Ford sure got a lot of use out of the venerable Panther platform, with Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models utilising it from 1979 all the way until 2011. Towards the end, Ford was quite comfortable to leave these models predominantly for fleet purchase: there were scores of Crown Victoria police cars and taxis, Grand Marquis rental cars and Town Car livery vehicles. Purportedly Lincoln’s flagship, the Town Car received little in the way of updates after a 2003 chassis revision. Ford didn’t much care: by then, the Panther platform represented pure profit.
And so, the public’s views on the Town Car were split: some viewed it as an honest-to-goodness American sedan (“they don’t build ’em like they used to!”) while others saw it as an outdated relic. My experience with the Town Car would place me in the second category. While I see their charm and admire their handsome lines, it was all too clear that towards the end Ford had deprived it of the modern technology, features and performance a Lincoln flagship deserved, although it had its advantages in reliability and servicing costs. Eventually though, Ford had to axe the Panther platform. But what of the crucial livery market that accounted for so many Town Car sales? Enter the MKT Town Car.
Despite comparing favorably to rival luxury crossovers in features, dynamics and build quality, the Ford Flex-based MKT never really took off, sales-wise. Its challenging styling was most likely to blame. Despite the presence of the Town Car-replacing MKS in the Lincoln lineup, Ford instead saw the higher ride height and roofline of the MKT as a boon for a livery car. Two livery MKTs were developed: a base, front-wheel-drive model and an all-wheel-drive limousine that could be stretched by up to 120 inches.
While the all-wheel-drive limousine came standard with a 3.7 V6, the regular livery model received a 2.0 turbocharged four-cylinder not used in the retail MKT. This 2.0T has 237 horsepower and 250 ft-lbs, or roughly the same power and 37 fewer ft-lbs than the Town Car. EPA gas mileage ratings pegged the 2.0T at 20/28 mpg, noticeably better than the Town Car’s 16/24 mpg. Still, the MKT weighs a good 200 pounds more and has less low-end torque, so one must wonder how it feels to drive compared to the old Town Car, not to mention how its modern, turbocharged engine compares to the old 4.6 V8 in reliability and ease of servicing.
Lest you think the MKT Town Car represents little in the way of progress, you need only look at the features list: all Town Cars come with a reversing camera, Blind Spot Information System (BLIS), SYNC, USB charging ports in the passenger compartment, push-button start and a stereo system with an AUX jack. Although initially only available with two rows of seating (the back row being pushed further back for extra legroom), a third row did become available as in the retail version.
I’m not sure how well the MKT Town Car has sold. Interestingly, Ford also offers a livery package for the MKS sedan and the Navigator L. I noticed when I lived in NYC that the MKS was very popular with livery companies, but the MKT was gradually becoming a more common sight. Seeing as the Town Car became almost exclusively a livery vehicle, I pose to you this: was it the gold standard, or is the MKT Town Car a better ‘town car’ than the Town Car?
I like the MKT from the standpoint of packaging and motion but it failed as a luxury car or limo due to it’s LOOKS. Ford tried to leverage Flex tooling as much as possible, therefore compromised MKT’s role to become a luxury car or prestige car.
From the outside, MKt looked like some sort of station wagon and appeared to be a shade narrow although once inside, it was spacious enough. People simply haven’t identify station wagons as luxury cars.
Clearly a premium reincarnation of the Ford Cortina wagon.
The Ford is cute though. Hahaha
Anything less than a120″ wheelbase and big V8 power with RWD is completely unacceptable. Lincoln needs to learn that and get back to it. That just might recapture some of the market they lost with the FWD POS they’ve been trying to push off as luxury cars lately.
Agree completely.
I wish they would have updated the Panther for the Town Car and stretched the Mustang to make an updated Continental and Mark.
These Alpha-Numeric FWD cars they’re selling now are kind of silly – if people want an Acura, they can just buy a real one.
