In Los Angeles, the Lincoln Town Car has been the choice of most livery services. It's one of the last American large luxury cars with a large trunk, roomy back seat and resilient rear drive. Lincoln sold 47,122 of these outdated barges in 2005 and sales in 2006 are down 5.7%. About 59% of sales are to fleet buyers -- mostly for around town and airport livery services. Retail sales are down by 21% through May 2006.

The average age of a Town Car retail buyer is a whopping 69. That's nothing to brag about when you think that your average buyer may not be around in a few years to buy a new copy of the same thing! And as each generation ages, the Town Car, seemingly frozen in time, won't likely appeal to buyers who were brought up on a steady diet of foreign cars.

I found another scary fact about the current Lincoln Town Car. It shares the same sturdy rear drive platform -- internal designation "Panther" -- with the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Marquis. It turns out that the origins of Panther are practically prehistoric, dating back to 1979. The Town Car is assembled in Ford's Wixom, Michigan plant scheduled to be closed in the second quarter of 2007. That's less than one year away.

The Crown Vicky and Marquis are assembled in Ford's Ontario, Canada plant; however even though Town Car production could be moved to there, Ford has informed the Canadian Auto Workers union that the Lincoln Town Car won't be moved there. The collective wisdom is that the Town Car will be allowed to die in 2007.

Ford doesn't have any plans to build another rear drive town car. It's likely that Ford will use the same platform as the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego, to produce the Lincoln MkS that was a show car at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. It would be a new "flagship" for Lincoln.

However, as appealing is the MkS looks in show trim, it may not look that nice in production trim. The production Zephyr was a disappointment for me when the interior trim and switchgear fell below the level of the show version.

The Lincoln MkS/Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego all use the Volvo XC90 platform which is primarily a front drive layout but can be all-wheel drive. Neither the Five Hundred nor Montego offer a V8 engine. However, the Volvo XC90 now has the option of the Yamaha 331 hp 4.4 liter V8. It's likely that the MkS would get the V8 and all wheel drive to distinguish it from its sisters.

There is something about the way Ford presented the MkS that disturbs me. Ford talks about "Luxury Interior Innovations" and that its research shows that younger luxury buyers (can you hear the wishing all the way from Detroit?) are more tech savvy than ever before and that they love iPods. Did Ford really need to do research to figure this out? Below are two pages from Ford's press kit highlighting Lincoln's new spirit of "innovation".

The list of features is good -- not great. It's hardly innovative. What Ford should do is qualify what it means by saying that all this is "innovative for Lincoln". Features such as Bluetooth, touch screen controls and navigation, heated and cooled seats and a plug in for an MP3 player like Apple's iPod are hardly cutting edge luxury technology. And how about a "multi-function key fob" front or all-wheel drive and a six-speed automatic transmission? Wow. These are standard or optional on many Japanese and German luxury cars today. Lincoln is only a full generation late in offering these features.

It's safe to say that the MkS isn't exactly what the livery market is looking for. It's not big enough or powerful enough for the daily torture of livery. And while Ford management may decide to continue the Town Car past next June, the chances are very low as the cost of retooling another plant to build the ancient Town Car is slim in these days when Ford is bleeding cash and market share.

So say good bye to the Lincoln Town Car.

You know, when you have a nameplate that has become synonymous with a limousine, I think it's a shame to let it fade into oblivion. But the old girl turns 38 next year -- in dog years that's 266 and in car years, that's eight generations. If Ford can't come up with a replacement then maybe it's time to pull the plug. Sometimes letting go of an old friend is hard, but it's the right thing to do.

The competition is the Cadillac DTS. Average age of a DTS buyer is 68, despite its "all new" look for 2006. Two decades ago, when the collective brain trust at GM decided to make all Cadillac's front drive, GM as much as ceded the livery market to Ford. Even today, although Cadillac did a 180 and went back to rear drive, the only Caddy big enough for livery service is the DTS and the DTS is the one and only front drive Cadillac!

Just as GM handed the livery market to Ford, Ford is now passing the torch to Chrysler. About the same time next year that the Town Car's head stone is laid, Chrysler will introduce its long wheel base 300. Chrysler believes that 70% of the 300 LWB will be livery customers. So Chrysler sees adding an extra 30,000 to 40,000 unit sales for its flagship sedan while Ford cuts its highest total volume Lincoln from its stable.

And If Ford wants to lose the law enforcement fleet market too, that should be easy. Chrysler has already shown police versions of its Dodge Charger sedan and Magnum R/T wagon to several municipalities and sales have begun.

Of course, Ford might bring a new rear drive Town Car back to market in a few years. Like GM with its Zeta rear drive platform coming from its Holden subsidiary in Australia, Ford might find a way to use the rear drive platform from its Ford Australia subsidiary. Ford AU is developing a new (left drive as well as right drive) Orion platform for its workhorse and sales leader Falcon. Yes, that name from the past is alive and well in Oz. The big question seems to be how Ford could make the platform here cheap enough to use in a Town Car or as a replacement for law enforcement cars, the Crown Victoria and Montego.

I don't know why this is such an obstacle for Ford. After all, Ford's last rear drive platform, the one used in the Lincoln LS (may it rest in peace) and the Jaguar S-type sedan (soon to be replaced), still lives on in the new Mustang, albeit in a much decontented form. It's a pity that the upcoming Mustang Shelby Cobra won't get the full independent rear suspension from the LS. Ford should do something with it since the engineering costs have been written off long ago and it would make the Mustang a much better car.

So what is the future of livery vehicles?

One local company has already found an alternative to the Lincoln Town Car. A few months ago, CLS Transportation began using a fleet of black Audi A8L sedans in Los Angeles. I don't know if CLS is running this fleet in partnership with Audi or if it's only in LA, but if I had a choice of riding in the back seat of a Lincoln Town Car or an Audi A8L -- I'd take the Audi any day of the week. A quick check of the company's crappy website didn't reveal any details as the site is "under construction". The A8 livery concept goes over rather well in the LA market and I see them all the time. But of course, we all know that an A8 is way too expensive to be the bread and butter workhorse needed for livery fleets.

The future of livery vehicles seems to rest with Chrysler until such time as Ford and GM can afford to build a large, reasonably-priced rear drive sedan. The Lincoln Town Car fleet will remain in service until they fall apart of become so shabby it would be embarrassing to carry passengers. Oh yeah, that's already happened, so expect to see Town Cars for as long as the fleet mechanics can keep them running. As customers demand newer cars, expect to ride in the back of a stretch Chrysler 300C. And they will probably still call it a Town Car!