The boxy knife-edge Lincoln Town car from 1980’s—a design I could never warm up to—had really worn out its welcome by the end of that decade. So Lincoln decided it was ready get with it…as in actually being in the 1990s. The result was a very conservative dipping of the toes in the new aero-dominated style. The front end came right off the 1983 Mark VII; meaning Town Car buyers had seven years to get used to that. And the rest of the body followed suit: subtle influences from the Taurus and the 1988 Continental, which preceded this by two years. Safe, conservative, and bland.
In other words, perfect for the target market.
Under the hood, the good old 5.0 L Windsor V8 made its final outing, to be replaced by the 4.6 Modular V8 in 1991. Horsepower was stated as being 150, 160 with the optional dual exhausts. Not exactly a Hot Rod Lincoln, but quite adequate for the job.
The interior was certainly a bit cleaner than its predecessor, which was very much still in ye olde brougham mode. But everything is relative, and relatively speaking, this is still very traditional American style. The dashboard does not exactly exude genuine quality and style; the inevitable Mercedesication had not yet happened here. Traditionalists would feel right at home here; younger/import buyers/intenders, not so much. Or at all.
It’s certainly an improvement over what it replaced, but I always thought that the treatment of the rear window/C pillar/opera window was just not quite right. And the 117″ wheelbase is a few inches too short at the rear. But that was a perpetual visual massing issue with all the Panther cars.
In the last few years of my corporate career, these were the “black cars” of choice whenever I went to New York on business, either for budget/management meetings or to go on sales calls to the agencies with our NY sales reps. Taxis weren’t good enough for the Telemundo folks anymore as they had been some years earlier. Too hoi polloi.
I would have preferred to walk and take the subway; I always loved the NY subways since first riding on them as a kid. And the grittier they got in the 1980s, the more I liked them! Yes, I’m a weirdo. But I happen to like mingling with the grittier side of humanity. I walk right by homeless camps here in Eugene every day, and say hi to the regulars. They’re humans too, and looking folks in the eye and saying hello is a good exercise.
I’ve managed to drift off topic here, or have I? Cars like this were designed create as much of a barrier between the affluent and the poor as possible. And these Lincoln Town Cars did the job as well or better than any of them.
Paul, your irrational and biased hatred and loathing of any Panther chassis Ford product is most disappointing in a man of your profession.
Although you and I often agree on various cars; on this one we disagree.
I don’t see this article as being particularly negative. When Paul referred to the Lincoln as “Safe, conservative, and bland.”, that is not necessarily a bad thing. It has been Toyota’s business model for decades.
What exactly is my profession? To write polite little puff pieces about old cars, because someone pays me to do so?
For the record: I don’t hate or loathe these. And I never said I did. Maybe you’re projecting something. I clearly stated that these were a decided improvement stylistically over their predecessors.
The mission of CC has always been to put our experiences of cars into (honest) context. I just did that here. If that’s too stark, honest and…um, graphic for you, without getting triggered, that’s your problem, not mine.
Well Paul…..long time & observant readers have noticed that you have a soft spot for full sized Chevy cars…and as I do for Ford products.
The eternal “Ford vs Chevy” argument continues.
If you’re going to try to reduce this down to a 6th grade level “Ford v. Chevy guy” thing, I’m sorry, but I’m not playing that game.
I call them as I see them. Hence I’ve written over 30 GM Deadly Sins, including quite a few big GM cars.
FWIW, rest assured that if it came down to it, I’d take one of these over a comparable Cadillac Brougham. Does that make you feel a bit better?
And I rather liked the “aero” Ford CV, especially the first year ’92 without the front grille.
There’s more to cars than black and white. Or Ford and Chevy.
“There’s more to cars than black or white. Or Ford and Chevy.”
Yup! This is why you have so many loyal readers and responders.
One unusual feature of this car is that it’s a base model (i.e., not a Signature or Cartier), and with the standard wheel covers – it was relatively uncommon to see these wheel covers on Town Cars even back in the ’90s, let alone now.
My parents had a friend, Tom, who had a Town Car very similar to this one, though he hardly seemed like the typical Lincoln buyer. Tom was a rather gruff man who owned a dog food store located in an old warehouse, and he liked the Lincoln because the trunk could hold several 40-lb. bags of food for when he made deliveries to customers, and he could drive around in comfort. He usually drove with his large dog, too, so the Town Car’s interior wasn’t exactly clean. Tom’s Town Car was a ’90 base model like this one, though it was silver with a gray interior.