Yet it’s a necessary reality. An auto company, for CAFE purposes, is treated as one entity. So, all the Fords and all the Lincolns get rolled into the same ball for CAFE purposes (Ford Motor Company). Mercedes and BMW are in sufficiently niche positions in the U.S. market where they can just pay the CAFE fines for not meeting fuel economy regulations and be done with it with little threat to themselves. Ford (and therefore Lincoln) is sufficiently large and sufficiently mainstream that trying to dodge the CAFE bullet would become very injurious to them. Ford buyers aren’t going to accept the added costs of CAFE fines being rolled into the products, and the federal government won’t accept a company the size of Ford telling them to piss off.
And besides this, most people don’t give a shit which wheels drive the car, as long as the car is nice. Audi’s doing just fine selling front-drive and all-wheel-drive cars, and no one questions their bona fides. Lexus has sold front-drive cars quite successfully for a long time, and no one questions Lexus.
Now, if the car’s not sufficiently nice and not sufficiently powered, the market will judge it accordingly. Setting forth V8 and rear-drive, though, is really rather arbitrary and does not account for the realities in which car companies do business in the United States.
TL;DR-if you want a big rear-drive Lincoln with a V8, go bitch at Congress and the president.
I remember Chrysler’s M-Body was subject to CAFE fines for a while before the end of production, and they would keep the car longer without the fines.
Lincoln, however usually can’t afford using a unique platform anyway. There has to be a good Ford to start with for a good Lincoln, and current Taurus isn’t.
Maybe Ford needs to get back to a RWD V8 powered full size sedan then.
Both Lexus and Audi aren’t much different than they always have been. There was always a FWD ES for an LS and there was always a FWD based Audi lineup. Lincoln built whatever prestige it ever had on glamorous rear drivers with rear driven proportions and characteristics. I’m sorry but there’s more to being “nice” than just being an otherwise good car, if it doesn’t fit the brand it’s placed in, it’s bad, period. It does matter what wheels are being driven when the drive wheels clearly dictate compromise.
And I think a lot of people DO bitch at Congress and the President, problem is if you want a deregulatory change to a consumer product you automatically get lumped in with the lunatic fringe side of politics and any possible hope of your desires gets lumped in with some other ridiculous bill trying to build the great wall of Murica on the border or something.
Well it’s not really a Town CAR so….
Having ridden in the real livery Town Cars, the MKT and the Navigator as a passenger during a trip in the spring, I’ll say hands down I preferred the Panther. The MKT and Navigator I had the misfortune of riding in the rearmost seat in both instances, which being over the axle doesn’t seem to be the place to be for a good ride – pretty big sore spot on a freaking limo. The Navigator was definitely the worst of the two, with a very jarring crash feeling the truck chassis gives you but the MKT still fent bouncy and jarring in a slightly more refined way, it’s big sore spot was the rear space itself was just utterly claustrophobic in the MKT, that kicked up side window from the inside is comically tiny from inside, shrouded with a super thick layer of insane asylum like wall padding, but in hard plastic. I was thrilled to get to the airport after riding in that thing, the TSA experience was more comfortable
Looks like another SUV version to me. Gee, I wonder if RR makes an SUV now. Damn, I just checked and they are coming out with one :(. However, with the V12, I have to hand it to them the fact that they have stayed with their engine. Lincolns need a V8 RWD.
the Rolls-Royce SUV is coming in a couple of years. The Bentley SUV is here now.
This has been said around here before but I sure wish they would give cars names. I have a terrible time remembering what is a MKT and a MKS. Problem even bigger with Cadillac.
As a stretch limo, not so much, but I think the regular ones look just fine in black. They’re plenty formal enough to function as a chauffeured vehicle.
Plus, they’re closer in profile to the original Lincoln Town Sedans than any old Panther-based Town Car ever was…
I agree. Current long-wheelbase Escalade almost looks similar to a Packard limousine in the ’30s.
You make an excellent point. 1930’s vehicles really are close to the profile of today’s typical “car.”
