Will FoMoCo Kill off the Lincoln Brand?

I know. I don't know what everyone has against sedans or hatchbacks. An SUV is just a tall hatchback and you pay through the nose for that extra height!
 
The people that build the Expeditions and Navigators mostly prefer the Expedition. When I ask why they say it's more durable. The Lincoln interior tends to wear out faster and the leather is thinner.
 
I can go...months...many months...possibly a year between seeing a single Lincoln in the wild. Perhaps they're more popular elsewhere but here in MA they are very rare. Hard to belive on that scale they are a money maker.
I see multiple Lincolns daily, but they are usually a couple decades old.
 
I see multiple Lincolns daily, but they are usually a couple decades old.

Lincoln sells more vehicles in total than Toyota sells Tundras and I can easily see 5+ Tundras per day just driving around town. They must be selling them somewhere...
 
Info only, it was 1970, yes times have moved on.

This early-production example--one of only 3,073 Continental Coupes built for 1970--was specified with precious little additional content. Automatic temperature control air conditioning and an AM radio with power antenna respectively added $523.20 and $161.40 to the Coupe's $5,976 MSRP; that base price being roughly equivalent to $36,650 today.
 
I've been a Lincoln owner for 12 years of my 15 of driving life, and am on my second one. I come from a family of Lincoln owners, with easily close to 50 years of continuous history in the brand between someone.

My first was an LS, a polarizing car that I absolutely loved. The engineers wanted it to be a true 5-series competitor, but marketing got in the way. Rather than chasing the crowd who would have wanted a 5-series for a practical mix of driving enjoyment and space, marketing decided to pitch it more to the "traditional" Lincoln buyer as a smaller alternative to the Town Car, and also wanted the ride softened up. That happened on all but the "sport" trim models, which did at least have the full suspension the engineers wanted. Unfortunately, too, the LS seemed to be plagued badly by "Monday Morning Syndrome" and maybe even a whole host of other days :) . Mine never had an issue beyond what you'd expect as normal maintenance on a 150K car that I'd put 100K on myself, but I knew others who were plagued by no end of problems. One big members of the LS Owners Club had owned 4, and bought 3 of them new. His last new one, a 2006, was so problematic that he managed a successful "Lemon Law" buy back, something that I rarely hear of anymore.

After my LS met an untimely demise as "Vehicle 2" in a 5 vehicle incident, I ended up in the MKZ I now have. It's been problem free in the 60K or so miles I've put on it, but it's just a thoroughly "bleh" car for me and really does feel like a dressed up Fusion. I don't pay much attention to it other than changing the oil when it needs it and doing other maintenance jobs as they pop up, but I've never really bonded with it in the way I have other cars.

Less than a month ago, my dad bought a "stale" but new 2019 Continental at virtually a give-away price. I do really like it, but at the end of the day it not the smooth, effortless boat of the Town Car(my mom had 3 different ones) nor is it the tight and fun LS. I actually don't like it as well as the MKS he traded for it. The Continental is the direct replacement for the MKS, but I thought the MKS with it's true full sized(Taurus-shared) platform was an overall better car than the stretched out MKZ that is used for the Continental. I also have trouble adjusting to the push-button gear shift.

I should also mention that my dad had several 98-02 Continentals. His '98 was the first he bought, and when it racked up some miles he went on a buying spree on Ebay until he found the "perfect" low mileage black '01 to replace his '98. He sold off the ones he'd bought in the interim, and also kept the '98 around for a a couple of years after buying the '01. As much as he liked those cars, I never warmed up to driving them. Those cars made me firmly of the opinion that V8s don't belong in transverse FWD applications. Aside from the maintenance pains, the turning circle was nearly as large as the Town Car's(he didn't believe me when I said that, but off the top of my head the Town Car is something like 56' and the Continental about 51'), and it never felt as nimble to me as a mid-sized car should. Torque steer was viscious on it-if you stepped on the gas, you'd better hold the wheel tight(I use to set the steering effort to "heavy" when I drove it as it seemed to lessen this a bit) and it even the relatively low powered V8(by modern standards) would chirp the tires if you were even a bit too heavy on the throttle.

Lincoln has seemed for the past few years to me to be a brand looking for a customer. I'd initially thought the new Continental was a turning point, but it still doesn't live up to what I'd expect. I'd hate to see the brand die, and I also don't know what I'll get when the time comes to replace the MKS. If I had my choice, it would be the newest, nicest Town Car I could find, but even those are approaching an age where I don't know that I'd buy one with the intent of having a "Don't think about it-just get in and drive to work or wherever else" car.
 
I've been a Lincoln owner for 12 years of my 15 of driving life, and am on my second one. I come from a family of Lincoln owners, with easily close to 50 years of continuous history in the brand between someone.

My first was an LS, a polarizing car that I absolutely loved. The engineers wanted it to be a true 5-series competitor, but marketing got in the way. Rather than chasing the crowd who would have wanted a 5-series for a practical mix of driving enjoyment and space, marketing decided to pitch it more to the "traditional" Lincoln buyer as a smaller alternative to the Town Car, and also wanted the ride softened up. That happened on all but the "sport" trim models, which did at least have the full suspension the engineers wanted. Unfortunately, too, the LS seemed to be plagued badly by "Monday Morning Syndrome" and maybe even a whole host of other days :) . Mine never had an issue beyond what you'd expect as normal maintenance on a 150K car that I'd put 100K on myself, but I knew others who were plagued by no end of problems. One big members of the LS Owners Club had owned 4, and bought 3 of them new. His last new one, a 2006, was so problematic that he managed a successful "Lemon Law" buy back, something that I rarely hear of anymore.

