The Ford Elite: A Luxury Car for a Low Performance Era
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 มิ.ย. 2024
- The mid 1970’s saw a shift in offerings from Ford. Luxury and options were touted as a reason to purchase a new vehicle and the car that started out as the Gran Torino Elite and became the Elite is perfect example of this shift of focus. In this video we cover the history and many of options.
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You didn't drive these cars, you sailed these land yachts around with one finger!!
Same with the 74-78 LTD/Grand Marquis.
I dig those deep dish alloy wheels .
Boy, this really takes me back! I ordered a 1975 Elite that had basically everything on it, including the moonroof and those sweet deep-dish aluminum wheels. It was white with a dark blue interior. That was one sweet ride...well, that is until they totally redesigned and downsized the Thunderbird in 1977 into the gorgeous car that was! But that's another story! Thanks so much for the memories!
Thank you for watching it is appreciated!
My first car I bought was a 1976 Elite silver w/ black vinyl top . In 1980 While all my friends had Monte's , Cutlass , Gran Prix i wanted something different and it was I loved that car and so did my dad who bought from me a few years later but sad to say I saw the car in a junk yard totaled .
For 1977, the Thunderbird was downsized to a mid-size personal luxury car and replaced the Elite. The Elite was created in 1974 to be a direct competitor to the Monte Carlo and Gran Prix. Mercury had the Cougar XR7 that was a competitor to the Cutlas Supreme and Buick Regal.
And the Cordoba in 1975 ❤
1977 Thunderbird is another car, much better
@@giuliopedrali4794 It's pretty much the same butt ugly car 🤮
The 77-79 is exactly the same as the Elite, LTD II, Gran Torino but with the basket handle roof and front and rear end caps. Same dash, same frame, same mechanicals. It’s easily the best looking of the all of those cars. I owned 75 Gran Torino and my Dad had a 79 T-Bird. From the driver seat you almost could not tell the difference. But I still love the sculpted sides of the Gran Torino. The Elite looked plain and those large headlights were not as interesting as the quads on Gran Torino
I bought my 1975 Elite in 2019, no regrets.
I love it too, wish I had one also. Let me ask you, are you able to get parts okay for it as needed?
@@bobpierce115 I have twice replied, but my replies were deleted. I may have used a banned word, but I don't know which.
@@HemiChrysler I seriously doubt you used any words you shouldn't have. YT is getting extremely neurotic, in deleting comments. and issuing scary warnings. It's ridiculous.
@@bobpierce115 test reply, keyword MET-TECH
@@bobpierce115 test reply, keyword TH-cam
I had a '75, bought new. Mine was polar white with red interior. Ride was great. Got a lot of looks!
I knew a few people with these back in the day. Myself though liked and owned 2, 1972 Gran Torino Sports. One which was my daily runner was fully loaded with A/C, delay wipers, rear window blower, competition suspension, 351 4v CJ (engine code Q) center console, black vinyl top, laser stripe, ...... The 2nd car was more of a sport body but with column shift and bench seat so became a engine donor car for another project. It had a 351 C 2V which when properly built gave plenty of power for the project. I miss the first one. Sadly sold it in the early 90's after 15 years of ownership. Very hard to find now up here in salt/winter zone.
I grew up in the '70s, and absolutely love '70s personal luxury cars. I've owned several. But the Ford Elite (first called the Gran Torino Elite) was not one of them. The 1974 Pontiac Grand Prix, 1975 Chrysler Cordoba, and 1976 Lincoln Continental Mark IV (yes that is three consecutive years) were my favorites of the ones I owned. But I'm a sucker for any '70s 2 door car with a landau roof and opera windows, even the Ford Granada/Mercury Monarch and the somewhat rare 2 door Ford LTD with the oval opera window. There is just something incredibly cool about that design.
Grey Poupon!