The MKT Town Car came so quickly on the heels of an old fashioned limo that persisted well into the modern era that I don’t think a lot of us have had time to come to terms that the MKT is the logical vehicle profile for the limousine / livery segment – and has been for the last several years. In reality, large numbers of executives, politicians, celebrities, etc., have long been stepping out of Suburbans and Escalades and smaller wagon bodied vehicles at public functions. When you consider that the U.S. Presdential limousine is essentially a megasized truck based SUV with a box trunk attached to the back, it is probably time that the next Presidential limo simply be based on an Escalade derivative body.
The side profile of the MKT is actually quite handsome, but the rear end styling has to be perhaps the worst of any vehicle made today – and the face is one only Bill Ford could love. It’s really strange that Ford hasn’t invested in a decent mid-cycle refresh on this – it couldn’t hurt retail sales – they are already about as low as they can go, and a homely baby in showrooms isn’t doing the other Lincolns any favors.
i work for a large resort with a fleet of limos. Many discussions about what to replace the Panthers with. Answer? nothing so far. Bought two Navigators, very popular, harder for some guest to clim into. third seat only for the limber and young, if at all. Bought a cadillac stretch, maintenance nightmare (both powertrain and conversion body issues) and it is much narrower than a panther. For larger groups – weddings, parties, we are considering a blinged out transit van. MKT looks dowdy.
In the San Francisco Bay Area livery vehicles aren’t nearly as common as in NYC, but they all used to be Town Cars. Now it’s far more diverse, with a fairly equal spread of MKT, Navigator, Escalade, Prius V and even regular Prius, and recently Avalon Hybrids. A few weeks ago I saw a livery Tesla Model S. With all due respect to Tesla’s technology, if I were a passenger with a flight to catch, I’d have range anxiety. One of the least comfortable rides I’ve had in a car, in the US at least, was in a stretched 2nd gen Town Car. I think they had only replaced two shocks, on diagonally opposing corners, in 400K miles, and the rear end was a benchmark for axle whine. I was relieved to get to the airport and get in a 747 for a 10 hour flight in coach. . By the way, I asked this question a while back but didn’t see an answer: is it “Emm-Kay-Tee” or “Mark T”? I mean, it may be a Flex (Edge?) but it’s also a Lincoln.
Starting from Zephyr, they renamed it MKZ and tried to pronounce it as Mark Z, but it failed.
Yep, this. They decided that they “wanted the focus to be on the brand, not the model.” Also, the T was originally for Touring. X was because Crossover. I don’t know if they bothered with S, as that whole “Mark Letter” thing only lasted about a week.
It was a stupid idea. I mean, if your letters make sense, then fine. But Lincoln’s didn’t even do that.
Lincoln’s model name makes sense at first but not so afterwards, and most likely they realized the problem halfway but too late to go back.
Some other names could make sense, like DTS, ETC and STS, STD for Cadillac.
Cadillac sells a Sexually Transmitted Disease?
That’s what that acronym means here!
Thanks. I think it’s easiest for me to just call them Lincoln Fusion, Lincoln Edge, and Lincoln Expedition. The first and last are most common, in private hands around here. But less common than Tesla’s or Cayennes.
Different areas have different proportion of cars. Around where I live, Cayennes barely exists. there are more Ford Fairmont or Audi 5000 than them.
Ford MKX is more or less a troubled product, as the first generation doesn’t turn out too well at all. First MKZ is almost a modern Lincoln Versailles but they figured it when developing the replacement. Navigator is really long in the tooth maybe replacement isn’t just ready.
a finicky Turbo 4 with less torque replacing an engine known to go 500k? And in exchange you get 4 mpg, in a luxury car? if you really need that 4 mpg, maybe you really shouldnt be buying a luxury car. you don’t need a backup camera or blind spot detection if you can see out the windows. A USB charger that plugs in the lighter socket can be had for 10 bucks. And if you must, put a radio with gadgets in. Giant fail compared to the classic real Town Car, without even discussing sedan vs SUV styling.
The powertrain issue is a real concern with livery use, the 4.6L Mod and whatever they called that autobox at the end was impressively robust.
