Published: September 14, 2006
 
 
NEW YORK The Lincoln Town Cars that chauffeur New York investment bankers home at the end of the day soon may be part of Wall Street history.
 
Ford Motor plans to close the Wixom, Michigan, plant that makes the sedan and has not committed to production beyond the 2007 model year. Ford's Mercury Grand Marquis or DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler 300 may be called upon to take the Lincoln's place.
 
The Town Car, which makes up more than 80 percent of New York's 35,000 for-hire fleet, is the "black car" of choice in every major U.S. market, said Neil Weiss, editor of the industry magazine Black Car News. Without it, life would not be the same for thousands of bankers and executives who have been stretching out in the back seat since 1980, usually at company expense.
 
The investor Warren Buffett is already giving up the ride. On Tuesday, he offered his 2001 Town Car in a charity auction.
 
"It's spacious, the leather seats are nice, and it's just a nice ride," said Alex Weiss, an investment banking analyst for Lehman Brothers Holdings. Weiss, who uses a car service three or four times a month, estimated his five- minute ride costs Lehman , compared with for a taxi.
 
The Town Car has a manufacturer's suggested retail price starting at more than ,000. The biggest model is the largest American sedan, at 18 feet, 5 inches, or about 5 meters. That is more than a foot longer than the 0,000 Mercedes-Benz S600.
 
Riders "feel like kings in the back of these things," said Dean Hameed, who has driven Town Cars for 10 years.
 
On a recent evening, Hameed's Town Car was one of 40 lined up outside Deutsche Bank on Wall Street. A mile away, 30 Town Cars waited on Greenwich Street for workers headed home from Citigroup just before midnight.
 
The vehicle is so much a part of Wall Street culture, the local community board demanded that Goldman Sachs Group adopt a "black-car management plan" for the .4 billion headquarters it is building in lower Manhattan. The investment bank agreed that black cars for employees working after 9 p.m. will be summoned from an adjacent garage, Andrea Raphael, a bank spokeswoman, said.
 
Town Cars often are used as a messenger service, said Maria Yuan, a former JPMorgan Chase investment banker.
 
"When one of our bosses or clients needed a package delivered to their house in Connecticut or Westchester, we'd just throw it in the back seat of one," she said.
 
Sometimes the car's comfort and spaciousness are put to the test.
 
"Christmastime, you get many, many drunk bankers," said a driver, Andy Koksal, parked near Citigroup's offices on Park Avenue. Last December, he had to plead with a female passenger to limit her back-seat activities with a client because the windows were becoming fogged. "This is a very embarrassing situation," Koksal said. "But you want to drive safely."
 
Ford has not disclosed any decision on making the Town Car after the 2007 models, Jim Cain, a Ford spokesman, said. Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, put his personal gold Town Car on the block - including the license plate that reads "Thrifty" - in a benefit for Girls Inc., a nonprofit educational group in New York.
 
Bidding on eBay's Web site runs through Sept. 22 and starts at ,000 for the car, which has been driven less than 14,000 miles. Buffett replaced it earlier this year with a Cadillac, made by General Motors.
 
Closing the Wixom plant is part of a plan announced in January by William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of the company's founder, to close 14 North American factories and cut 30,000 jobs by 2012. The company's board is to meet Sept. 14 to consider additional restructuring steps.
 
Alan Mulally of Boeing was named Sept. 5 to replace Ford as chief executive. Ford, who held the position for almost five years, remains chairman. Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan and the second-biggest U.S. automaker after General Motors, had a first-half loss of .44 billion.
 
Town Car sales slowed to about 47,000 in 2005 from 149,000 in 1990, according to Autodata Corp. This year's sales through August fell 17 percent. Sales are split about evenly between retail and fleet customers, a Ford spokesman, Alan Hall, said.
 
"If they put 0 million into a redesign, I think they could revive sales quickly," said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
 
If the Town Car is discontinued, the Chrysler 300 or the Grand Marquis is the likely successor, said John Wolkonowicz, senior auto analyst for Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm in Lexington, Massachusetts. Both, like the Town Car, have long wheelbases and rear-wheel drive, making them roomy and better equipped to handle all-day driving, potholes and stop-and- go traffic, he said. The Chrysler 300 is 16 feet, 5 inches long, while the Grand Marquis is 17 feet, 7 inches.
 
David Yahodah, general manager of City Ride Transportation in New York, said he cannot imagine what could replace his fleet of 180 Town Cars.
 
"You can put maybe 400,000 miles on a Town Car, no problem," Yahodah said.
 
In Brooklyn, Lincoln Auto Mall sells only used Town Cars.
 
"We'll be able to sell Town Cars for a few years if there's no new ones," said the general manager, David Khoen, who estimates that he sells about 200 of the vehicles annually.
 
"We haven't crossed that bridge yet," he said. "Maybe we'll change our name to Chrysler Auto Mall."
 