The actor requesting Grey Poupon in the Rolls on the right is Ian Richardson. He was the lead in the BBC House of Cards and perfectly cast in the spy film Fourth Protocol.
I remember going to the Ford dealership after hours w my mom & dad in 1975 late in the year, Watson rd, Crestwood Mo.
VEHICLE a '76 Ford Elite in Ivy yellow, nvr purchased that vehicle, remember my mom liked it... etc etc
Summer of 1977 they split up and mom got stuck with a '71 delta 88. Moral i reckon is dad got a new life & mom got da house, long story short..
Yes! In 1975 my first new car purchase was a Ford Elite. It was a snow white exterior with a white leather/red carpet interior. It was a dream, sexy and smooth.......except....those Firestone 500 Radial tires however...were a nightmare! They became "unbelted" about ever 3,000 miles!!!!
I pulled up beside an old limousines just like this. I ask the driver if he had Grey poupon? A package of it 😁🤠
Him and I and the people of my vehicle left hysterically. His clients in back did not find it funny 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The elite always looks like it was repackaged from something else. But they sure look comfortable
In May of 1981 I traded my 1968 Mustang for a 1975 Ford Elite. The Elite was red white white interior and had the 351M engine. Two months later I traded the Elite for a 1976 Starsky and Hutch Grand Torino with a 351 W engine. That car had 41K miles on it. When I sold the Torino it only had 44K miles on the odometer. Roughly 2 years later I purchased another 1975 Elite that was silver and had the 351 W engine. I drove that Elite for several years. It had 240K miles on it when I sold it. Needless to say it getting a little ratty but the seats were just as comfortable as the day I purchased it.
I remember fondly, riding in this car, both my aunt and late uncle owned Ford Elites, 1976 models bought new. His was brown with brown vinyl interior, hers was a pink or red, with red vinyl interior. They were enjoyable to ride in, and we went on some nice road trips when I was a kid in the late 70s and early 80s.
My Grandfather had a 75' Brown Elite with a 400ci. Cool high school boat :)
My parents special ordered a 1974 1/2 Gran Torino Elite when they first hit the showroom floor.
All of these cars came with Select Shift Cruise-O-Matics, but there were actually 4 totally different transmissions, depending on which engine they had and the region where they were sold. The 351-2V could either have the baby C-4 or the FMXD(cast-iron Cruise-O-Matic). The 400-2V could have had either the FMX, Borg-Warner or C-6. The 429-4V had the C-6.
My parents ordered the 400-2V and it came with the C-6. The dash had full instrumentation which included a tachometer. The windows and seats were manual but my mother wanted the reclining passenger seat and that function was power. It also had A/C and cruise control.
The 400-2V had plenty of power and was quite quick accelerating. After changing the exhaust to dual exhaust using turbo mufflers, it could sound like a real beast running through the gears, but cruised quietly.
This car came with Motocraft factory electronic ignition. Remember it was a 1974 1/2. Standard in atleast California with this engine. The 1975 control box was different and not interchangeable.
Now, about gas mileage. With the 400-2V, this car was the #2 gas hog for 1974, rated at 6 mpg city. The #1 was the Olds Toronado, rated at 4 mpg city. As a auto tech by trade, and hating emission controls, I looked into the car . I found that they had run the vacuum advance system through some switches. After re-routing the vacuum circuit direct to the distributor, city driving popped up to a consistent 10-12 mpg. My mom was happy and we never had a problem passing smog inspection.
As far as highway gas mileage, the 400-2V was unpredictable. I have heard this from other people also. Driving it across the country on I 40, one tank of gas would get 26 mpg but then the next tank would only get 10 or so mpg. Very strange. I could never figure it out. During a long run, of 200 miles or so, where the gas gauge hadn't moved that much, if you stopped for any reason, when you started going again, you could almost watch the gas gauge drop over the next 100 or so miles.