Although if the MKT is like the Flex, it has the V6 Ecoboost.
If you’re a livery operator, costs matter. Four miles per gallon over hundreds of thousands of miles is a lot of fuel.
Took the words right out of my mouth. LOL
A Mc Turd. A 4 banger stretch limo, really, has Ford sunk that far?
Read it again.
“While the all-wheel-drive limousine came standard with a 3.7 V6…”
It’s the ghost from Highland Park.
The hearse conversion of this SUV is awful…the back panel is more upright but they use the same taillamp assembly, so the back of the car looks like a smiley face…it’s disturbing.
Unfortunately the Toyota Avalon might be the only 4 door sedan with decent interior room in the back seat, that doesn’t cost $60,000 +. A black Avalon with black leather is a snazzy looking vehicle, it’s about the only Toyota I can get enthused about.
My local Lincoln store recently went belly-up, replaced with Ford light duty trucks…guess nobody buys Lincolns any more. I suspect the only reason they even bothered to move the truck line down the street from the Ford store was that they have a lease on the building and might as well put it to use.
I checked an Avalon recently at the dealer & yes, its backseat legroom is excellent for a 6-footer like me (as always, I ensured the front seat was all the way back 1st). Seems like the sort of car Panther owners would shop for. Ironic, Toyota selling Yank Tank replacements.
If I’m not wrong from at least an assembly point of view, The Avalon IS a “Yank Tank”
Yes, the Avalon is imported from Georgetown, Kentucky. IIRC, it was designed in California (the CALTY studios). Its size limits its appeal outside North America (though it was sold in Australia for a little while).
The hearse conversion of the last-generation Panther Town Car wasn’t much better. I happened to see one on my way to work this morning (it was headed to Arlington Cemetery for a military funeral), and the conversion left the rear end looking very odd (it looked something like the attached photo, but in black).
Now that the Panthers are extinct and the XTS is on its way out, what will be the default platform for new hearses? Escalades, maybe?
Dressed up Chrysler Town & Country seems to be popular…add vinyl top and landau bars and a floor insert with rollers, and tah-dah, you have a pseudo-funeral coach.
It sounds like you’re describing the MK 300, one of my favorite weird new cars. They actually graft Chrysler 300 bits onto the T&C to make it look so…uh, interesting.
My corpse deserves so much better.
Speaking of Chrysler, here’s the Grand Final Voyager.
To be honest, I’ve never really understood why the MKT didn’t fare better than it has. I guess it’s too low and wagon-like for some people’s tastes?
For the average premium family hauler, it offers competitive features in a stylish package. I’d prefer it over a previous generation MKX.
In terms of the Town Car livery version, using the name “Town Car” is understood but still a little weird and frankly, unnecessary. The majority of black livery cars I see these days range from the Toyota Avalon to Mercedes E350 to Hyundai Equus. I don’t really think the name of the car model matters to most people being driven in it.
I wondered that about the Edge. The MKT not so much…it somehow looks more generic than the Edge and uglier at the same time.
I can see why they put this nameplate on this model, but at the same time I think it doesn’t really work. If the MKT survives into a redesign, maybe they can make it look more like a luxury vehicle. The current MKZ is quite attractive, and the upcoming Continental is a big step in the right direction–a real name rather than an acronym, and actual three-box styling instead of the faux-fastback style so popular on modern sedans–and which makes everything from an Altima to an Impala look like a steel leech.
I have a feeling the diversity will be short lived. The Town Car’s long term successor will almost certainly be the Mercedes-Benz Metris.
Not unless Mercedes has made a real effort to bring down maintenance and repair costs/needs.
It’s too bad- upon seeing an MKT for the first time at the 2012 Seattle new car show, it seemed to fall short of its potential. For one thing, I agree with Johannes Dutch’s comment that it seemed to be derived from an earlier wagon. My impression was, it looked something like a Country Sedan with half of the rear quarters lopped off. If they had actually used the lines on this and applied it to a full size SUV, it would have been refreshingly curvy when compared to the blockier Navigator. Just picture those back quarter windows stretched about three times longer and forget about stretching it into a limo. We’d have a station wagon on steroids :-p
In my mind, a proper Lincoln should have a little “gangster” attitude. These just don’t. Any stretched limo nowadays screams rental limo, so the prestige that they once had is largely gone.
