19th Sep 2011, 10:30
Anyone bemoaning the fate of the late full size Lincolns or their Crown Vic cousins needs to understand why they're now gone. The reason is because these cars were outdated and outclassed. Nobody is ever going to come back and say that a 90's Lincoln Town car was hot or sexy. They were big. bloated, style-less land yachts.
You want to talk about classy cars? Well I for one own a 55' Mercury Montclair. A huge 22 foot long whale of a car. The difference between my car and say - a 90's Town Car, is that mine has style. It's a beautiful, finely sculpted piece of steel with a bright interior highlighted with chrome accents. That versus the 90's Town Car with its boring, uninspired exterior design, and dated and somewhat overly cushiony interior. You shown anyone a 63' Lincoln Continental with suicide doors and a 90's Continental, and there would be no contest: The 63' still looks beautiful.
American car makers made stunning, beautiful full-size cars up until perhaps the mid 70's. Then they started making just boats. Big boats for old people to drive to all-you-can-eat buffets in Florida. That or they filled orders for fleet services - like cop cars and Taxis. Yes - Crown Vics made great cop cars and Taxis, but they were so far behind in comparison to anything BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Acura and even Cadillac, that they were basically relics.
Also - anyone claiming Lexus makes a faulty luxury car clearly doesn't know much about them. I've seen my fair share of these - many with well over 200,000 miles - that are barely even broken in. The fact that a 90's Lexus will often times command as much as a 50% higher price than a Lincoln of that era tells you people find them more highly prized- given their tendency to basically run forever.
My hope is that Ford decides to go back to the drawing board and re-launch Lincoln brand in a way that it was meant to be: Not big granny-mobiles, but rather big, sleek, beautiful cars that everyone desires to have. That's where the measure needs to be pushed.
20th Sep 2011, 23:07
You can bash and criticize full-size domestic styling all you want, and it still won't change the fact that these cars from the mid 70's and beyond have a huge fan-fare, and someday, if not already, will be considered a collectable such as the late 70's and early 80's, which are becoming more desirable everyday. Most full to mid-size GM and some Fords from this era in mint condition and low miles, are selling for the same and in most cases more than they sold for new. I had a 77 Grand Prix as a classic that I was driving on weekends for a few years, I sold it for 7 grand, and the price of the car in 1977 was a little over 5 grand. Cars from the 50's should not even be compared to the era we are taking about, because back then every model had its own distinctive styling. The days of tail fins, wide white walls, pastel colors and 50's beauty pretty much ended at the end of that decade.
Also, I live in a very populated part of South Florida, and I can assure you that there are thousands of 70's, 80's, and even 90's full-size domestics that are still on the road, and being driven by people of ALL ages.
I myself have also seen a fair share of Lexus models topped out at 200,000 MI. Big deal, that doesn't make them better than my Town Car. Once again styling is an opinion, and if you ask me mine, the Town Cars from the 90's put the LS 400's from the 90's to shame as far as styling. I will hand it to you that they were reliable, but so was the Town Car, another reason why they sold well. My 96 has over 160,000 MI and still looks and runs like new. Sorry to disappoint you, but I do get compliments on what a nice looking elegant car it really is.
21st Sep 2011, 10:56
"You can bash and criticize full-size domestic styling all you want, and it still won't change the fact that these cars from the mid 70's and beyond have a huge fan-fare, and someday, if not already, will be considered a collectable such as the late 70's and early 80's, which are becoming more desirable everyday."
Re-read my post. I was not "bashing" full size domestic styling wholesale. More so the styling - or lack thereof - of the styling on most larger American cars from the late 70's-90's and early 2000's. As stated, I myself own a classic full size American car - a '55 Mercury. Anyone that wants to claim that some 90's Lincoln or Caddy has style is going to get a snicker from me, and most anyone else that collects and restores true classic cars. Also - have you seen what classic Datsun 210's, 510's, 280Z's, or older Toyota Celicas from the 70's are going for now? These things command BIG bucks these days.
But just to prove I'm not one of those anti-domestic so and so's, I am actually a big GM and Ford fan. Why? Because for the last 6-7 years they've done a great job of turning their companies around. They stopped making the crap they used to spew out as more of a commodity than as a car with style and character. A lot of us car nuts are sort of saying "Welcome back" to the big 3 after they spent decades making uninspiring, boring, and in many cases poorly built vehicles. We will not be missing cars like the former Town Cars, Continentals, and New Yorkers these firms used to pump out year after year. On the other hand, I am a big fan of engineering, and my hat is off to the likes of Honda and Toyota. Partially because due to their competitive products, they basically forced the big 3 to make better products.
"Also, I live in a very populated part of South Florida, and I can assure you that there are thousands of 70's, 80's, and even 90's full-size domestics that are still on the road, and being driven by people of ALL ages."
Not surprising, FL being the retirement capital of the world, with tons and tons of old people. Yes - I would imagine there are just tons and tons of Lincolns, Caddys, and Oldsmobiles around there speeding along to get to the closest all-you-can-eat buffets.
"I myself have also seen a fair share of Lexus models topped out at 200,000 MI. Big deal, that doesn't make them better than my Town Car."
Various consumer magazines and reports would beg to differ.
21st Sep 2011, 18:05
Styling is always a matter of individual taste, but I do have to say that domestics of the 50's will never be equaled in terms of opulence and individualistic design. Virtually any car from that era is a classic.
The 60's had their share of classics as well, such as the Mustang (of which all models are classic up to the present).
As another commenter pointed out, most domestics lost their edge in styling in the late 70's, and only a few have turned out truly distinctive designs since, such as the Corvette and Viper, and most recently the awesome Cadillac CTS-V.
A few newer Japanese cars have managed to come up with very nice styling as well. I was wild about the Infinity G-35 and came close to buying one in 2007, until I researched the reliability and found it well below Ford. I also found the price 10-grand higher than a better-equipped Mustang, which is what I opted for. The new (and very similar) G-37 is also very beautiful, though also plagued with Nissan's poor reliability.
As for Lincoln, my family owned Town cars from 1984 until 2008. The early squared off styling of the 80's models was very distinctive. After that body design was changed, all Town Cars looked like a Lexus that had been inflated. We switched to the smaller MKZ in 2009, but it too has very mediocre styling. Its sibling, the Ford Fusion, is actually a sportier, better looking car.
17th Sep 2011, 22:37
Poster 17:36 is correct!