During the run, after we had gone about 260 miles, suspecting that something wasn't right with the gauge, we stopped and filled up. I could only get 10 gallons in it. And, yes, I knew how to pump gas.
The Elite was an excellent car and if I ever run across one with the 460-4V or the 351-4V, I'd snap it up in a New York minute!
Was there a 351 4bbl offered?
There is nothing in the literature regarding a 4 barrel on a 351
@@TonysFordsandMustangs I wasn't sure, but I'd seen them in Ranchero's. Nothing like the performance of the 351C-4V in my '71 Ranchero Squire though.
I think the gas guage on many cars back then was rigged. The gauge barely moves the first 100 miles, the the next hundred miles, the needle goes from 3/4 to empty fast. The reason the engineers rigged them at the factory, or designed them that way is that whenever these cars were given out as loaners, the customer would drive the car for a few days (while their cars was being repaired) and when they returned the brand new elite, they would say “wow, this car is great on gas! I drove it all week and the guage barely moved! I think I will buy a new car, this elite!” It was of course important for the dealer to only send out a loaner with a topped off tank.
@@new2000car Fuel gauges still operate this way. Nothing has changed.
This is why I added that while I was traveling, on the highway, I had gone 260 miles since the tank had been filled last. I stopped to re-fuel and it only would take 10 gallons. Getting back in the car, the fuel gauge showed full. 260 miles/10 gals. of gas = 26 mpg. Got it?
My first car was a 75 Elite. The first thing I did was rip apart the front end and replaced everything and did the same with the rear. Then I went to Sears and bought 5 brand new tires. Some Sears tires were made by Michelin and that’s what I got. The engine and transmission were perfect, just had to rebuild the carb. The body was in excellent shape and so was the interior. My friends and I did a lot of partying back in the early 80’s and that made it simpler. Great Video Thank You 🙏
Thank you for watching and a lot of us did a lot of partying in the 80"s ;)
One of the things I never understood at the time was the sloppy shocks that came from the factory and the fact that people put up with the lousy ride control. My parents had both a 67 and a 68 TBird and the first thing we did when they took delivery was replace the factory shocks with Sears extra heavy duty shocks. Made those heavy cars downright nimble. Back then there was no better ride than soft springs paired with stiff shocks. The cars were so heavy back then, the toughness of the shocks was blunted by the sheer weight, so you ended up with a very stable controlled ride. What a difference!
That was my first car! 1976 Elite with a 351W. I loved the styling and the lines of that car as well as the long hood. Elegant.
Very handsome car; great lines. I especially liked the grille and the twin opera windows.
The full instrument with tachometer dash wasn't standard. It was part of the Interior Decor Group, which included Twin Comfort seats, and a number of smaller items. The standard interior was a plain bench with a 5-dial Torino type cluster.
The Thunderbird was the direct replacement for this, not the LTD-II, which supplanted the Gran Torino.
My parents had a 1976 with a 460, nothing slow about that car. It was a Canadian-spec with dual exhaust and no catalytic converters. It would smoke the tires no problem, and pin the 120 mph speedo. At that time, 10 year old muscle cars were everywhere, including my high school,. I surprised quite a few of them, while not necessarily winning a race, they weren't expecting it to keep up to them, which I often did. I was able to beat a couple of newer 400 Trans Ams.
Handling was another story. It had the base suspension without the rear sway bar and it was diabolical. Vague mushy steering, soft springs with little shock control , and it bobbed up and down at speed.
You correct on the cluster. I had some difficulty finding information on this car but wanted to get the video out. I realized it late this week but the video was already uploaded and you have very limited editing ability once it’s set to cue. I'm surprised to hear you didn’t have cats in Canada at the time and not having them wouldn’t hurt for sure. Thanks for watching and for your comment
I never knew Ford offered the 460 in these mid-size cars, thought it was only 351W-351M-400.
I thought Cordoba was the boss with it's commonly optioned 400 Big Block, but I guess I was wrong
@@johneckert1365 They were dropped in the LTD's as well. They were down on compression quite a bit and had a lot of smog equipment.
