4th May 2004, 07:48
Good luck finding a '97 Chevy Caprice cause Chevrolet quit building them in '96. And at least 50% of your complaints about the Lincoln are things that a test drive/inspection should have revealed, so why did you buy it???especially for $3500 which was a great deal--for the seller, that is!
30th Jul 2004, 11:45
I just moved out here to Las Vegas and I am 17. I love old cars like Cadillacs and Lincolns. I was about to buy a 1986 Cadillac Fleetwood D'Elegance the other day, but some other guy bought it first. BUMMER! Anywho, the salesman alerted me of a 1990 Lincoln Continental that he had with only 85,000 miles. I agreed to look at it, and after talking it over with my dad, we bought it. At only $2200, I thought it was a good buy. From what you guys are saying about the problems though, it seems I may be in for some trouble. I am hoping mine is not going to break down or something all the time, because in this day and age, I can't afford it.
31st Aug 2004, 10:54
I bought a 1990 Lincoln Continental from a used car dealer. I should have taken it back the next day. Why? Well I went out to start up the car, and it wouldn't turn over. That was the beginning of my problems. Not too long after, my car started to over-heat. I couldn't take the car back to where I bought it, because they closed up shop. Anyway, I had to have the water pump replaced twice. Then one day my car started to fill the street with nothing, but white smoke. I blew a head gasket. Everything that had to be replaced, cost a lot of money. Then the struts needed to be replaced. Luckily the mechanic I went to, was able to save me hundreds of dollars by replacing the factory struts with after market struts.
All in all this car has been nothing, but trouble. I would never recommend getting a car like this, to anyone. I bought the car for about $4,000 and have wound up putting well over that in repairs. Oh, by the way, right now my air conditioner has stopped working. Stay away from this car people.
31st Aug 2004, 18:46
Hello Fellow Continental Owners - I bought my 1990 Continental 2 years ago with 140,000 km on it. At first it seemed like a nice car. Then it started: I replaced the rear suspension bags, the power steering system blew and leaked power steering fluid all over my driveway, the alternator went, the voltage regulator went, the trunk lid pulldown motor blew, the AM/FM Stereo quit and the battery went. All this within 6 months!
No trouble for the last 5 months... until this morning. Lost all the power steering fluid again! The car's in the shop right now... just waiting for the verdict.
Other than a run of bad luck and MAJOR repairs, the car runs well, rides great and is a joy to drive. Too bad things wouldn't stop breaking. Still cheaper than a new car (so far).
Enjoy!
4th Feb 2005, 15:43
Hello, I just put a deposit on a 1990 Lincoln Continental and I was really excited about it until I found this sight. It supposedly had one owner with only 75k. 2700 dollars was the price. Runs real nice except for the air suspension or something when the car is still it readjusts itself?? Any how I'm 5 months pregnant with our first child and was changing out my 2 door 1991 Honda accord. It just wasn't functional enough for a car seat and all. I thought the Lincoln would better protect in case of wreck, but we really can't afford any repair to this car for a while. Thinking I should go get my money back! Does anybody think this is a good family car? I don't want to be stranded pregnant or with an infant!
4th May 2004, 00:24
Well, about 9 months ago we got ourselves a 94 Continental for $3,500 in a private sale. It was a $35k to $39k car 10 years ago, now its worth 10% of that. Before we got it, I know the head gaskets and possibly the heads themselves had been replaced by the dealership twice! It still burns coolant whenever its running. I can smell coolant through the vents when the HVAC system is on. I can smell coolant out side the car when the HVAC system is off. The air ride system ($1,600 to $2,000 to replace front and rear air bags) goes flat every 2 hours if parked. The idle sensor is messed up and the car constantly changes idle speed with or without AC on. The starter grinds. ALL of the front suspension bushings (and there are a lot of them) just started squeaking 3 weeks ago. It squeaks constantly over ANY kind of unevenness in the road surface. The Tranny jerks when you accelerate from a stop to a moderate speed (20 to 30 mph... and No I don't mash the gas pedal). The suspension "boats" up and down and side to side on any road surface irregularities like there are no shocks at all. (What WAS wrong with simple coil overs and or leaf springs?) The 3.8L v6 is gutless in a car this big. The DCL error message has flashed on me several times for no reason. The passenger side rear window would go down, but not up, then nothing. I had to take the door panel off and run a 12Volt battery to the "up" wire to roll it back up. I've since disconnected the window from power. The brilliant minds who engineered this car figured child safety locks were a good idea in the rear passenger area to keep young children safe. Apparently, they also figured they shouldn't play with matches while buckled in their child car seats, so if they wanted to smoke they would just have to use the built in cigarette lighters in the arm-rests. How safety oriented!Yeah, Those have been thrown out!
Aside from all that and the fact that the Ford dealership here seems to have a "well, YOU were dumb enough to buy a Ford product, what do you want us to do, fix it for you?" attitude, I like the car just fire... I mean fine. Wait, no I don't. I hate this car. If it didn't get 15 mpg in the city and fit me (6'2" 200 pounds, wife, 5'8" xxx pounds, Daughter, 3' and 36 pounds (3and 1/2 years), and son, 2'10" and 29 pounds (2 years), I'd gladly send it driving off a cliff with 500 pounds of High Explosives wired to the air-bag deployment trigger! Like I said, Aside from all that I like the car... except it ain't a Chevy Caprice Classic with a 5.7L V8 and RWD! Which BTW is worth 8% more with the same mileage (144k) AND without any of the "luxury" items like the never used sun roof and the ridiculously complex and fragile air-ride system. and I can work on the Chevy! I'm looking for one now. I'd love to find an ex-cop-car in the 96, 97 years.