VicCrownVic's 1998 Mercury Grand Marquis LS

[VicCrownVic]

I haven't used the cupholders yet, but I did test fit a cup. The spring loaded arm is higher than the stock cupholder and should do a much better job than the flaccid flap in the stock cupholder. The '03+ are more similar to the pre'95 Aero cupholders I have in both The Ice Car and The Scab. Those pre'95 aero cupholders work well so I think the '03+ should also be a good upgrade. I'll find out next week on our trip.
A couple of pics for comparison. The transition line on that McD cup makes for a great reference point to compare just how shallow the stock cupholders are.
New:



Stock:

The flaccid flaps on the stock unit do absolutely nothing and the cup really just sits in the far too shallow and too wide hole without actually being held.

[87gtVIC]

I just dont understand some of the cup holder choices Ford has made. My 1994 escort had two cup holders but were utterly useless as they were too shallow and too wide to contain anything. Thought that counts maybe?

[DerekTheGreat]

I just dont understand some of the cup holder choices Ford has made. My 1994 escort had two cup holders but were utterly useless as they were too shallow and too wide to contain anything. Thought that counts maybe?

Hmm, pop cans maybe?

The only beverage that is ok to drink in my vehicles is water! That McDon's cup looks like a bomb waiting to wreck a good day...

[VicCrownVic]

Cans aren't much if any wider than the bottom of that McD cup so cans really don't work with the wide cupholders. Either way, cans (or regular open cups) are not allowed even in my rot boxes. Fast food type cups I've never had an issue with, but the potential is there for mess, cans are pretty much guaranteed to make a mess no matter what.

[Mainemantom]

I hate fast food paper cups. They love to self destruct. After a little while they start leaking and become soft enough to melt in your hand. I always have a pastic or metal cup in the car with a lid. I also use a straw instead of lifting to drink. A lot less messy.

[VicCrownVic]

They sure do leak, usually by the next day though.
The other rule I have is don't leave anything in the car, so that takes care of the leak issue. Honestly the wife is the worst about breaking that rule, but I always grab anything that can become a nasty mess. (Although I seem to have an illogical exception to the rule for receipts, and the rule does not apply to the trunk). Dad was bad about leaving things in "my" car too. Since he owned my '89 while I was in college (transferred to me after college) he would take it when he needed it (when his car was down or something). EVERY time it returned with stuff that he left in it. I'm actually a VERY messy person, but some things like my cars just drive me nuts to find things that don't belong.

[Pvt.Hudson]

The 03+ cupholders are way better then 95-02 ones. They hold bigger cups and hold them much more securely. The down side is they are very fragile the front cover/pull handle can easily break if you don't open or close it right whereas the 95-02 ones are just a molded circles and don't really break. I don't remember the 93-94 ones being that much better as the they were shallower then 95+.

[VicCrownVic]

547 miles today, 22.6 mpg. 80mph is a huge difference in mpg compared to 75mph. 80 struggled to get up to 21 mpg, 75 was closer to 24mpg. The drive went great with no issues. I'll be resetting the avg mpg on the way home (should be Sunday) to get a better idea of how each speed does on mpgs.

Set the ATC to 67 degrees was perfect, until the wife cranked it up, lol.

Oil changed before the trip since it was due. Last time I made this trip was 10 years ago in my '89 MGM. Avg daytime temp in 2011 was 0F, this year it's supposed to be around 30F (last I heard). Houghton, MI for winter carnival at Michigan Tech, my alma mater. (Yeah I'm different, I go north during the coldest time if year, LOL.)

[DerekTheGreat]

Must be some decent snow accumulation up there, at least. I love cold weather.

[VicCrownVic]

Compared to a normal year, there isn't much. In some places maybe a foot. During a normal year there should be a few feet.
Tonight is the all nighter where all the snow statue entrants stay up all night finishing their statues. Some statues are month long builds while others are not allowed to start until the night of the all nighter.
Some of the month long statues, especially some of the fraternity statues, are often 2 or even 3 stories high. The lack of snow this year seems to be keeping statues smaller than usual though.
This year's theme is "Cartoons and COVID-19." https://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/202...d-covid19.html
Some unfinished statues:





Even the audo engineering statue is smaller than usual. This thing will be blasting tunes for the all nighter and usually you can hear all nighter tunes for miles. We'll see if we can hear it tonight at our hotel.The dorm I lived in is straight behind this statue.


View from out hotel room. You can see Mont Ripley across the Portage Canal. M26 at the base is as close as I will get to it since I don't ski or snowboard.


