Lincoln Mark IX coupe.
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The illustration above shows what a new large luxury 2 door coupe from Lincoln could look like. One that would complement the Lincoln Continental illustration I previously posted. A new Mark IV would continue a respected series in American car history.
The first of the “Mark” series was the 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II. It was priced at the equivalent of $112,000 today. Since it was 1956, Air conditioning was still an option.
After 1957, other models used the name Continental Mark III in 1958, Mark IV in 1959, and Mark V in 1960. These were much cheaper than the Mark II and unlike the original, not made by hand. They have all mostly been forgotten since. Especially when Ford decided to relaunch the Mark Coupe series in 1969 with the Mark III. Everything was back on track…
A new Lincoln Mark IV came out in 1972, a redesigned Mark V in 1977, and a smaller one called Mark VI in 1980. One that tried very hard to look like the previous huge generation in a smaller size.
The Mark VII was nothing less than an American Luxury car revolution when it came out in 1984. It was a perfect blend of European luxury car influence on an American car. And a very successful one.
The last hurrah came with the Mark VIII, which actually looked quite futuristic. Maybe even too much so for many Lincoln buyers. 1998 was its last year after a ghastly facelift adding a larger grille for 1997.
Of course, no one knows what Lincoln’s future plans are these days.
A couple of years ago we saw the Star concept. Which was supposed to be a preview of things to come for the luxury brand. Of course, since, Ford has revised their EV plans and even their own 3-row EV will now come out as a Hybrid. Which will probably end up replacing the Explorer. I guess the same might happen to that future Lincoln EV SUV.
While Cadillac is hard at work on 2 new sedans based on the Ultium platform. Lincoln has nothing like this in the works. Especially for the Chinese markets where sedans are still very popular.
Which is too bad. Once again, Lincoln will be behind. Not only behind Cadillac, but behind many other luxury manufacturers.
Lincoln having a hard time finding out who they are, being late won’t help…
Vince – What is the point of all of these “What a new version of legendary XXXX vehicle could look like?” They are never going to be made.
I do miss these land yachts.. in retrospect, they were special. the Mark VIII was great, the if you squint, its dashboard almost matches the new pillar-to-pillar screen dashboards of modern Lincolns. With a few updates it could be quite modern (and a PHEV or EV, of course)
and the illustration of the Mark IX (not IV!) is a bit “meh!”: nothing special about it, nothing that says “Lincoln”. I would rather see a retro modern Mark V or VIII
Ok.
Co-signing the first anonymous comment here. Why?
It would sell worse than the Thunderbird revival. They made every thing Mark/MK and the moment they steered away from that ridiculous decision, the name was dead for good.