| The Ford LTD was a car model name that has been used by the Ford Motor Company both in North America and Australia.
The LTD designation is considered by some an abbreviation of "Luxury Trim Decor" and by others as a limited body style classification for the Galaxie. There is evidence that, at least in Australia, it originally stood for "Lincoln Type Design." The original "Car Life" review at the time the first LTD was released suggests that it stood for nothing and was just three meaningless letters (that article also noted it could not stand for "Limited" as Chrysler at the time already was using and had the copyright on that car name/designation). It was to be called the Galaxie LTD, in reference to the introduction of the Chevrolet Caprice and the similar Dodge Monaco and Polara. These upscale models had features found primarily on luxury models from these same manufacturers, but were sold with much lower retail prices. The standard upgrades on these cars were power windows, a power drivers seat, power brakes, power steering, air conditioning, a full or half-vinyl top (called a landau or brougham randomly across different models by the same manufacturers). Another list of upgrades were interiors made of better materials and more powerful engines. Most of these upper trim models were usually all hardtops as opposed to pillared bodies.
North America
A luxury range of large cars wore the LTD badge from 1965 to 1986 in the United States. The LTD name debuted as the highest trim level package on the Ford Galaxie 500, but became its own model in 1968. The Ford Galaxie name continued for the lower levels until 1974. From 1968 to 1970, the LTD shared its grille, trim pieces, and hidden headlights with the Galaxie XL sport coupe and the Country Squire station wagon. The hidden headlights were removed in 1971, making the grille and trim pieces the only difference in the body. In 1975, the LTD name took over completely, although the long-standing economy line, the Custom 500, remained available through 1978 for fleet sales only in the US and as a full model in Canada. From 1975 to 1978, an even more upmarket model with Lincoln-like hidden headlights and fender skirts was marketed as the LTD Landau. During this period, the model was also sold in Mexico.
In 1977, the name was split and used on two different cars. The full-size LTD continued, but a rebodied version of the Ford Torino was sold as the LTD II. Both offered coupe, sedan, and wagon body styles. This arrangement continued until the standard LTD was moved to the Ford Panther platform in 1979. An LTD Custom 500 model was available in Canada from 1979 to 1981.
In the early years of this body, two grille designs existed: a lower-line one with single square headlights, and a more premium design with dual headlights. The single-light design was most commonly seen on police cars, a market which this LTD and its successors came to dominate. In 1980, the top model became the Ford LTD Crown Victoria, easily identified by a targa-like chrome band across the roof, usually paired with a landau vinyl roof.
From 1983 to 1986, the LTD was split into two separate cars, with the full-size sedan becoming the LTD Crown Victoria and the LTD name placed on a mid-size car based on the Ford Fox platform. The smaller LTD continued in sedan and station wagon forms through 1986, overlapping slightly with the first model year of the Ford Taurus in 1986, the car that became its successor.
The smaller LTD was a very successful car, being the third-best selling car in the United States in 1983 and 1984.
1973-1978
The LTD was redesigned for 1973. While the new LTD weighed less than earlier models, it was still far in excess of two tons, meaning that agility and fuel economy were both weak points. The most economical engine available was the 302 in³ V8, but was too underpowered. The next largest engine was Ford's 351 in³ V8, which was the most common, if not most powerful choice. Still larger was Ford's 400 in³ V8, and topping the range was Lincoln's huge 460 in³ V8, which gave good power but got less than 10 mpg in city traffic; some examples were observed to be as thirsty as 6 or 7 mpg. In the case of at least some of the 400 models, this fuel economy problem has been traced to a fuel system and manifolds designed to run on methanol fuel, which was unsuitable for gasoline applications. In addition, these engines were choked by emissions systems, with the 400 engine producing large amounts of torque but a relatively poor maximum output of 192 hp.
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