Big news for Crown Vic fans, (that means you, ford guy )
As quoted from Wikipedia:

"Ford has reportedly announced that it will "freshen" both the Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis for the 2009 model year. Suppliers are working on chassis upgrades along with cosmetic changes. Ford has told the Canadian Auto Workers that it will invest $200 million in the vehicles, which are assembled in St. Thomas, Ontario."

I'm so excited! I can't wait to see what it will look like!

EDIT: Got more info on it from autoweek.com. Note that the last part is not true because the Town Car is still in production even though the Wixom plant has already closed

Ford Crown Victoria, Lincoln Town Car, Mercury Grand Marquis

The fate of the ancient Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis is becoming clearer.

Suppliers are working on some chassis upgrades for the 2009 model year, although cosmetic changes are expected to be limited to a freshening. Ford has told the Canadian Auto Workers that it will invest $200 million in the vehicles, which are assembled in St. Thomas, Ontario. The vehicles date back to 1978.

Ford also has told the CAW that it will reduce production at the plant to one shift beginning in the 2007 calendar year and that the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis will be phased out somewhere in the 2010 to 2012 time frame. In the meantime, expect the bulk of Crown Victoria sales to continue to be police cars and taxicabs.

The platform is shared with the Lincoln Town Car. Lincoln's sedan likely will be dropped in the 2007 calendar year when Ford idles the Wixom, Mich., assembly plant, where it is produced. Ford has told the CAW that it will not move the Town Car to St. Thomas once Wixom closes. It is unlikely that production of the Town Car would be moved to any other plant.

That is somewhat good news, but that just means the inevitable has been prolonged ...

As Neptune said, all this means is that the inevitable is only going to be prolonged for 1-2 years. This is most likely because they'll need more time to perfect the ultimate sucessor to the CV, not because of "fan" outcries or something like that. I expect the "freshening" to be along the lines of the facelifts that occured with the Super Duty trucks. In a few months we'll know what they'll look like and those new cars should be hitting the streets by summer if all goes well.

Awww... come on now guys, I thought you'd be happy about this ! But instaed you're just like "oh well, they're just goning to kill it off in couple years anyway..."

Don't get me wrong, I love the Crown Vic. It's been a very dependable car all of these years and I'm glad to see that it's getting an extension. But all good things have to come to an end, as will this car after 11 amazing years. I just hope that Ford can live up to it's record and produce another good police model after the CV.

Ditto, I hope the Crown’s replacement is a worthy one. That way at least the current CV won’t die in vein. Another matter I have wondered about is the name itself, will Ford discard the name "Crown Victoria" or will they re-apply it to the new car? (when it arrives)

I find crazy that they do not seem to consider that model as more important: they sell so much of these to police, taxis, fleets, etc. These must bring some money, no?
I also find strange that the rival makes do not try to make a competitive model. The Impala does not seem much used, unlike what was the Caprice in the 90s.

Why do you think they dont consider the model as more important?

Didn't they announce at a time that they would stop the model without presenting its replacement? Usually when they stop a model it is after the new one is shown...

Neptune, I believe that a name change is in order. The Crown Victoria name has been around since 1983, anyways. The reasons why Ford is ending production of the CV is because:
a) they plan on retiring the Panther platform all together
b) the car never really sold well in the civilian market
c) simply putting it, the current gen Crown Vic has been around since 1998, with the design itself dating back to 1991 (with the 1992 Grand Marquis)

The Chevrolet Impala itself is not popular for many reasons, but if I remember correctly, it held 15-20% of police car sales before the Charger came out. Now the Charger is proving to be serious competition in the police car market, although it will never be as popular or widely-used as the Crown Victoria. Two of the foremost law enforcement agencies in the country, the California Highway Patrol and the NYPD, will not be using it as a market patrol vehicle.

I read recently that Ford has no plans on green lighting the Interceptor Concept Car. But, that "parts" of it (I am assuming they mean mechanical parts) will find their way into a future RWD full-size car ... (That future car – whatever it is - sounds like a possible CV replacement) I’ll see if I can find that article.

They're actually thinking about bringing over an extended wheelbase version of the Ford Faclon from Austraila as a replacement (I believe they call the long wheelbase model the LTD there)
It's rear-wheel drive and has a much more powerful engine than the Crown Vic does, although it is not quite as big as it is only about 202 inches long and the Crown Vic is 212 inches long

So they're just mimicking GM's Pontiac G8 then

The Ford Crown Victoria has been retired to fleet only sales for the 2008 model year, and will be discontinued altogether in 2009 or early 2010 (or so I hear). The Mercury Grand Marquis is already gone, but I think the Lincoln Town Car is still being sold to consumers. Not sure. The "updated" version was for export markets only or something like that.

The Grand Marquis is not gone by any means, and niether is the Town Car (here's a link to the Gr. Marq's site even: http://www.mercuryvehicles.com/grandmarquis/ )
And the Crown Vic (or the other panther cars for that matter) is NOT being discontinued for 2009.
02Silverado4x4, did you even read my first post?

I knew the Grand Marquis was still around, but I thought Ford stopped making the Lincoln Town Car a few years ago. I'm surprised to find I was wrong:

http://www.lincoln.com/towncar/home.asp

Don't forget taxiguy, Wikipedia is not always very accurate. I think the best source to reading about future cars are car magazines, like Motor Trend.

UPDATE: Ok, it's offical, Ford will be bringing the Australian rear-drive Falcon platform to the US as the replacement for the Crown Victoira, and 2011 will be the last year for the Crown Vic and other Panther cars. For more, read this:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080324/AUTO01/803240338/1001- /BIZ

I like the Panther cars. I always had a soft spot for them. Since they are so old I see them as a reliable vehicle since I'm sure that Ford has worked all of the kinks out of them back when Regan was president. I think they do have some life left. After all the Grand Marquis is Mercury's best selling model as well as the best selling full-size car. Since the Crown Vic mostly sold as fleet they should leave it for that. Obviously cops like them. What Ford should do is leave the CV to fleet sales and make a new model for retail.