The first car I remember my Dad driving was a brown '75 Ford Elite. It was a grand car. Soon after getting it he was "test driving" it on the Buchans Highway (in Newfoundland) with a friend, when he encountered an RCMP checkpoint and had to pile on the brakes to get the thing to slow down . . another friend in the police force was setting it up and laughingly waved him through - along with what might have been smoke from tires! lol. Dad also told me he liked the deep instrument gauges as it kept his mom from telling just how fast he was cruising on the main highway. I was only small when he sold it for a different car, still, some great memories he shared. Thanks for the video!
Thank you for watching! I plan out getting up to Newfoundland in the next few months. Beautiful country!
Bought a yellow 76 in 82 351w loved it from pa to talladega Al. 14mpg at 85 traded in on a new 85 gt 5.0 the elite was the second best car
Purchased a brand new 1975 Ford elite polar white with a red vinyl top and red deluxe interior 400 2 barrel. Loved that car kept it almost 10 years until I purchased a turbo coupe Thunderbird. You could’ve mentioned that 1976 was the only year bucket seats and console were available as well as 76 was the only year you could get the Landau vinyl roof.
I was really digging to find information for these cars. I had to use the sales literature. I hate to do that as it isn't always spot on. It's usually printed before the cars hit the showroom floor. Sometimes you have to go with what you got. Thanks for watching and your comment!
Went with a friends wife and she bought one of these off a used car lot. It was yellow and in nice condition. He wasn’t too happy with it, but I knew it was a good dependable car.
I had an Elite, and she was equipped with a 460-4V (9-10 MPG Yikes!) and many other options like a moonroof and deep dish aluminum wheels. She was a beautiful shade of deep red with a white vinyl top and interior. Man, she was a beauty. I've had many cars over the years (ALL Ford products), but this is one of just a few I really regret selling. Unfortunately, the tin worm got the best of her, so I let it go. Thanks for the memories. Great video!
Thank you for sharing your experience and for watching!
I had one and loved it,fully loaded with the 460
A friend of mine in high school (1984-85) had an LTD II with the 460 engine. He would stomp on the gas and we would watch the fuel indicator slowly but surely move across the dial. If I remember correctly, he said he got about 10 MPG. Even though gas wasn't expensive then, he sold that gas guzzler and bought a 1st Gen Ford EXP. The EXP did much better on gas.
i bought the elite in the early eighties for 125 dollars the rear main seal had a major oil leak, i ended up destroying the engine by running it out of oil one too many times, the car was the best riding and driving car i ever had.
I almost bought a 74 Elite about a yr ago. Guy wasn't exactly honest about the shape it was in though. So I passed. I found a 74 Grand Torino instead but would still like to find an Elite one day.
I had a 74 Elite in high school. Even though it was 13 years old when I bought it drove great and didn't give me any problems. I sold it just before joining the Air Force in 88. I still miss that tank!
A video on the 77 Models would be cool too. The Torino changes to LTD II and a new T-Bird and Cougar in the same platform. It worked for Ford esp with the T-Bird sales numbers for 77 to 79.
I will get there at some point for sure. Thanks for watching!
Very similar to the cougar
Luxury cars and pickups make good restoration projects. The build can be cheaper. Because It doesn't have to be high performance. Saving for my next project.
Love all these cars = THANK YOU 🙏= thank you for educating us ford FINATIC s
Thank you for the kind words and for watching!
Hey Tony! Ahoy to my fellow car guy and big bro Tony! Yup, your videos knock my floppy sneakers right offa my tubesocked baseball stockinged feet easily, man lol🤣. As a guy born in the early 70's and still now a perpetual working class all-American JV baseball ⚾jock at 50 (!!!) , I can certainly appreciate your passion for Ford Torinos. Oh man! Starsky and Hutch were my heroes were I was a kid (still are), and Hutch (David Soul) a kind of Dad to me. Great to see you here and follow your channel, big brother! JV Johnny ⚾⚾
Hey thank you so much for the kind words, for watching the video and for your comment. It is truly appreciated!
