I sold my Seville to my friend Ian while I was in Thailand, and not long after I returned to the states he offered to sell it back to me. He then found himself in need of a car, so we headed up to Motorwerks in Chicago and Xamis Ford/Lincoln in Lincoln IL.

Our journey began on 9/11/2011. We loaded our luggage into my Cadillac and left town at 3:30pm.

Clear skies ruined by a view of East St Louis.

Enjoying magazines on my iPad. This was my first time traveling without a proper laptop, bringing only my 32GB iPad ($300 from Cowboom.com) and my Bluetooth keyboard ($25 from Amazon). The plan was to only be out of town for a day or two, so my large and durable Thinkpad stayed at home.

I -hate- traveling through Illinois. Thankfully, the iPad’s battery had plenty of juice (I did bring a charger) and I was able to stay connected with my LG Optimus V’s wifi connection. We stopped at this Dairy Queen for a snack. Have you noticed how DQs are disappearing from competitive markets?

Lots of classic cars on the roads today.

A striking red Impala.

I mapped out our hotel, a Hilton Garden Inn just north of Schaumburg IL.

There’s something reassuring about a sign that specifically says “suburbs.” You have the comfort of knowing that you’re far from the congestion and crime of the city, settling into a quiet and comfortable part of town with ample parking. Unlike St Louis’s suburbs, there’s plenty to eat outside of Chicago’s urban core.

The room was about fifty bucks through Priceline. We checked in and headed to Portillo’s for takeout.

Portillo’s makes the best Italian beef in town, with Luke’s near Union Station a close second. I always order mine wet/dipped with sweet peppers.

A clean and tidy room.

My amazing sandwich.

I watched the Seinfeld episode where Jerry’s mechanic steals his Saab and Kramer attempts to drive to Michigan to sell bottles and cans for a profit.

Ian and his brother were buying a 2000 SL500 online, so we headed down the road to Motorwerks to see it in person. It was tucked away somewhere on their massive lot, so we went back to the hotel.

Eww.

I woke up at 5AM and went looking for the gym. Hotel gyms are always kind of gross.

This pool is hardly large enough to swim in. A sign posted on the wall said that for $10 you could get a key to the much nicer facility across the street. Lame.

Saw this parked outside the hotel.

We went back to Motorwerks and met up with our friendly salesman, Rick.

They have a Saab franchise among several other brands. This was my first in-person look at the 9-4x.

We took a look at the SL. It was spotless, rather unexpected for Chicago, with only 46,000 miles.

The undercarriage was free of rust.

Ian and Rick went for a test drive while I perused the large showroom.

This 2011 Saab 9-3 convertible came with a 20% discount. Unfortunately, if/when Saab goes out of business, 2010 and 2011 models may not have warranty coverage since GM no longer owns the brand.

Large service bay.

Ian noticed a 2003 CL55, an AMG muscle coupe with 500hp.

It had a vibration at 60mph and a motor that sounded uncomfortably “clattery.”
It was cursed with a set of garish chrome wheels that were slightly wider than the tires, giving it a stretched look that ghetto-fabulous “VIP” enthusiasts prefer. It’s a look that says “I spent my welfare money on wheels, so this was all the rubber I could afford.” I know it’s a style, but it’s stupid and unsafe, just like the idiots who do such things to their cars.

[Not the actual car, but close enough.]
The rear glass curves into the C-pillar for an airy, expensive look.

It photographs well but feels cheap with hard surfaces, rough textures, and wood trim that’s a bit bendy and wobbly. Nothing about the interior lives up to its original price of $125,000.

Poor Rick was crammed into the back seat.

In addition to the SL500, Ian was looking for a cash car, so we looked all over Motorwerks’ property to find something in the under-$10,000 range. Unfortunately, rust had a way of ruining everything.

We saw a green Infiniti QX4 that looked nice on paper but the running boards were rotting away and the wheels were bubbling from corrosion.

I ran across this gem.

Up close, it looks like it’s had a hard life.

The interior, fortunately, was okay.

Flat tire.

We drove over to their not-so-busy Saab store to check their computers for anything that may have recently been traded in. Everything we saw was terribly rusted.

We returned to the main lot and removed the hard top to demonstrate that all of the motors and mechanisms still worked. Removing the hard top is fairly simple. Four prongs electronically pop up and the top is removed by hand.

It came with a Mercedes top stand, but it was flimsy and insecure. We decided to walk the top over to the grass.

The cloth top was in excellent shape and opened effortlessly.

All the vinyl windows were in tact without creases.

This interior is much, MUCH nicer than the one in the CL55.

The car will be in his brother’s name, so he’ll have to come to Chicago later on to sign the papers.

We headed to Giordano’s for pizza.

At Arlington Acura there was a nice looking QX4. Unfortunately, it had a little bit of rust, but much less rust than the green QX4 we looked at earlier. The interior is in excellent shape.

This sad looking Seville was parked in the corner. It wasn’t low on coolant so it probably wasn’t abandoned due to head gaskets.

Every used car we saw in Chicago was ruined by rust. That concluded our time in the city, so we headed back on I-55 to St Louis.

Ian remembered a Lincoln dealer in Lincoln, Illinois that had a 2004 Town Car Signature for sale with an asking price of only $5999, so we exited the interstate and stopped by to take a glance. We didn’t expect them to be open this late in the evening. It was a dated looking dealership, similar to the stores I remembered visiting as a child in the 1980s, likely built in the 60s or 70s and renovated a couple times since then.
I’m just guessing though. Despite its age, it Xamis Lincoln/Mercury/Ford was clean and well-organized, and the quality of service is far more important than how fancy the architecture is.

Everything was in nice shape. We met a salesman named Ed who was friendly and honest. He even contacted the previous owner (who owned it from 19,000 to 128,000 miles) and allowed us to chat with him about the car’s history.

The engine bay and interior were a little dirty, but nothing that couldn’t be cleaned.

He had us make a U-turn “over by the grain elevator” [you don’t hear that in the city] where we switched drivers.
Immediately, I was impressed. The new rack and pinion steering that Crown Vics and Town Cars adopted in 2003 eliminated a lot of the mush and numbness, offering good communication in an otherwise very isolated car.

I couldn’t find anything negative to say about it at all. The body and undercarriage were rust-free and the paint was in excellent condition. All the mechanicals felt well-sorted.
We sat down in Ed’s office and offered $5000. He countered with $5670. We asked for lower but his manager didn’t budge, so we thanked him for his time and left.

Later that evening, as we were heading back to St Louis, Ian called Ed and accepted his price of $5670. Compared to the beat-to-hell $10,000 Town Car that we looked at a week earlier in St Louis, this was a steal.

They delivered the car to Chesterfield, Missouri for free (300 miles round trip!) with fresh transmission fluid. After a $70 wash and cleanup by AutoSpa in Wildwood MO, it turned out beautifully. The interior looks and smells like new.

This was a Lincoln purchased at a Lincoln dealer in the town of Lincoln in the state of Illinois whose motto is “the Land of Lincoln.” Like my encounter with a Seville Road when I went to buy my Cadillac Seville in Pennsylvania, this seemed like fate… or an awesome coincidence. Just days after buying this Town Car, Ford officially ended production of the Panther platform (Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis/Town Car) in St Thomas Ontario, a quiet end to thirty years of dependable service. [The last Crown Victoria was, interestingly, sold and shipped to a guy in Saudi Arabia.]

The Mercedes deal at Motorwerks is still in negotiation.

I’ll do a thorough review of the Town Car later on.