In my view not so much “gangster” but “formality”. I don’t usually ride in limousines but did so this year as a groomsman. It was a black truck with a wet bar. It conveyed no sense of distinction whatsoever. I felt overdressed in my tuxedo even though I was supposed to be wearing one.
Amen. The whole wedding industry is a racket that still feeds of the picked over bones of a classier time. From the cheap suits with bits of fake satin tacked on the sell as “tuxedos” to ridiculously stretched out sedans that are “limos” only in the sense of being longer than usual, no one even knows what they are supposed to be copying any more. Same with the funeral industry and limos, what they usually have is just a base model Cadillac sedan stretched with a third row of seats added.
Proper morning dress and a proper Cadillac Series 75 style limousine is classy. Cheap suits with vests and ties color coordinated to wedding colors and a mere stretched sedan has, as you correctly pointed out, so sense of distinction whatsoever.
In order to be considered a prestigious limousine, the nameplate has to have a real prestige image which Lincoln largely has squandered. Passing off a black SUV as a limousine is a pretty pale effort by Lincoln marketing. The Panther platform Town Cars grew into that role and fulfilled it admirably, this thing isn’t going to make it.
If there any good reason the Panther platform couldn’t have been updated again in style but still maintain their reliable, easy-to-service powertrain?
Spot on. And no, there is no good reason.
D3 is why. Ford pumped a lot of money into that platform to make Five Hundred out of it, and when that flopped, they doubled down. Besides that, it was actually Jac Nasser that starved Panther of development money. All three cars were slated for major makeovers in the 2003-2005 era. Lincoln’s was to be first, followed by Mercury, and finally, the Ford. Nasser cut the program partway through, so the Panther team salvaged what was left and went with it.
This is why Town Car got the 2003 sheet metal refresh but nothing more. Grand Marquis got a grille refresh. Crown Vic got nothing. The thing is, the platform wasn’t inherently flawed, although it was old and heavy. But, I still think that, in 2005, they could have stuck the then-new 3v V8 that they were stuffing into the then-new Mustang and refreshed Explorer into the Panthers. Sheet metal’s easy on a body-on-frame car, and a modern powertrain would have gone a long way to pulling better mileage from that car. I’m not convinced it could have made it to 2015 as part of Ford’s product plan, but they could have better managed the transition.
They had this and ditched it. It could have done for Lincoln what the 300 did for Chrysler. Stupid, stupid.
Great post.
The decline of the successful Panther platform can ultimately be traced back to Jacques Nasser and his ill-conceived Premier Automotive Group venture – Nasser essentially starved Ford’s bread-and-butter products for development funds in order to finance his Volvo/Jaguar/Land Rover/Aston Martin vanity project.
And Nasser was the one who drove the Ford-Volvo purchase specifically to get the S80/D3 platform so, after all that expense, he couldn’t very well allow a decade old Ford platform to steal his legacy’s glory.
I’ve actually driven big miles in many examples of both platform (at least ten various Panthers and five D3s split between S80/Taurus X/Freestyle/Flex incarnations) and while the D3 is a nice driving vehicle with great packaging, I would take the Panther hands down in any use that involved high mileage and my own money.
The livery car previously conveyed a bit of status and if you normally used cabs you called a livery car for a special occasion. Of late, with uber and everything, all it is is a car that is cleaner than a cab. I’ve ridden in a few MKTs. The ride is not great, and there is no special feeling getting out of it. There are still old Town Cars in New York and it’s a very different feeling getting out of one of those, even with the decontenting of the final run Panthers.
So no, not worthy of the name, but it is worthy of the time, when livery “cars” are now largely SUVs and devoid of most pretense of class or distinction. Much like “first class” on an airplane, you’re just getting a cleaner, more expensive taxi with better legroom and a driver that speaks passable English and doesn’t eat in the car or engage in telephone conversations with his relatives overseas.
