2003 MERCURY GRAND MARQUIS

Our daily driver is presently a silver 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis purchased from an elderly lady with 81,000 miles for only $2,750 in December, 2013.















Hopefully, this car will serve us much longer. We both love it!


An unplanned interruption...





At an All-Way Stop intersection, a teenage girl barreled into the intersection without stopping. She saw our car and drove into the opposing traffic lane trying to avoid it. She struck the end of our car's bumper driving it over a foot to the right and peeling the plastic skin off  (no frontal impact whatsoever!). The rest of the car was undamaged except for the tip of the left fender and edge of the hood. Our airbags were not deployed but fortunately no one was injured. My wife was driving and had nearly stopped when the car hit her or damage would have been considerably worse. After striking our car, the other car was rapidly approaching a railroad track and the driver tried to correct the car. It was still traveling fast, however, and flipped over on its side.

At least three police cruisers and an ambulance crew arrived on the scene and I also arrived within 15 minutes. Although both drivers claimed to have stopped before entering the intersection, a police officer filled out the accident report saying that my wife caused the accident because the other car was damaged on the side and ours was damaged on the front. I will let others be the judge after looking at these photos, but our insurer, "Selective" said that it accepted the police report. We can expect no remuneration for damages. We could hire a lawyer, but that would cost more than what the repairs cost. Except for paint, our car is repaired and performing great!


I bought a high-mileage 2007 Grand Marquis for $1500 to serve as a donor car. After selling other unneeded parts and scrapping the rest, the cost of repairs were minimal.





A friendly neighbor welded the bumper support to the frame for us.




Except for the lights, the 2003 and 2007 Grand Marquis are almost identical

Less than a week after repairs were completed, I hit a deer! This time, I bought all new parts (headlights, turning and marker lights, grille, grille surround and bumper) at Amazon for about $550. Work in progress!