Car of the Day:September 9, 2012

Today's car of the day is Racing Champions' 1999 Ford Crown Victoria.

Wikipedia.com The Ford Crown Victoria (or simply Crown Vic) is a rear-wheel drive full-size sedan marketed and manufactured from the 1992 to the 2012 model years over two generations. Discontinued in the 2012 model year, it had been in production since 1991 at Ford's St. Thomas Assembly plant in Talbotville, Ontario, Canada. The Crown Victoria shared the Ford Panther platform and major powertrain and suspension components with the Lincoln Town Car and Mercury Grand Marquis.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Crown_Victoria

This Service Master Clean promotional car was issued in 2005. I find this version to be interesting not only because of the Service Master Clean name, but also because this is the only time that I am aware of that this Racing Champions Crown Vic casting was ever issued in a non-police livery. The tail light tampos should have been better thought out, however; not only does this one have a Grand Marquis tail light and reflector configuration, but the Grand Marquis reflectors, between the lights and the license plate, are greatly over sized.

For the 1998 model year, the second (and final) generation of the Crown Victoria was introduced. Following the lack of acceptance of the radical styling of the 1991-1996 Chevrolet Caprice, the Crown Victoria moved further away from its 1992 redesign. Instead of borrowing design cues from the Taurus, the Crown Victoria shared many of its body parts, including its entire roofline, with the more popular Mercury Grand Marquis. To differentiate itself from Mercury, the Crown Victoria was given larger headlights, different bumpers, and a rectangular grille. The interior design saw little change aside from a new steering wheel.

ServiceMaster is a privately held Fortune 1000 company that provides various services to residences and firms. Its headquarters are located in Memphis, Tennessee after moving there from Downers Grove, Illinois in early 2007. Brands operated by ServiceMaster include: TruGreen, Terminix, American Home Shield, Furniture Medic, AmeriSpec, ServiceMaster Clean, and Merry Maids. It was incorporated in 1947 and expanded to franchised carpet cleaning in 1952. Its movement into business services makes it a large outsourcing company. The core services of the company include lawn care and landscape maintenance, termite and pest control, home service contracts, disaster response and reconstruction, cleaning and disaster restoration, house cleaning, furniture repair, and home inspection.