It needed “suicide doors”! As an aside, IMHO all stretch limos look tacky and cheap to me (ok for HS prom I guess) The last RWD Cadillac Series 75s were the last real limo. If I were wealthy I’d just have my driver use a stock black large sedan like a 300!
I think the stretch limos days are largely numbered, even when the panthers were still in production, in it’s final years I saw far more stock LWB livery cars than their stretch conversions around. I think your view(and mine as well) that they’re tacky and cheap more and more occupies the minds of most. Stretch limos are obnoxious cars for obnoxious partygoers. Nobody with class wants a ride in a rolling nightclub stained with liquor and bodily fluids.
I tend to think you are right.
Agree, really the 1976 model was the end. Yes the RWD 75 continued through 1984 but the door vs seat positioning is not quite in the right place on the smaller car, plus David E Davis’s review of it points out that they eliminated some touches such as the power divider.
Ummm, no. Lincoln has totally lost their way.
Paraphrasing the Vice-President debate sound bite from a few years ago: “MKT, I have owned Town Cars. I’ve driven Town Cars. I have rode in Town Cars.
KKT, you are NOT a Town Car!”
I think the MKT is the biggest mistake Lincoln ever made since the Blackwood. I’ve come to accept the trend of the big full-sized luxury SUVs, because in many ways they are just the logical successor to the big personal luxury coupes and large luxury sedans of old. But I will never accept these crossovers as “true” luxury cars, as the styling and compromises just limit them.
I think that the MKT is one of the biggest jokes ever thrust on the luxury market, and to give it the name “Town Car” is ridiculous. The MKT looks like what happens when you make a hearse with the front end of a baleen whale surgically attached to it. I have (mostly) accepted Lincoln’s lineup for what it is, but the MKT, along with the comparable Cadillac SRX, is little more than a cruel prank.
I guess it’s true, as long as you slap a luxury badge on anything, people will accept it as a prestigious product. Even if the product itself doesn’t convey any prestige whatsoever.
While we’re talking Lincoln, I have to say their new ad campaign sucks. The one with the guy who mumbles about nothing and looks like he’s rolling a booger in his fingers. The guy who is always without his wife/girlfriend with him. True success in life is not just owning a luxury car but pampering your woman in it.
had a buddy who worked at a small car lot/wreckers that specialized in buying x-town car airport limos for resale. it was not uncommon to sell one with 6-800,000km on it and see them do another 2-300,000 trouble free kms before being scrapped.
show me a mkwhatever with that kind of track record then we’ll talk.
Say what you like about the Panther Town Cars, but this is just an abomination. It isn`t even a car. Just another suv/cuv in a crowded marketplace.Absolutely hideous looking from the locomotive style grille to the roofline. It looks more like a cartoonist`s version of a contemporary hearse.When Lincoln is pushing vehicles like this, its no wonder they are at the bottom of the luxury class. Its a crime to call this abortion a “Town Car.”
I’m sorry. After about the 5th comment where I had to stop and google image search mkz, mkt, mks, mkc… Gag. I can’t keep them straight… Nor do I care to!
