"Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
05/11/2015 at 09:00 • Filed to: None
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"Matthew Phillips" (flatsidewaysfl)
05/11/2015 at 09:00 • Filed to: None | 1
| 7 |
I’ll admit it, I’m obsessed with this topic, but when Bentley commented on the design of Lincoln’s Continental I might thave taken it personally. I was born in the 90’s and my generation of Lincoln saw the end of a great era and the beginning of the lost.
The intrusive 90’s bubbles like the 98 Town car and the Continental (which I like ). We saw Lincoln try to stand out, with two Pickup trucks spanning three different Generations of F150, Three generations of Navigator, and the LS. I like to relate the LS to the Pontiac GTO, it gave enthusiast everything we wanted. Rear wheel driven V8 power, sourced from Jaguar themselves, but it was bland looking just like the GTO,G8, and SS. We pointed our noses in the air and said it smells great, but I still don’t want to eat it.
Meet the MKR, this is the car that we were teased with. For years, we were promised a return of a Lincoln from the 50’s and 60’s and instead we got the MKS,T, LT, C,X and Zzzzzz. It was an acquired taste. I enjoyed it on the MKZephyr and it’s replacement, as well as the New MKC. I thought it was brilliant. It was weird and space age, an American Infiniti. I think it was killed off too soon. But it was executed irresponsibly and like classic Lincoln fixed too late.
Well we all know where that puts us, I like to compare the New Lincoln’s styling to the early 90’s. Lincoln is going to play it safe and for now that’s not a bad Idea, but the complete opposite of what they need to do. I bring this up because a customer pulled up in my workplace in a vintage factory fresh Town car yesterday, just like the one in the header, and I looked at that and saw the new Lincoln. They have not changed in the past twenty years. They have simply revamped the same formula over and over. This is truly the Lincoln from my generation, Lost. Reading this you might be unclear on my final thoughts about Lincoln, frankly I still like them. The Continental design language reminds me of that from the early to mid nineties, an era where Lincoln still was the first stop of many American luxury buyers. It was subtle in the right places and striking in the right places, unlike Cadillac. Subtle is good.
Lincoln is dead, long live Lincoln.
JR1
> Matthew Phillips
05/11/2015 at 09:22 |
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I suppose I don’t follow you like or dislike the current Continental?
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Matthew Phillips
> JR1
05/11/2015 at 09:36 |
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Both
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JR1
> Matthew Phillips
05/11/2015 at 09:41 |
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It is progress. And that is what Lincoln needs
Manic Otti
> Matthew Phillips
05/11/2015 at 17:49 |
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From Wikipedia:
The second generation Town Car was an overwhelming sales success and became one of the best selling full-size U.S. luxury sedans. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Town Car sales regularly exceeded 100,000 units with 120,121 Town Cars being sold in 1994 alone. [15] The vehicle was so widely received that it was named the 1990 Motor Trend Car of the Year .
They went from that to: “Let’s replace it with SUV’s”.
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Matthew Phillips
> Manic Otti
05/11/2015 at 21:59 |
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Exactly,but Ford was on a roll in the early 90’s.
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Manic Otti
> Matthew Phillips
05/12/2015 at 11:47 |
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Then decided to concentrate on SUV’s because they were more profitable. One thing I just noticed about the last gen Town cars is they had encased quad round headlights. Sort of a modern subltle Torino-style setup.
MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
> Matthew Phillips
05/12/2015 at 11:57 |
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So as a guy really closely tied to Lincoln and Ford in general, who owns 2 Mercury’s and loves classic Lincoln, mid 80’s Town Cars, and modern Lincolns I’m still not sure how you feel.
Especially with the Zzzzz comment. Never forget the MKZ AWD Ecoboost with Pilot Sport 2’s beat a stock M5 on a slalom course. Is it cheating to upgrade the tires? yeah if you lie about it, but 1200 bucks in tires to beat a car that costs 30k more is worth every penny.
I wanted to buy an LS, but they are tragically unreliable (they imported that from Jaguar with the parts haha). Unfortunately I couldn’t afford the MKZ so I bought a Milan, one more notch down.
The problem right now is just perception, they’re great cars and aren’t targeting the same crowd as Caddy which is a wise choice. They want to build comfortable, capable, reliable cruisers. Caddy wants sports luxury.