Good and informative video. I am a huge fan of malaise-era cars, tho not especially the Elite. I do think we could start a new drinking game where you have to drink each time the word “Thunderbird” is mentioned in those vintage commercials!
Bugs me that they called all the transmissions "Cruise-o-matic", when they weren't. C4, FMX, C6 were the choices if I'm not mistaken
I think all of those were used as available and the Cruise-o-matic term acted as a catch all.
That was a great looking car. Remember, Iacocca was in charge and 4 years later - Iacocca was pushing k cars. Man oh man ….
Well Lee had to push the k cars. That’s the car Chrysler needed at that particular time.
I had an Elite Brougham it had a different window in the rear pillar and it had rear wheel skirts that were immediately removed.
Great new video Tony, on a beautiful, noteworthy car. It absolutely WAS right for the times. Ford cleverly transitioned (and positioned) the Torino via the Elite, into a legitimate competitor for the Monte and Grand Prix specifically, and soon the Chrysler Cordoba as well. Mercury (with the Cougar) had a comparable car for this important new segment, but Ford didn't until the Elite. In my own opinion, the '74-'76 Elites were handsomer cars than the '77-'79 T-Bird that replaced them. The Elites cars were actually the first downsized T-Birds for all intents and purposes. I just like the looks a lot better. Having said that though, I actually loved the '77-'79 Cougar XR-7 with its sexier styling and strong Lincoln cues. It was in a way, a downsized 2-door Mark V, which I love.
Thanks for sharing and for watching!
The mileage figures you quote explain why it had a 26.5 gallon fuel tank!
That's very true!
Friend of mine had one of these before he got his '67 Mustang coupe. He parked it in front of his house. Hit and run driver demolished the left quarter panel. Totaled it.
That's sad. Thanks for wathcing!
It was just a jazzed up Gran Torino Brougham stretched front Same as the LTD II for 77 senseless they should have just continued on with the Torino name a very popular model the LTD II was a Hermaphadite on Steroids according to Lee Iacocca In his Autobiography from 1984 old Henry or Hank the duece made a lot of bad calls on certain models if he did not like them or the designer of that model car
All these Torinobirds were abortions 🤮
I seriously thought that the Elite was a Torino.
It was for one year 😉
Best looking 1970s Ford was the 1972 Torino / Gran Torino.
I like those but I'm partial to the 70 & 71's. To each his own.
A little-remembered Ford that definitely fit a niche, and was a bit of a test for the soon-to-be-downsized Thunderbird. A few notes: the full gauge package was only available as part of the Interior Decor Group and not standard. Also: though not listed as an option, I've seen at least one Gran Torino Elite equipped with the 361 (4V) CJ engine, backed up by a Marti Report. I'm not too surprised by this, as the '74 Cougar XR-7 was available with this engine and they were likely built on the same line.
I was really digging to find information for these cars. I had to use the sales literature. I hate to do that as it isn't always spot on. It's usually printed before the cars hit the showroom floor. Sometimes you have to go with what you got. Thanks for watching and your comment! I am very surprised to hear there was a CJ in one these cars.
We had the elite and the Thunderbird
Had I been in the market for a FOMOCO mid-priced luxo coupe in 75-76, I'd have preferred the Cougar; it just looked more attractive (those wide bodyside moldings were pretty ugly and twin opera windows were a needless fillip. The 76 Cougar cost about $325 more, but you got a lot of that back comparing the base interiors and so the equivalent price was similar.
There's a reason they make multiple models of cars. Thanks for watching!
I had a cousin that traded his '71 Mercury Capri for a new '75 Elite. Years later he told me how much he missed his Capri!
