2009 Lincoln Town Car

large luxury car / 4-door sedan

2009 Lincoln Town Car 4-door sedan
2003 Lincoln Town Car shown

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 2003-11 models built after May 2003

Tested vehicle: 2003 Lincoln Town Car Premium Signature 4-door

The Lincoln Town Car, Ford Crown Victoria, and Mercury Grand Marquis were re-engineered for the 2003 model year. Beginning with 2008 models, the Ford Crown Victoria was sold when new only to fleets. The Mercury Grand Marquis was discontinued after the 2010 model year.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has evaluated the crashworthiness of a 2003 Town Car in two 40 mph frontal offset crash tests into deformable barriers. In the first test, a high acceleration occurred when the dummy's head rebounded against the B-pillar, indicating a possibility of head injury. This led Lincoln to modify the frontal airbag deployment characteristics on models produced after May 2003 (note: information about when a specific vehicle was manufactured is on the certification label typically affixed to the car on or near the driver door).

The Institute tested a second Town Car with the modified airbags, and all head injury measures were low. Ratings of the Town Car listed here are from the second test.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics
Dummy movement was reasonably well controlled in the second test. During rebound, the top of the head hit the roof rail and adjacent window frame between the A- and B-pillars. As in the first test, the driver's seat tipped toward the door.

Action shot taken during the second of two frontal offset crash tests.

The dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after both crash tests indicates that the driver's survival space was maintained well (second test shown).

Smeared red greasepaint indicates where the dummy's head hit the B-pillar during rebound in the first test, producing a high head acceleration.

Forces on the lower left leg were high enough to indicate the possibility of injury in both tests (second test shown).

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CEF0313
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 10
Left (cm) 12
Center (cm) 14
Right (cm) 11
Brake pedal (cm) 6
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 5
Right (cm) 5
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 3
Rearward (cm) 3
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 7

Driver injury measures

Test ID CEF0313
Head
HIC-15 265
Peak gs at hard contact 15
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.5
Extension bending moment (Nm) 10
Maximum Nij 0.26
Chest maximum compression (mm) 36
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 7.5
Femur force - right (kN) 2.6
Knee displacement - left (mm) 13
Knee displacement - right (mm) 0
Maximum tibia index - left 0.97
Maximum tibia index - right 0.34
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 4.2
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 2.4
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 87
Right 60

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted