To some, they're gas-guzzling relics of an antiquated past. To others, they're as New York as a bagel with a coffee in an "Anthora" cup. But come next year the Ford Crown Victoria will be no more. Ford Motor Company is planning to shut the Canadian plant that manufactures both the Crown Vic and the Lincoln Town Car, leaving the city's cops, cab drivers and elite to find new way to shuttle themselves around. TLC Commissioner David Yassky told the Times, "These cars are a facet of people’s everyday experience. Whatever takes their place will have a real and tangible influence on the city’s aesthetic." more ›

An afternoon spree of shootings and carjackings by one man was ended yesterday by police, who fatally shot the suspect in a gun battle where 130+ shots were fired. A 23-year-old named Victor Gordon, with ten arrests already listed on his rap sheet, left his girlfriend's apartment on President St. after an argument. He walked over to St. Paul's Place just south of Prospect Park––perhaps stopping at a few bars along the way––and stole a Dodge Charger at gunpoint just before 2 p.m. He drove it back to the home of his ex-girlfriend, where he began firing shots into her front door. The Daily News reports that Gordon was visibly drunk at this time. As he stumbled down the steps from her building, he dropped his gun and then picked it up and brandished it at a group of children playing nearby. more ›

- A Dodge Caravan hit three pedestrians on Neptune near West 24th in Brooklyn; a 68-year-old was killed. The Caravan's driver stayed on the scene.And two young women were injured in the East Tremont section of the Bronx. After the fatalities from two weekends ago, the Department of Transportation said, "[I]n the wake of several tragic accidents, it is clear that more needs to be done, and DOT is committed to taking further steps to make the streets as safe as possible." We'll see if that happens. more ›

A terrible aftermath to Representative Joseph Crowley's holiday party. His staffer Eileen Gillepsie was driving with best friend and former staffer Peggy Bartichek afterwards, and Gillepsie drove down the wrong way on a Queens street. Her car was hit by a town car and "slammed" into a parked truck. From the NY Times:

They were headed home about 12:50 a.m. yesterday, the police said, when Ms. Gillespie, heading south on 69th Street in Elmhurst, failed to turn off it where it became one way northbound, near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and was hit by a Lincoln Town Car, which pushed her car into a parked pickup truck. There are do-not-enter signs at 34th Avenue, where southbound traffic is supposed to turn off 69th Street.

You know from the Daily News headline, Ford to Town Car: Drop dead, that the Daily News secretly wishes they could have made an article about Ford ending production of the Lincoln Town Car a cover story. The Lincoln Town Car is beloved by drivers (reliable!) passengers (legroom!), and even criminals (trunk room for bodies!), but Ford won't be building Town Cars after next year. Gothamist will put money down on car service companies buying more next year, to stock up - some of those Town Cars in current fleets have that cherry-BO/stale cigarette smoke smell (we can deal with that in our cabs, but not our Town Cars). more ›

A horrible car accident unraveled in the Bronx yesterday afternoon: A 1994 Acura Legend somehow jumped the median of the Bronx River Parkway, killing five of its seven passengers. Four members of the Gardner family of the Bronx - Derrick, 40, and daughter Asia (some reports say Derrick and ASia were from Mississippi), 8; brothers Jamel, 14, and Keywann, 23 (Derrick was their uncle) - and relative Brandon Daye, 18, of Mississippi were killed. Two other passengers were injured, including Jamel and Keywann's brother Howie. Three other cars became involved in the accident, but the injuries to the nine drivers and passengers were minor. It's unclear how the Acura, driven by Keywann, lost control, but the Post describes what seems to have happened near the East 177th exit of the Bronx River Parkway:

After their green Acura Legend slowed down for heavy traffic in the southbound lanes, Keywann, the driver, somehow lost control of the car, which ran onto the concrete divider, police said. more ›

A couple days after an Eastern European man appeared at the Eighth Avenue and 42nd Street subway station looking beaten up, police still don't really know that much about his case. Police say that the man was burned, bound and tortured, and probably held in the trunk of a Lincoln Town Car, but the man still hasn't spoken yet - he's been communicating with the cops by writing and drawing. The man is recovering at Bellevue, but Gothamist wonders if the police will make him retrace his steps when he's healthier - they might be able to pull surveillance tapes from neighboring areas. more ›