Lincoln has lost their way….umpteen zillion variations on the SUV theme and a sedan that looks like a Ford Fusion and a 1966 AMC Marlin had an illicit tryst. Add in alphabetic code ‘names’ that don’t mean a thing and you have a loss of identity. The Town Car nay have been practically prehistoric, but it was the one large black sedan with ‘presence’ (now apparently taken over by the Chrysler 300). The only bright spot is the Continental concept car Lincoln introduced this past year. Unlike the mish-mash that passes for their product line, the Continental provides a distinctive, actual real Lincoln identity. They can’t get in production fast enough…
That is just horrible. Its like they stretched a pt. Cruiser. That shorter wheelbase one looks like a tall station Waggoner. This whole concept sucks. No style at all. Not very Lincoln at all. Lincoln should have kept the town car with the new 5.0 and a body wrestling. The new Lincoln’s are not aspirational or special. I hate the lack of names. The turbo engines will not hold up like the 4.6 or rear wheel drive. 4 miles to the gallon even in livery service is far cheaper than fixing turbo engines and front wheel drive. I would not buy one period. Turbos always fail as to the overstretched engines. It would not surprise me if in the real world the mkt eats more fuel than a town car. I personally have driven Panthers as daily drivers because they are big smooth and comfortable and look good and at very reliable. That’s why I don’t drive Cadillac or Buick and I won’t drive a new Lincoln. A real Lincoln is easy to identify even with no emblems on it or nameplates. This sorry minivan looking thing has giant emblems but funny thing no one mistakes it for a Lincoln. A Rolls Royce has the style and luxury Lincoln is now lacking. Vladimir Putin’s car has style Lincoln used to have. Lincoln is a boring plain disproportionate ugly midsized car in a crowded market. To me it is like a Chrysler 200sebring. Lincoln is so stupid. Lets get rid of our iconic wonderful car that owns its market and compete with a Chrysler 200. Not a 300 but a 200. I don’t see rolls Royce or Mercedes building a car to compete with a Chrysler 200 while killing off their bigger cars and then telling everyone the 200 competitor is the best most wonderful car ever. Imagine a Chrysler 200 car with say rolls grill with a 3 foot tall godess of ecstasy on the hood. Or a Chrysler 200 with a Benz grill and a foot tall you’d ornament. Sounds silly doesn’t it. Lincoln should have known better. Not to much longer and Ford will be in rough shape when their turn is blow up and alienate millions of customers in a general motors like way.
I regularly ride in black cars for work and groan every time an MKT pulls up. I don’t care about the appearance, but the experience of riding in it is more akin to a minivan than a luxury sedan. The ride quality is nowhere near that of a panther TC and the back seat feels more like a thinly padded minivan bench than anything you’d find in a luxury car. You sit on it, rather than in it. Every so often a 400k mile panther TC shows up and it’s still a huge improvement over the MKT. The most common and (to me) best replacements so far are the Suburban/Escalade and Navigator. None are as good as a panther TC, especially the LWB version.
I suspect that the best replacement would be the Hyundai Equus, but I have yet to see one of those in livery service.
Re the Equus, I suspect because nobody wants to ride in a car that sounds like some kind of bodily excretion.
Absolute blasphemy to the real Town Car. A unibody, FWD, blob POS!
They reached Israel now… Pic: Ron Cohen
Some context with a Mazda 3 in the background
… and somewhere in the desert, the competition. Not where you’d expect one of those. Pic: Arik Handelsman Sadan.
Fewer and fewer families are ordering funeral limousines too…the going rate is $495 locally, and nobody runs 6 door professional cars anymore, so the limousines tend to be tacky super-stretch “party limo” units. The J-Seat makes most of the passengers sit sideways so anyone prone to carsickness will get nauseous.
I have watched an MKT-based stretch limo go over a speedbump diagonally, at low speed. The flex/movement visible in the roof as it went over the bump was truly alarming. I have also seen cracks develop at the top of the windshield header if the car was lifted improperly for a tire change, or even driven onto a flatbed truck for delivery without due care…scary how flexible the structures can be.
I continue to contend that the Avalon is the closest substitute to a proper Panther TC.
A hard riding generic FWD slightly stretched Camry is most certainly not a proper substitute to a Panther. Hell a Hyundai Genesis is far better suited for that role than any Avalon!
Yep, I’d agree with Joe. I think the previous generation Avalon was a decent looking car, but it doesn’t strike me as a Lincoln substitute. More like a brand new LeSabre or Park Avenue.
I’d say the Chrysler 300 is about the closest thing to a Lincoln Town Car made today. Still RWD, can be had with a V8 (but even the v6 makes around the same hp and ft. lbs. as a Northstar and the FoMoCo 4.6 v8) and they certainly have the big American luxoboat “presence”.