In case you hadn’t noticed, Lincoln’s new-car lineup in the U.S. is all SUVs and crossovers. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Town Car seems to be a fine example from the heyday of the company’s luxury-sedan past. What might you pay to travel down so fancy a memory lane?
It’s a sad fact that the world is full of scammers. They are everywhere, from the politicians who try to sneakily sign you up for recurring donations right down to that guy offering to trade you some “magic beans” for your cow. Pfft, magic beans.
I thought that the ad for yesterday’s 1989 Alfa Romeo 2000 Spider Graduate might be a scam. It just felt like the $4,500 price tag was suspiciously low for the car as it was presented in that ad. As it turns out, I was wrong. Few of you cared anyway. After all, none of us actually intended to buy the thing. In the end, the car took home a solid 80 percent Nice Price win and perhaps provided some enjoyable fantasy fodder for a few.
Fantasies of the automotive kind could involve piloting the car of your dreams down the backstretch of some storied racetrack, urging it on for that last drop of speed. Alternatively, those fantasies might center on being chauffeur-driven to a night on the town while cosseted in luxurious surroundings and transported on a whisper-quiet pillow-soft ride.
If the latter is your jam, then you might just like this 1989 Lincoln Town Car. Of course, you’ll have to supply the chauffeur, or maybe doing the driving yourself. I mean, if you don’t mind sitting in front.
The Town Car was once the epitome of Lincoln luxury. That, of course, was before the nameplate became synonymous with airport pick-up service and bachelorette parties for brides-to-be named Karen.
Originally a trim package on the cruise-ship-scale Continental, the Town Car became a model line all its own with the introduction of this version in 1980. Built on the sturdy RWD Panther platform, the then-new Town Car had been downsized from its Continental predecessor, but it was still big and continued to feature the earlier model’s stately, upright and sharp-edged styling.
This being a 1989 marks it as the last year of that styling. The following year would see the introduction of a new body on a slightly modified chassis with seriously smoothed-over bodywork. That car would also get Ford’s new-at-the-time Modular V8. This one comes with a fuel-injected edition of the tried and true Windsor 302 CID V8. The addition of injection bumped the ponies a bit, but the max you could get was 160 horsepower if you opted for the dual exhaust. Going with a single pipe meant 10 fewer horses. Transmission duties are handled by Ford’s four-speed AOD automatic with column shift.
That engine/automatic combo has pushed this Town Car a mere 127,000 miles over the course of their partnership. It appears that the car has been well treated despite that lack of use. The bodywork, painted Light Titanium Iridescent, is clean and straight, with no noticeable flaws evident in the ad’s pictures. Factory turbine-style alloy wheels are found at each corner and look to be in excellent shape as well. Appropriately, those are wrapped in classy whitewall tires. Also classy is the landau top which covers the rear half of the cabin in padded extravagance.
This being a big sedan, there’s plenty of room inside to stretch out. That space is also needed for the copious amount of chrome trim the cabin maintains. A surfeit of brightwork just adds to the old-school charm these cars possess. Other elements include wide, softly sprung bench seats and a crazy-skinny steering wheel. That has oddly sharp-edged cruise control buttons on the lower spokes, something Ford liked at the time. There’s nothing amiss in the mouse-fur-upholstered cabin, save possibly for an aftermarket audio head unit that somewhat spoils the whole time capsule aesthetic. Oh, I also don’t like how both of the horn icons on the steering wheel hub point the same way. That irrationally irks me.
The ad claims the car to have a clean title and to be in “near pristine condition.” It offers keyless entry and a remote starter for quick getaways. The price tag is $5,500, and you now need to vote on that and thus determine this Lincoln’s fate.
What do you think, does this Town Car look to be worth that $5,500 asking based on the ad’s pictures and description? Or, is this old-school luxury car still too luxury-car priced?
You decide!
Hartford, Connecticut, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Timothy Brice for the hookup!
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Updated 3/4/22 with new details.