Which Survivor From 1986 Do You Prefer? 1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria vs 1986 Nissan 720 ST

Good morning! Today we’re taking a trip back in time forty years into the past, to look at a couple of vehicles with almost nothing in common except four rectangular headlights. Which one fits your vision of 1986 better? That’s what we’re going to find out.

We finished off last week with a couple of snowplows, and it seems evident that after eighty thousand miles of pushing snow around, a Jeep Wrangler is pretty well used-up. That clean F-150 might be more ungainly in tight quarters, but it isn’t about to fold up like a taco. I think you all chose wisely.

I’d happily take either one for a hour or so tomorrow; I have to clear the snow off our driveway so U-Haul can deliver the rest of our containers, and all I have to do it with is an eighteen-inch snow shovel. But honestly, I think my neighbor across the street has the right idea for small areas: a Polaris side-by-side with an enclosed cab and a plow blade. I’d rather have that than either of these.

As much as I hate to admit it, 1986 is now forty years ago. Dire Straits’s “Money For Nothing” winning MTV Video Of The Year, the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, Cameron Frye kicking his dad’s fake Ferrari through a window – kids who were born when those things were happening are now old enough to have mid-life crises. Cars from that year are getting thin on the ground, and more than a little haggard. But I found a couple that aren’t too bad yet. Let’s check them out.

1986 Ford LTD Crown Victoria – $3,800

Engine/drivetrain: 302 cubic inch OHV V8, four-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Pflugerville, TX

Odometer reading: 54,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

Before the rounded Ford Crown Vic that everyone knows as a cop car came this boxy character, festooned with chrome and featuring a landau vinyl top. Although it’s about the same size as the later rounded models, it somehow looks bigger. And even in 1986, it looked like a dinosaur, especially next to Ford’s swoopy new Taurus. The LTD Crown Victoria, as it was officially known, sold well despite looking old; Ford built nearly two million of these things over its eleven-year run.

’86 was a big year for the big Ford under the hood: the venerable 302 V8 gained sequential electronic fuel injection, gaining only 10 horsepower but a whole lot of drivability and reliability. An AOD four-speed automatic transmission was the only option, of course. We don’t get a whole lot of information about its condition; the seller just says it runs and drives very well. The odometer only shows 54,000 miles, and considering this car’s typical elderly demographic, it could be correct.

It’s mighty nice inside, and I can tell you from experience that those seats are very comfortable. That bench seat won’t hold you in place during hard cornering, but that’s not what this car is for anyway. It’s got a bunch of power toys, and the seller says the air conditioning works fine.

It’s a little rougher outside, with surface rust on the trunk lid and dull paint everywhere else. It’s also missing its fake wire wheel covers on one side, apparently, and the side without wheel covers has blackwall tires instead of whitewalls. Sounds like a good excuse to find the right aftermarket wheels; these look good on Keystones or Cragars.

1986 Nissan 720 ST King Cab 4×4 – $3,999

Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter OHC inline 4, five-speed manual, 4WD

Location: Spanaway, WA

Odometer reading: 262,000 miles

Operational status: Ad doesn’t expressly say

The Nissan 720 is a truck I know well. I owned one in the mid-1990s, and it saw me through some really rough times. I bought it from a used car lot in Duluth, Minnesota, on a bitterly cold day; I needed a cheap car, and that truck was the only sub-$1,000 car on the lot that would start. I then put it in 4WD, and it heaved itself out of a three-foot snowbank like it wasn’t even there. I bought it on the spot.

This 720 is longer and fancier than mine; it’s a King Cab, in ST trim, which for 1986 came with an added bonus: electronic fuel injection for its NAPS-Z engine. It drives all four wheels through a five-speed manual transmission and a dual-range transfer case. It has a ton of miles on it, but so do all 720s these days. I wish I could tell you more about its condition, but it’s being sold by a dealer, and the description feels AI-generated and is completely useless. You’d have to go drive it to see how well it really runs.

The ST package got you bucket seats and a tach, but I honestly can’t remember if that steering wheel is what it came with or not. I know it was something fancier than the basic two-spoke plastic wheel that the other 720s got. It looks decent inside, but I bet the seats are a mess under those covers. It should have air conditioning as well, but there’s no telling whether or not it still works.

It doesn’t look too bad outside except for the mismatched tailgate. It isn’t rusty, or beat-up, and it still has those cool “ST” stickers on the back of the bed. Modern truck designers have really got to step up their vinyl graphics game; that’s all I have to say.

So there they are, two survivors from the same year that couldn’t be more different. But in a way, they complement each other, so I’m going to give you a “both” option in the poll. I can think of far worse two-car garages than this one. But if you had to choose one, which would it be?