This particular car looks like it’s in great condition – I’m assuming these aren’t much of a common sight in Oregon.
Not exactly common. But I’ve long given up making assumptions about what I’m likely to find on the streets here. Stereotyping Eugene is bound to fail. We embrace diversity! 🙂
Flawed but great.
Mom had two. Disappointing packaging, but rust-belt fuel and brake line cluster failure aside, these were good for a lot of comfy,fairly economical (23+mpg) miles.
And weren’t all about affluence vs. poverty. As much as I mourn their end-of-life consumption clapped out as (or with) cheap wheels, a lot of people with lesser means got their fair share of second or third owner miles, and a lot of bang for their used-car buck.
As one who never buys new, I agree that these RWD Lincolns were a God send to those who needed more passenger and cargo room, but couldn’t afford expensive repairs. These were reliable, and relatively easy to repair for the home mechanic. Yet, they still looked nice, and had enough power.
I prefer the look of these pre-facelifted front ends to the narrower lamps and more upright formal grill of the later cars. Interiors too, I suspect were at their highest content in the earlier cars.
Agree….and agree.
I prefer the later cars, the smaller headlamps give it a bit more authoritative and confident look. Those big headlights, like the LS400, make the car look a bit “surprised”. The dash is likewise modernized just enough.
And besides, could you say no to this one, with green inside and out? Green leather. Green! When’s that ever going to come back?:
https://tinyurl.com/1iha9v36
Oh boy that is very nice indeed. What was the last year for green interiors? Did Ford make any aero-Town cars with it 98+?
With Lincoln recently rediscovering blue and maroon interiors, how about a green revival as well? I’ve casually considered a used base NA 3.7 Continental for the replacement to our Camry, and boy do I wish Lincoln extended those throwback colors from the Black Label series to the lesser trims.
1997 was not end of the line for significant choice of interior colors, but it was the end of green.
1997
Light Graphite
Ebony
Slate Blue
Cypress
Light Prairie Tan
Ivory/Dark Prairie Tan
White
1998
Light Graphite
Midnight Black
Dark Denim Blue
Light Prairie Tan
Ivory/Dark Prairie Tan
Oxford White
1999-2002
Light Graphite
Deep Charcoal
Deep Slate Blue
Light Parchment
Medium Parchment
Oxford White
Yes! I’ve had my fill of greyscale for a lifetime. Bring on the blue, red, and green.
I present the 2021 Genesis GV80, available with a Smoky Green interior colourway that pairs a brown dashboard with dark green leather upholstery.
The G80 also offers a navy blue interior where even the dashboard is blue.
Sweet! Real colors again. That’s a very nice looking interior.
William – now that´s a modern interior I could get to like. And navy blue plastic? Where´s my passport?
I have a huge soft spot for these, and a great deal of that fondness comes from living in Upper Manhattan through much of the aughts. In the days before Uber and Lyft there were certain regulations for taxi service in NYC and (from my layman’s understanding) above 125th Street it was acceptable for non-medallioned “gypsy cabs” to troll for fares. These were the cars, by the thousands, that served that purpose, along with the later aero style Town Cars. Early on a weekday morning it wasn’t uncommon to find a sea of these gliding down Broadway from their garaging locations up in The Bronx, starting their shifts, having just ended the last one. I lived at 139th and Broadway, and for $8 in the mid 00’s I could get as far North as 181st St or as far South as about 79th St in the quiet warm comfort of one of these old gals. My trips in these were usually late at night in cold or rainy weather (I’m a subway lover too, but sometimes a splurge is almost requisite in foul weather). My use cases for them made them such a welcome sight and a guilty pleasure that I can almost feel the radiating heat or and the smoothness of well-worn leather as I type this. Folding into those big roomy back seats and hearing the reassuring ka-thunk of that aircraft style door close after me made me feel like my ride was an event every time. Many of those cars had well over half a million very hard miles on them by the later 2000’s, but from the back seat they still made you feel like a million bucks, even you you only invested $8 to get home from a boozy dinner on a cold night.
The 2000 remake of “Shaft” with Samuel L Jackson guest starred rapper Busta Rhymes as a Rasta gypsy cab driver. His rig of choice? Lovely maroon square Town Car rolling on some custom rims
The square body Panther gets destroyed in a car chase, and at the end of the Movie Shaft hooks Busta up with a new Aero Town Car, also in maroon, with a vinyl top.
