1992-2011 Mercury Grand Marquis: 3 Generations?

The Wikipedia entry for the Mercury Grand Marquis (as of early August 2024) states that there were four "generations" of that model.   They were in place the following model years: first generation, 1979-1991; second generation, 1992-1997; third generation, 1998-2002; and fourth generation, 2003-2011.

For the purposes of this post, I ignore the first generation because, although it was based on basically the same chassis and drive train, the body was different from later "generations."  My point is that generations 2-4 consisted of a new (for 1992) design and subsequent bodies were simply mild facelifts of it.  So those generation designations had no serious styling basis, though they might have had in terms of chassis / power train engineering.  That is, my opinion is that there were only two design generations for the Grand Marquis: 1979-1991 and 1992-2011.

I make my case via the images below.

Gallery

1992 Mercury Grand Marquis - BaT Auctions photos
The new design.

1998 Mercury Grand Marquis - Cars and Bids Auctions photos
The first, most extensive, facelift included a new grille, bumper, hood sculpting and related details.

2003 Mercury Grand Marquis - BaT Auctions photos
The second facelift included a more angular grille and revised headlight assemblies.

Side views.

New side sculpting -- a more rounded belt and revised rocker panel.

Essentially no change for  2003 here.

Rear quarter view.

Rear end styling is changed.  Revised trunk lid, new tail light assemblies, new bumper, license plate relocated.

Shorter, wider horizontal chrome strip.