The car is much dirtier than it looks in the pictures.



I did manage to get to a car wash today even though it will need it again when we get home.

[DerekTheGreat]

Cool, more snow on the roads then around here. THat would have been fun to play in.

The snow sculptures remind me of the ice sculptures that Ferndale had downtown last year. It was so warm they pretty much melted immediately. Felt bad to think of all that effort & talent just.. melted away.

[VicCrownVic]

Finally getting some snow, woke up to 2-3 inches. Supposed to get dumped on on Saturdy, with some forecasts calling for 18 inches.

Was told by a friend that the audio engineering statue was smaller because they have three snall statues in an effort to keep drunken college student crowds down. Its basically an all night drunken concert most years. No food vendors on campus, also due to covid. Very different feel this year but good to get up here again.

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh man, that's some good snow right there. Only thing we get to look forward to is temps below 30, so the woodstove will be used.

Meh, too bad mainstream 'music' isn't even half of what it was some twenty years ago.

[VicCrownVic]

First couple of days up here were quite unusual for this time of year with a high of 37° F the other day.
Finally more like normal winter with barely double digit temps today and approaching a foot of snow since yesterday evening.
My snow tires and traction control are actually being put to good use. There was one hill that I tended to avoid with my '89 while I was up here (opted for the longer switchback route) but the '98 handled it with no problem with traction control light flashing quite a bit.

We moved from the hotel to a friends house for the remainder of our trip. We arrived at my friends house around 5pm yesterday and the snow accumulation on the car this morning around 8am is what we got in those 15 hours is what you see on the car here:




I had my wife capture some video yesterday.
The Yooper Loop (Houghton side of the Houghton-Hancock lift bridge). Not sure why she was angled so low for most of the video.
The person in the left lane on the bridge that I comment on was the only one in that lane and I suspected that they didn't want to be in that lane. Found out why they didn't want that lane when we got closer to the Hancock side of the bridge.
https://youtu.be/GEl2BhbUvCo


And a random stretch of road (M26) after we got off the bridge on our way to Dollar Bay.


If I can find time tomorrow I'd like to get over to Bridge Street and Houghton Avenue. The location of the "How to Turn Left in the UP" video on YouTube. Just to get a picture of the location to go with the video. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeqG0CqzHq4).

[VicCrownVic]

More pictures from today, 2-6-2021.
6° F when we ventured out around noon today. Half as much snow this morning compared to yesterday morning, but visibility in some spots was basically 0.
Stopped in Lake Linden since my wife wanted to get pictures in Lake Linden where her grandmother (who passed last year) got married.






Also got the pictures I wanted at Bridge Street and Houghton Avenue to go with the YouTube video "How to Turn Left in the UP"

[VicCrownVic]

558 miles today, total round trip 1248 miles.

Did a little better on MPGs this time with 23.2 MPG for the trip home. Didn't hit 80 MPH for long stretches this time, which helped the MPGs.
MPGs from Houghton to Marquette came in at 27.2 MPG. A couple MPG better than my '89 on the same stretch. The new (since I was last up there) 65 MPH speed limits through much of the UP came in around 25.2 MPG.

Whiteout conditions for the first 45 minutes and then a few times again in the northern LP. 75 MPH speed limit made the northern LP fun, but people seemed to handle it ok and not try to hit the limit in those conditions. Ironically the only accident was further south and the road condition was great by comparison (you could see it and it wasn't slick), so I'm not sure what that person did. Vehicle was totaled from rolling off I75 but looked like a survivable crash. May have come in contact with a tree. MSP had the left lane blocked with ambulance on scene.

Temps on the way home were frigid. The lowest temp I noticed was -7° F, although I didn't think to get a picture of the display until we reached a warmer area. A bit out of focus picture of the ATC OAT reading -4° F:


Some pictures by Lake Superior off of M28 Southeast of Marquette.

[DerekTheGreat]

Oh man, that's some snow! I love driving in stuff like that. The camera work reminds of the "pro" work as seen in the terrible movie "Birdemic" or whatever it was called. Man, that movie was atrocious. Maybe we'll retire up north Oh and those multicam engines do pretty good on petrol.

[VicCrownVic]

The rare hatchback '98 Grand Marquis.

[87gtVIC]

Yes. Its always fun seeing what the snow and wind to do to your car. Always wind up with something unique.

[DerekTheGreat]

I remember seeing something where an engine bay was completely packed with snow, that must've been fun.