The square Town Car is even one of these earlier pre-facelift cars
A great thing about living in Upper Manhattan is when you get out of a show or what have you in Midtown, you can walk up to a black car, make your offer for a ride to Harlem or the Heights or Inwood, and off you go, while the tourists (and other New Yorkers who don’t go uptown) are looking to hail yellow cabs.
Though Uber et al have largely changed (i.e. ruined) that NYC custom, along with others.
For me it’ll always be the getaway car in “Heat” (in a slightly more recent iteration).
I believe that the opera window / C pillar combination was done intentionally that way, to give rear seat passengers a sense of privacy or luxury. I’m in a Lincoln, get off my lawn!
Whenever I look at these I wonder what it would have looked like with oval opera windows in the C pillars instead of that thin vertical window. Lincoln sedans usually had the ovals from the mid to late ’70s, and the Mark VI sedans that were offered as an alternative to the early ’80s Town Cars had them too.
I did see at least one bit of Mercedes influence in these – the outside door handles. Very few cars were using anything but pull bars in 1990; big grab handles like these were uncommon, except on Mercedes which used the same big flat style that Lincoln adopted here. Not to be confused with the older style fixed grab handles with a separate pushbutton to open the door, as still used on some big GM cars at the time. Door handles aside, the busy appearance of the pillars with all the chrome moldings is what bothered me most about ’80s Panther styling, and this area was cleaned up considerably in the 1990 restyle.
I drove many of these and would love to own one. They isolate you and make you feel safe. The door with their chrome 1952 Frigidaire door handle swing open giving you an easy enter. The door seals you in. The interior is quiet and wide. You can manspread across the leather seats. It is nice in front or in back.
The car handles well, better than the floaty generations earlier. You don’t feel like you are in such a large car.
We rented thousands, white ones for weddings. They became common. As used cars, they offer a level of comfort for families not found in smaller rides. They are inexpensive to repair.
Town cars aren’t a dividing point between the have and have nots because today, as many have nots enjoy them as much as the have had when they were new.
I love them.
> The door with their chrome 1952 Frigidaire door handle
Ford just can’t help but copy GM, can they?
I’ve ridden in a few of these, all livery vehicles and most with 200-300 maybe 400K miles on them. Still holding up, but definitely worn. In a partial CC Effect, I was just reminded of one TC in particular last night when watching a news story about the “endless war” in Afghanistan. About 20-25 years ago I talked with my Town Car driver who was from Afghanistan, and he was so happy to be here in the US with his family, running a small limo company. All high mileage Town Cars; as I recall the one I was in at the time had 275K and other than needing shocks badly, it looked good and he said it ran just fine.
I think that C-pillar/quarter window design was created specifically for the puffy vinyl roof that so many Town Cars had. Not that I’m generally a fan of such roof treatments, mind you, but this particular model just looks to my eye to be half-finished without one.
“created specifically for the puffy vinyl roof”
I’m going to disagree on this. I recall that early in this car’s run a vinyl roof was never offered from the factory. Also, I recall reading at the time that HQ was putting pressure on dealers to NOT add aftermarket vinyl roofs to the cars. FoMoCo was trying to bring these cars out of the Brougham Era and into the 90s in a way that might appeal to a younger demographic. Not that it turned out that way, but that was the intent in the beginning.
Ford never offered a factory Vinyl Roof on the Aero TCs.
Huh. I stand corrected.
Agree! No factory vinyl top available on the 1990-up Town Cars.
More than one car dealer, esp in southern Florida, may have added one for “additional dealer profit”.
Same myth abounds for the formal roof Cougars, but in reality every one you see with a landau top was not done on the assembly line. Lincoln/Mercury’s approach seemed to be to retain the stately formal styling elements of the Brougham era shed of the (literal) fluff to take them into the modern era.
I come here for the cars, but I stay for this:
“They’re humans too, and looking folks in the eye and saying hello is a good exercise.”
+100
These are my favorite Town Cars (which isn’t saying all that much, as I dislike the others), but the styling works far better for me than what came before and what came after, both inside and out.
While terribly unsafe compared to modern cars, I don’t doubt that they still drive smoothly and quietly, and somehow I’ve always an attraction to them.
That attraction turned fatal for my then-car back in 1992 when a TownCar such as this one lost control on an offramp and slid sideways into my lane on a rainy day (no traction or stability controls back then on these), causing my VW GTI to centerpunch it around the rear wheel area at 35mph or so. The Town Car spun off and into the embankment and was flatbedded away, the GTI was fatally wounded and off to the great autobahn in the sky. No injuries to anyone though so that was good.