After my LS met an untimely demise as "Vehicle 2" in a 5 vehicle incident, I ended up in the MKZ I now have. It's been problem free in the 60K or so miles I've put on it, but it's just a thoroughly "bleh" car for me and really does feel like a dressed up Fusion. I don't pay much attention to it other than changing the oil when it needs it and doing other maintenance jobs as they pop up, but I've never really bonded with it in the way I have other cars.

Less than a month ago, my dad bought a "stale" but new 2019 Continental at virtually a give-away price. I do really like it, but at the end of the day it not the smooth, effortless boat of the Town Car(my mom had 3 different ones) nor is it the tight and fun LS. I actually don't like it as well as the MKS he traded for it. The Continental is the direct replacement for the MKS, but I thought the MKS with it's true full sized(Taurus-shared) platform was an overall better car than the stretched out MKZ that is used for the Continental. I also have trouble adjusting to the push-button gear shift.

I should also mention that my dad had several 98-02 Continentals. His '98 was the first he bought, and when it racked up some miles he went on a buying spree on Ebay until he found the "perfect" low mileage black '01 to replace his '98. He sold off the ones he'd bought in the interim, and also kept the '98 around for a a couple of years after buying the '01. As much as he liked those cars, I never warmed up to driving them. Those cars made me firmly of the opinion that V8s don't belong in transverse FWD applications. Aside from the maintenance pains, the turning circle was nearly as large as the Town Car's(he didn't believe me when I said that, but off the top of my head the Town Car is something like 56' and the Continental about 51'), and it never felt as nimble to me as a mid-sized car should. Torque steer was viscious on it-if you stepped on the gas, you'd better hold the wheel tight(I use to set the steering effort to "heavy" when I drove it as it seemed to lessen this a bit) and it even the relatively low powered V8(by modern standards) would chirp the tires if you were even a bit too heavy on the throttle.

Lincoln has seemed for the past few years to me to be a brand looking for a customer. I'd initially thought the new Continental was a turning point, but it still doesn't live up to what I'd expect. I'd hate to see the brand die, and I also don't know what I'll get when the time comes to replace the MKS. If I had my choice, it would be the newest, nicest Town Car I could find, but even those are approaching an age where I don't know that I'd buy one with the intent of having a "Don't think about it-just get in and drive to work or wherever else" car.
Ditto about the new Continental not living up to brand expectations.
I had two 1998 and one 2002 Continentals.. All three were GREAT cars Put over 100k miles on each of them.
Then I got crazy and because of the reputation and the great previous Continentals, I bought a new 2017 Continental.
What a POS. Although dealer tried fixing and /or correcting things, still had problems, car was still a POS.

Hated that car. Got rid of that POS ofter 4 months of ownership.
 
as to who buys Lincolns.... My Uncle for one... He's a traveling sales Rep for various hardware and plumbing companies in his early 70's, and his last several have been Lincolns.
since 1995, he's had:
1995 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI (C4C, w/ 300k+mi)
2006 Zephyr (Sold Summer '14 ~100kmi, $10k)
2009 Hyundai Tuscon (traded in 2 years later on...)
2009? CPO MKX ( Drove out to 150k mi, Traded in on)
2013 MKX (Sold Last Summer, 154k mi, $4k)
2017 Continental - His personal miles, "around town" car
2019 Nautilus (replaced the MKX)

re: his continental... he has a cousin who is always trying to show how much better off he is than the rest of the family, even worming his way into inheriting their one well off uncles' entire estate...but i digress...
uncles talking to the cousin one day, cousin mentions the new continental, says he's considering buying one... My uncle tells him he had just ordered one himself, suddenly the Contiental was "beneath" the Cousin. he decided right there to get a Mercedes instead... (2 years later he traded the Merc, on a new Black label Navigator[$100k+]...still has to show everyone he's the best)
 
Last edited:
I don't think Ford will ditch Lincoln....if they do it will be admitting that they can't compete. The whole idea of Ford being a truck-only company is a mistake in my opinion.

*I believe that legacy costs are making it difficult to compete with companies like Hyundai/Kia etc...
"legacy costs" - meaning unions wages and future pension obligations?
 
My brain is still imprinted on the days gone by when a Caddy or a Lincoln were large cars, not these sissy things they try to pawn off on folks today...

They are simply appealing to the current market, if they want to stay relevant that is what they have to do.
 
"legacy costs" - meaning unions wages and future pension obligations?

Sadly I see Ford declaring bankruptcy soon. The unions are crushing Ford in the free market. I really do love their cars, even though the ones I have bought have been very unreliable. Ford cars always had great suspension tuning and reliable engines. I have owned a 1978 LTD (used), 1990 Taurus (new), 2005 Taurus (new).

I drove a Lincoln Town car when I worked in car service and those things were built like tanks. They constantly broke down, but they had like 500k miles on them...so. I drove one with 580k miles and the engine was so worn out the car would barely move. It must have made about 20hp.
 
Sadly I see Ford declaring bankruptcy soon. The unions are crushing Ford in the free market. I really do love their cars, even though the ones I have bought have been very unreliable. Ford cars always had great suspension tuning and reliable engines. I have owned a 1978 LTD (used), 1990 Taurus (new), 2005 Taurus (new).

I drove a Lincoln Town car when I worked in car service and those things were built like tanks. They constantly broke down, but they had like 500k miles on them...so. I drove one with 580k miles and the engine was so worn out the car would barely move. It must have made about 20hp.

I agree about the Ford 'suspension tuning'...my 14' Focus (5spd MT) handles like a sports car on twisty roads...far better than my Toyota, Hyundai, Cruze etc...The suspension also seems stronger...I haven't needed a wheel alignment yet in over 50K miles on New York's terribly maintained roads....this wasn't the case with my other cars.
 
Back
Top