Lincoln Town Car.
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The Lincoln Town Car disappeared in 2011. Could a new one bring back the classic big American luxury sedan?
Probably. If anyone actually buys it that is. Lincoln brought back the Continental sedan for the 2017 model year and it wasn’t the success they had hoped for. Production stopped just 3 years later. And of course, blaming it on “Americans don’t want sedans anymore”.
What Americans didn’t want was a Lincoln Continental based on the Ford Mondeo. Sure, it was longer, but it just didn’t look the part. And it wasn’t a replacement for the Town Car either. It was also pretty expensive and had tons of super cheap-looking plastic chrome trim inside.
What would work better is a larger RWD sedan like the last Town Car. Of course, that Panther platform is long gone, and adapting the current Mustang platform would probably be very costly.
This might sound blasphemous to the old guard, but a large EV platform would be the only way to revive the Town Car. It would instantly become quieter and more powerful than it has ever been. Without even trying hard.
No one really knows what Ford is doing with their future EVs, (maybe not even Ford itself). We only know a 2nd generation Mustang Mach-e is still scheduled for the end of next year, and 2 new smaller models are coming later this year. A small pickup and of course an SUV. Both are based on a brand new simpler EV platform. And they will probably be called “BRonco something”.
A large EV platform for big 3-row SUVS has been delayed. That is probably the only one a new large sedan could use.
Cadillac is working on 2 new EV sedans. We are supposed to see these “soon” as they say. Let’s hope it will push Ford to compete by adding a new sedan to their SUV-only lineup.
As I recently found out, the Town Car still has tons of fans. Of all ages, it seems. It was a super reliable car and many of them can be bought for around $10,000 or so. Making it a great deal for those looking for a big luxury car that isn’t too old. And then, you start looking at various generations of the Lexus LS (why not). These are also not very expensive and reliable. And probably more sophisticated than the Town car.
Later, you realize you don’t really want to spend $10,000 on a car you don’t need at all. And that you just spent way too much time watching Lincoln TownCar/Lexus LS videos and maybe it’s just time to go to bed…
I like it. If anything, the Town Car should a bit taller to ease access to the back seat. See what Rolls Royce and even BMW iSeries have done. Make it super comfortable, we don’t need wide and low.
and please bring back actual bumpers, unsure why the latest styling trend is to have some sort of vestigial rear bumper, these cars are just prone to damage from parking lot incidents and low speed fender benders making them more expensive to insure.
Ford does have a fairly new RWD platform that they’ve seen to have forgotten about. There were rumors years ago that the Mustang, Ford Edge, Nautilus, and two sedans were to ride on the Aviator’s rear wheel drive CD6 platform. Unfortunately, those and other possible CD6 projects were cancelled. It’s just the Explorer and Aviator for now.
It’s a shame because I think that platform had a lot of potential. Right now I think they will continue utilizing the front wheel drive C2 platform and the new electric platforms.