Make mine Graphite with the Burgundy interior please.
I’m not sure about the 1990 since is was still on the old chassis but the 1991 did have traction control available. Yes it was low speed and shut off at 25mph so it might not have helped in that particular situation.
No idea what year the TC was besides being this style, it was a livery car, the accident was in the early ’90’s and involved the TC coming around a 180 degree hairpin offramp and then accelerating up a curving access ramp to cross the bridge. I was coming off the bridge the other way to merge onto the freeway. Raining, the TC appeared to fishtail after his 180 turn and then lost control to end up crossing the double yellow sideways into both northbound lanes where I was heading. That 180 turn would have been at under 25mph even in the dry, it’s a weird ramp.
Ramp was the Broadway off/on-ramp on the 101N in Burlingame, CA, some readers will be familiar with it (across from Rector Porsche/Audi, accident was more or less in front of Max’s Opera Cafe).
Familiar with it but it does look quite different today although Rector Motor is still seen on the west side of 101 corner of Rollins and Broadway. Lived in the Richmond District from 88-98 and was up and down the Peninsula quite a bit at night.
1990 era traction control was very primitive and not to be confused for modern day stability control, Ford’s particular system used it more of as substitution for a limited slip differential, using the ABS system to modulate the spinning wheel so power would get directed to the one with the most traction. It was more designed for leaving stop lights/signs in inclement weather, and yes it only even operated up to about 25mph. Worst yet back then the system only operated off of the ABS computer, with zero communication with the engine computer, so there was no modulation of the throttle or fuel control to gain additional traction, so if you put the pedal to the metal your rear brakes got cooked, later systems remedied that at least.
It was optional so of course it is possible that being a livery vehicle they didn’t check that box. As Matt noted since it didn’t cut engine power you could overpower it, if you just nailed the throttle to the floor in particularly slippery conditions.
@ Matt, yes since it was ABS only it relied solely on brake modulation to get the job done. However it did have a timer in the system so that you really, really had to try to cook the brakes. With my 1992 CV I caused it to engage frequently and yes the LR pads had a fair amount of life left when they were replaced due to the thickness of the RR. There was one time in the snow where I pushed it hard enough and long enough that it indeed did time out. After the cool down period it returned to working and got me the rest of the way out to the plowed street w/o having to put on chains.
I am not sure why, but I would rather own this generation of the Town Car than the one that followed it. I really dig the dark colors, both inside and out, and the whitewalls are perfect.
Unfortunately, as someone who likes a car that handles more than a car that rides well, I would only ever own any Town Car if it was a gift.
I am with you 100% on seeing these as an improvement over the prior generation. I also agree on the slightly awkward C pillar. One other problem that you did not mention is the exposed seam between the roof and the top of the C pillar, that was filled with a piece of plastic. From the time these came out, I saw that manufacturing method as an efficient way to build a mass market car like a Taurus or TBird, but Lincoln was supposedly trying to sell an expensive car that was worth the money. An old-school welded and filled seam would have made me feel better about the clean steel roof design.
I also agree that the 117 inch wb was too short. But it was a lot better than the 114 on the CV and MGM. If I were to buy another of these cars it would be one of these – for the seats and for the longer wheelbase.
Yes, that exposed seam was pretty bad.
As these became ever more important to the livery market, which was booming then, I suspect Ford was cutting costs wherever possible as the pricing for that segment was very competitive. Frankly, it seems that the livery market really became the prime target for these over time, rather than genuine luxury car buyers.
The livery market was completely in love with these when the production ended. I was attending used car dealer-only auctions at the time and buyer reps were snapping up all the low-mileage used Lincoln Town Cars they could to keep their fleet running them as long as possible.
One four year old Lincoln Town Car L did go through the auction with an astounding 271K miles on the odometer, known mileage and still looked great. Those fellows really rung the miles out of them!
Ford wasn’t exactly alone on the exposed seams covered with plastic strips, even in expensive luxury cars. Now a days it’s the norm
This type of body seam had been finished with lead to hide it, which required extensive – and no doubt expensive – steps to prevent workers from being poisoned with lead and lead dust. That probably played a factor in the use of exposed seams on both this Lincoln and the Mercedes shown by XR7Matt.
Geeber, it was all about cost cutting,The W124 Mercedes was based on the “baby Benz” 190 Series…..when the “all new” E- Class Series came out,they (consumers/fleet buyers) hated it and still do because it was not built like W123,old school BMW, or Peugeot 504.
