury coupes such as the Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Chrysler Cordoba. Bodystyles included the 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan and 5-door wagon, and trim levels were LTD II S, LTD II and the top-of-the-line LTD II Brougham. S-coupes did not have the 3rd C-pillar "opera" window. Drivetrain choices included the base 5.0L (302 cid) V8, with the 5.8L (351 cid) V8 and 6.6L (400 cid) V8 as options. A 3-speed automatic transmission was the sole transmission choice.

To put things in perspective, the LTD II was to the personal-luxury Thunderbird coupe what the Chevrolet Malibu was to the personal-luxury Monte Carlo coupe.

The wagon bodystyle was dropped in 1978, but the coupe and sedan continued as before. 1977 sales were pretty decent, but they fell off noticeably this year in the wake of GM's downsized mid-size entries (Chevrolet Malibu, Oldsmobile Cutlass, etc.). The coupes could now have an interesting sport-oriented Sport Touring or Sport Appearance package, which included styled road wheels, full instrumentation, buckets with console and floor shifter (a bench seat with column shift could be substituted), heavy-duty suspension and a blanked-off rear quarter window (like the S-coupes). The biggest difference between the two was the former's 2-tone paint treatment while the latter had solid paint with bodyside accent stripes.

Changes to the 1979 model were very slight - the biggest news was that the 400 V8 was dropped, leaving the 351 as the top engine choice. The base S model was dropped, leaving the LTD II and LTD II Brougham models. All else was pretty much the same. While the Thunderbird continued to rack up record sales, the LTD II, however, pretty much languished by comparison. The fact that Ford introduced an all-new downsized LTD this year made the LTD II look increasingly old-fashioned, which was surely another culprit for its low sales figure.

The Thunderbird would be redesigned (for better or worse) to the mid-size Fairmont-based Fox platform in 1980, but the LTD II would be dropped altogether after 1979 and would have no direct successor.

Competitors

 * AMC Matador
 * Buick Century
 * Chevrolet Malibu
 * Dodge Monaco
 * Oldsmobile Cutlass
 * Plymouth Fury
 * Pontiac LeMans