I knew the subject is old, but I still want to agree that we can use [M8*] codes for Town car and other Lincoln car
It seems like we have more [M8*] codes rather than [SI4]
As dhill said, we already use [P7*] and [M7*] for lots of cars on site, and since other cars using Panther platforms follow this pattern, why rule out Town Car?

https://imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=66712

https://www.idmsvcs.com/liquid/data.html - here is the breakdown I am referring.

Copy and paste of a generic listing:
Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) Decoder: (default is the number in my VIN, open the dropdown box to see what else can be in that place)
1., 2., 3.: World Manufacturer Code:
2FA - Ford, Canada, passenger car
4.: Vehicle Restraint System Type Code:
F - Active safety belts all positions, second generation air bags, Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, Escort, Tracer
5., 6., 7.: Vehicle Line, Series and Body Type:
P74 - Crown Victoria LX
A breakdown of what comes on a P71, P74, etc is available here.
8.: Engine:
W - 4.6L 281ci EFI (SOHC), eight cylinder (Romeo), Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, Town Car
9.: Check digit:
X
10.: Model year:
X - 1999
11.: Assembly Plant Code:
X - St. Thomas, Talbotville, Ontario (Canada), Crown Victoria, Grand Marquis, Marauder
12 through 18.: Production Sequence number:
100001 to 599999 - Ford


From the official Ford 2002 VIN breakdown PDF:

M81 Town Car Executive 4-Dr. Sedan
M82 Town Car Signature 4-Dr. Sedan
M83 Town Car Cartier 4-Dr. Sedan
M84 Town Car Executive – L 4-Dr. Sedan Long Wheelbase
M85 Town Car Cartier – L 4-Dr. Sedan Long Wheelbase
M86 LS V6 4-Dr. Sedan
M87 LS V8 4-Dr. Sedan
M97 Continental 4-Dr. Sedan

M74 Grand Marquis GS 4-Dr. Sedan
M75 Grand Marquis LS 4-Dr. Sedan

P70 Crown Victoria Commercial – LWB 4-Dr. Sedan
P71 Crown Victoria Police Interceptor 4-Dr. Sedan
P72 Crown Victoria S (Fleet-LPO:Commer. App.) 4-Dr. Sedan
P73 Crown Victoria Base 4-Dr. Sedan
P74 Crown Victoria LX 4-Dr. Sedan

https://www.fleet.ford.com/content/dam/aem_fleet/en_us/fleet/vin-guides/VIN2002.pdf

Hi all,

Upon speaking with antp he instructed me to get feedback or consensus from the community. I am in no way calling out anyone. This is purely a discussion on how we classify certain FoMoCo codes on our site.

We can discuss other models but mainly for body code vs chassis code. There was a change recently with the panther codes we use without discussing with the community.

For over a decade we used [P70/71/72/73/74/75] as the chassis code for the Crown Vics. A few years ago this same process was adopted to the GM [M74/75] and more recently to the Town Car [M81/82/83/84/85].

I will follow up with a site for breakdown and a few examples.


*If the community chooses to use body codes vs chassis codes the WE have a lot to change. Simpler would be to keep the same system we currently use as changing 1000s of entries would be counter productive.*

Please let us discuss how we want to proceed. Again I am not calling anyone out. This is a discussion as a community. Thank you.