The Capri was a nice car!
I always thought the Elite was a classy looking car
The Ford Elite! There's nothing like it anywhere in the world"
Other than a 1970 Ford Maverick~
Some close friends of ours bought one of these - believe it or not, it got down the asembly line without a dinner switch - typical of 70's quality...
I like this car. 😀
26 gallon fuel tank man you’d go broke filling that thing today😂
26.5 gallon gas tank ?!?! 🤯
I always thought these were good looking and comfortable cars. I tried to buy a black on black 75 with the 351 Cleveland as a used car in 1981 I tried to make sure I wasn’t getting a lemon so I took it to a shop prior to purchase, the mechanic told me not too buy it, 6 months later I stopped by the shop and saw the car sitting there looking great, turned out the mechanic stabbed me in the back. I’ve never fully gotten over it and I hope that mechanic thinks of me when looking at his crooked nose
That's rough. Thanks for watching!
My mother bought brand new 1974, drop 100k miles never any problem, but it was a dog
As in poor performance?
I would smash many Camaro windshields to get the color codes on the car at 7:10.
I don't you have get that extreme. Here you go. www.pinterest.com/pin/190558627961125304/
@@TonysFordsandMustangs Thanks. Took a couple days for my forehead to heal after 7 or 8 windshields. Little woozy still. So the question here is, could you order any combo of colors, or were there x number of them offered by the factory? It would still be hard to zero in on that combo based on the chart.
Looks like a streched Mustang 2
They were nice the PLC too bad the engines were gutless.😢😮
Ford Elite not bad, but is the most baroque overdesign in 1975, typically 70s
26 1/2 gallon gas tank!
Was the Cruz o matic transmission like a c4?
Sort of in this case Ford through a lot of different transmissions in these cars as well and used the Cruise-o-matic name to cover them all.
kinda like a mercury cougar.
I like so many Ford vehicles over the long history of the company, but…
This Torino/Torino Elite is just about the worst Ford in the worst era of Ford for me.
I’m not anti-Ford: Other personal luxury coupes were also pretty awful from Chrysler. The only thing that saves certain iterations (but not every interaction) of the GM midsize personal luxury coupes from being awful is some sporty touches where possible. The handsome Buick Regal Road Wheels, the Oldsmobile Cutlass Rally Wheels, the Pontiac Grand Prix Rally Wheels and even the Snowflake Cast Aluminum Wheels. While not demonstrably improving performance, they looked good with those coupes and added a measure of sportiness. And there were also the Hurst and Pace Car editions, where applicable.
I think Ford recognized it too: while mostly a reskin, the later LTD II to come was more chiseled, more purposeful and integrated design and could even be optioned with sporty touches more in line with the strong luxury and slight sports balance that could be found on the GM intermediates like the Grand Prix.
A good reminder where and how this vehicle fits into the Ford History, thanks!
Thank you for watching!
26-gallon fuel tank ... that's a suburban size tank these days
a homely car with a giant front end and a peanut motor, way to go Detroit.
Funny how luxury was defined back then. Now it's impossible to buy a car without power windows, power seats,mirrors, navigation and cameras everywhere ! Yes maybe you can order one somewhat basic maybe. Too much technology that is supposed to make vehicles more safe but I'm sure all it's done is make drivers lazy and depending on this tech to save their ass ! The techy crap is what fails most often and causes the most service bulletins and recalls. Which the dealerships have difficulty repairing if they can get the parts !
Back then Air Conditioning was a rarity. Times change. Thanks for watching!
an excuse for mediocre concept and car. This specific car screams ugly !
i had a '77 LTD II Brougham Coupe. Piece of junk! Definitely not "Elite"! BTW, the 351M was built off of the 351C
Yeah sort of, they had 2 V Cleveland heads, kind of a tall deck Cleveland.
My high school had a 76 Cougar. What a bloated underpowered pile of garbage..