 NEW YORK The Lincoln Town Cars that chauffeur New York investment bankers home at the end of the day soon may be part of Wall Street history.
 
Ford Motor plans to close the Wixom, Michigan, plant that makes the sedan and has not committed to production beyond the 2007 model year. Ford's Mercury Grand Marquis or DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler 300 may be called upon to take the Lincoln's place.
 
The Town Car, which makes up more than 80 percent of New York's 35,000 for-hire fleet, is the "black car" of choice in every major U.S. market, said Neil Weiss, editor of the industry magazine Black Car News. Without it, life would not be the same for thousands of bankers and executives who have been stretching out in the back seat since 1980, usually at company expense.
 
The investor Warren Buffett is already giving up the ride. On Tuesday, he offered his 2001 Town Car in a charity auction.
 
"It's spacious, the leather seats are nice, and it's just a nice ride," said Alex Weiss, an investment banking analyst for Lehman Brothers Holdings. Weiss, who uses a car service three or four times a month, estimated his five- minute ride costs Lehman , compared with for a taxi.
 
The Town Car has a manufacturer's suggested retail price starting at more than ,000. The biggest model is the largest American sedan, at 18 feet, 5 inches, or about 5 meters. That is more than a foot longer than the 0,000 Mercedes-Benz S600.
 
Riders "feel like kings in the back of these things," said Dean Hameed, who has driven Town Cars for 10 years.
 
On a recent evening, Hameed's Town Car was one of 40 lined up outside Deutsche Bank on Wall Street. A mile away, 30 Town Cars waited on Greenwich Street for workers headed home from Citigroup just before midnight.
 
The vehicle is so much a part of Wall Street culture, the local community board demanded that Goldman Sachs Group adopt a "black-car management plan" for the .4 billion headquarters it is building in lower Manhattan. The investment bank agreed that black cars for employees working after 9 p.m. will be summoned from an adjacent garage, Andrea Raphael, a bank spokeswoman, said.
 
Town Cars often are used as a messenger service, said Maria Yuan, a former JPMorgan Chase investment banker.
 
"When one of our bosses or clients needed a package delivered to their house in Connecticut or Westchester, we'd just throw it in the back seat of one," she said.
 
Sometimes the car's comfort and spaciousness are put to the test.
 
"Christmastime, you get many, many drunk bankers," said a driver, Andy Koksal, parked near Citigroup's offices on Park Avenue. Last December, he had to plead with a female passenger to limit her back-seat activities with a client because the windows were becoming fogged. "This is a very embarrassing situation," Koksal said. "But you want to drive safely."
 
Ford has not disclosed any decision on making the Town Car after the 2007 models, Jim Cain, a Ford spokesman, said. Buffett, the chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, put his personal gold Town Car on the block - including the license plate that reads "Thrifty" - in a benefit for Girls Inc., a nonprofit educational group in New York.
 
Bidding on eBay's Web site runs through Sept. 22 and starts at ,000 for the car, which has been driven less than 14,000 miles. Buffett replaced it earlier this year with a Cadillac, made by General Motors.
 
Closing the Wixom plant is part of a plan announced in January by William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of the company's founder, to close 14 North American factories and cut 30,000 jobs by 2012. The company's board is to meet Sept. 14 to consider additional restructuring steps.
 
Alan Mulally of Boeing was named Sept. 5 to replace Ford as chief executive. Ford, who held the position for almost five years, remains chairman. Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan and the second-biggest U.S. automaker after General Motors, had a first-half loss of .44 billion.
 
Town Car sales slowed to about 47,000 in 2005 from 149,000 in 1990, according to Autodata Corp. This year's sales through August fell 17 percent. Sales are split about evenly between retail and fleet customers, a Ford spokesman, Alan Hall, said.
 
"If they put 0 million into a redesign, I think they could revive sales quickly," said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
 
If the Town Car is discontinued, the Chrysler 300 or the Grand Marquis is the likely successor, said John Wolkonowicz, senior auto analyst for Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm in Lexington, Massachusetts. Both, like the Town Car, have long wheelbases and rear-wheel drive, making them roomy and better equipped to handle all-day driving, potholes and stop-and- go traffic, he said. The Chrysler 300 is 16 feet, 5 inches long, while the Grand Marquis is 17 feet, 7 inches.
 
David Yahodah, general manager of City Ride Transportation in New York, said he cannot imagine what could replace his fleet of 180 Town Cars.
 
"You can put maybe 400,000 miles on a Town Car, no problem," Yahodah said.
 
In Brooklyn, Lincoln Auto Mall sells only used Town Cars.
 
"We'll be able to sell Town Cars for a few years if there's no new ones," said the general manager, David Khoen, who estimates that he sells about 200 of the vehicles annually.
 
"We haven't crossed that bridge yet," he said. "Maybe we'll change our name to Chrysler Auto Mall."