Early 80s Premium priced-retail/fleet vehicles began the decline in build quality. Case in point,the obsolete Mercedes Platform (1980s E-Class Platform) is what underlies every RWD Peugeot-Fiat-Chrysler whatever it’s called in various countries throughout the World…..even in Italy,etc.the Chrysler 300C is labeled as a Alfa……..proof again,99.9% of consumers are dumb as hel& : –
).
Protection for the lungs was still in play for some vehicles then with brazed/leaded seams…..however a few minutes extra in saved labor/and following Honda’s lead of single “slab-sided” wall stamping was starting to catch on.
A few points:
1) The Chrysler 300C is no longer sold in Europe.
2) It was sold as the Lancia Thema, not an Alfa.
3) The LX platform was reportedly already in development and was pushed over the finish line after the “merger of equals” was formalised, with Chrysler borrowing numerous key components like the rear suspension and transmission to do so – not, as is claimed, the entire platform of the W210 E-Class. But then it had a pretty extensive update in 2011, so I dare say there’s even less Mercedes influence left under the skin – it’s an old platform, then, but not as old as you say.
This is a great interview with the LX program head:
https://www.allpar.com/threads/burke-brown-lx-car-leader-creating-the-300c-magnum-charger-and-challenger.237013/#post-1085245426
Here’s what Chrysler said at launch, per Automotive News.
The 300, which was introduced in Europe last month, gets 20 percent of its parts by value from Mercedes vehicles. Many of the parts come from the previous-generation E class, including the design of the independent rear suspension, the front-seat frame, steering column and cruise control stick.
https://www.autonews.com/article/20040712/SUB/407120821/20-of-chrysler-300-s-parts-from-mercedes
I was just going to say, the LX roots keep getting older to its detractors, at this rate by next year people will be saying the Charger is just a tarted up fintail!
I agree though the exposed seams is probably as much about about cost reduction as health and safety during assembly. QC is easier to meet without a blended seam too, I don’t really believe the stories that American vinyl top cars had subpar seam blending but I could picture it, every now and then you can find examples of old cars(especially Mopars) where the seam develops rust under the lead filler.
In Toronto these were almost all used as airport limos in dark blue or black. There was one privately owned in my neighborhood that was beige. It did not seem right in a light shade.
We rented one once to drive to North Carolina. There were 4 of us going to a race in Raleigh and we all had small cars. At that time you could get good rates with unlimited mileage on these or Cadillacs. The story was that they were used for weddings so they never built up any miles so they did not care if you put 2500 km on in a long weekend. It was certainly a comfortable highway cruiser, but way too large for a daily driver for me.
Not my dream car, but I’d be a boring perfect candidate to give one of these a home if I found it as “my Grandfather’s car” on Craigslist and I had the garage space. Shouldn’t cost too much to keep running, and pleasant ride for two or more when that’s exactly what you want.
Thanks for the snapshot of Eugene—which I’ve still never visited. My “sense” of the place is my takeaway from friends and relatives and acquaintances who have lived there, but I’m curious to check it out for myself someday….
I like these quite a bit, stylistically to me as a kid of the 90s seeing these they had the same presence of a W126, which it’s gingerbread predecessor never came close to. The Mark VII styling carryovers were something I think Lincoln should have owned through the 90s, just as 90s era Mercedes largely stuck with their 80s design traits. Instead Lincoln went the Mark VIII direction that took the brand into the nondescript jellybean mould with the 95 Continental and 98 Town car. The carryover Panther aspects are probably the source of the main failings, but also made them pretty resilient. While they may have been the vehicles of the upper crust shielded from the lower classes, when these vehicles made it down the depreciation ladder and normal folks got their hands on them they didn’t break the bank in repair bills and any shop could maintain them. The bodies seemed pretty well built too, the doors had that bank vault quality, interiors, while definitely in the American mould, used nice materials with lots of soft touch and were fairly robust to age related degradation.
Instead of saying what I was going to say, XR7Matt said it so much better. These seem to have more presence now than what followed. This isn’t to say I don’t like the last Town Cars, but they seem to have had a much longer run than these.
I will now pause to admire this generation of Town Car when I see it out and about.
To add to this, and as Paul has said, I also like the grit of urban life and miss it due to quarantine. I also try to make eye contact and say hello, as I would want someone to do to me if I was in an unfortunate position. We’re all human beings.
I suppose I had never looked at these cars to notice the exposed seem. I became a truck guy in the 80’s and totally lost interest in cars in general. But now when I look at that, how ghastly to bring a “luxury” car to such comeliness. Yes my F150’s have it too but it’s not a feature I appreciate. Say la vie … we buy anything we’re fed, which I suppose is a necessity of mass produced affordable products.
The one thing that stands out to me about this generation of Town Car is how it looks little more than a fancied up Crown Vic or Grand Marquis.
The round wheel openings are the same shape and design as those other two models….A different roof and greenhouse along with a different front and rear end but the Panther underpinnings still show through.
As a non-USA resident, I´d like to say these cars made for a lovely fusion of contemporary style with American values. I think this is a handsome and regal machine which served its market. I´d happily have one of these over one of the baroque steel castles from the 70s. What the car doesn´t do is match Mercedes 1980s quality. It´s still a well-made car and cost a lot less. What it wasn´t was a Mercedes competitor.
One thing that always bugged me about these is the J-shaped curved cut line between front and rear doors (when viewed from passenger side). The sharp lower rear edge of the front door must be murder on inattentive shins. It also makes the rear door seem very short on such a long car (and emphasizes the inadequate 117″ wheelbase)
I remember being completely bowled over by these when they came out. And being mystified by GM’s response. The tweaks made to the RWD Cadillac Brougham in 1990 somehow managed to make it look a little more like the *1989* Lincolns, which is to say “out of date.” Caddy’s 1993-96 edition was better but managed to look bloated rater than crisp, like these do. Then again, GM was treating the RWD big Caddy as a niche product then, while Ford was still going for significant sales volume.
I’ve heard the 1991’s had some teething problems in the first year of the modular. The ones around today are probably the good ones. The 1990-95’s are the ones to look for. Starting in 1996, the engines came with a plastic intake that always cracks. Also, the 1990-92’s can often be found with the base analog dash — once again, fewer things to go wrong. One more little secret, the interiors on the base Executive Series are incredibly durable, and they don’t really give up anything in luxury.
This particular body style (1990-1997) is my favorite of the Panther based Town Cars. Partially because of the availability of the “slick roof” (no factory vinyl or convertible tops). IF the 1980 to 1989 cars had been available sans vinyl half-roof I’d actually prefer their styling.
Still would love a Jack Nicklaus “Golden Bear” edition in the classic green and tan combo.
When I visited Seattle in 1991 to check out the University of Washington as possible choice for my higher education, I booked a car hire for a compact car (something like Pontiac Grand Am). After arriving in Seattle, the car hire agent apologised that the car suddenly became unavailable due to the mechanical issues. She offered me a free upgrade to Lincoln Town Car since other compact cars were already booked.
Whoa! I reluctantly accepted it because I was the 24-year-old guy at that time. I didn’t want to be seen as “New Geezer”, driving those vehicles favoured by blue-haired, Ben-Gay-scented, AARP-card-carrying seniors. Anyway, more I drove Town Car, more soft spot I developed for this car. This car totally changed my perspectives about Lincolns. I really enjoyed driving Town Car around Seattle. So much that I made an unplanned drive to Tualatin, Oregon where a good friend of mine lived. Perfect car for long-distance highway drive.
Only two negative things about this car are the crappy headlamps (very typical of Ford) and shorter seat tracks (again, very typical of Ford).
During the early 2000s I was a member of the Lincoln Club in Dayton – we had several members with this series Town Car. We had a friendly rivalry with the local Cadillac club. We agreed to disagree on most everything but one exception being the ride – when we gave the Cadillac guys a ride in our Lincolns, they would almost unanimously proclaim the Lincolns rode better than their Caddys…
Did these Lincolns have the same numb steering that 70’s Ford cars had? I drove a Country Squire and a Granada once as a teenager and found them more frightening than the ’56 Olds we drove to HS. I couldn’t tell by feel which way the wheels were pointed.
Agree. Early 1970’s #FoMoCo cars had numb, slow geared and vague power steering systems. It’s like they were (at least) one generation behind a same model year GM set up.
With the Panther chassis in 1980, the Lincoln power steering system took a quantum leap in the present. Each new generation added appeal to the power steering system.
I ranked the power steering set up in my 2005 Town Car to be the equal of any General Motors system. High praise, indeed!
In this generation there were at least several trim levels with a lever on the dash to adjust the steering effort (Low – High) the switch would be labeled and on the left side of the steering column mounted on the dash.
Although it was probably more of a selector for “One Finger – One Hand” steering effort.