At $7,999, Could This 2002 Lincoln Blackwood Be The Best Deal In Form Over Function?

Today's Nice Price or Crack Pipe Lincoln Blackwood is one of only 3,356 built over the course of its single model year. While there's strength in numbers, when it comes to rare cars there's greater strength in smaller numbers. Let's see if the numbers in this Lincoln's price are small enough.

I was at the media event for the Los Angeles Auto Show just a couple of weeks back, right when Motor Trend announced the winner of their illustrious advertising buy of the... er, Car of the Year award. The car they announced was the Alfa Romeo Giulia, however as we all know, in their initial announcement they denoted it as the Alpha Romeo Giulia.

Upon hearing that, I quickly ran over to the Alfa display to see if they had in fact misspelled the name beneath the golden calipers on the official COTY trophy. Sadly they did not, and I quickly moved on to the Mercedes press conference since they offered the best coffee and actually had some interesting stuff to announce.

Alfa Romeo may be basking in the glory of their Motor Trend win, but that COTY award pales in contrast to the Nice Price or Crack Pipe contest, and we give you a hell of a lot more opportunities than just one a year. Pffft, what a bunch of slackers over there at MT. We also give you Alfa Romeos of much greater note than the current Giulia. Not only that but we spell Alfa correctly almost every single time!

Last Friday's 1990 Alfa Romeo (see!) Sprint Zagato was about as interesting a semi-modern Alfa you could find. At $60,000, it was was also in the sweet spot of current model Giulia pricing. Unfortunately for its seller, Alfa didn't come out on top this time, and the funky S.Z. dropped in a decisive 70-percent Crack Pipe loss.

That Alfa was a limited production automobile. That's rarified air where you don't necessarily expect to find even off-models of Ford's all-conquering F-series trucks. That's because the F-series has been the best-selling vehicle in America since about the Pliocene. I think the Pilgrims even drove a bunch of them off the Mayflower when they hit Plymouth Rock.

Still, Ford has had some missteps along the way with their truck family. One such problem child was the Lincoln Blackwood, which was a thing for the 2002 model year here in the U.S., and for '02/'03 down Mexico way.

Lincoln had recently introduced the luxury boat, the Navigator, and that had proved a smash hit with hip hop artists, sports professionals, and Hollywood celebrities.

Enough normals bought them too that Ford was able to turn a tidy profit and hence didn't have to kill off Lincoln. That had been a real possibility since the rest of the brand's lineup pretty much appealed only to livery services and people who consider Olive Garden to be ethnic food. It wasn't really rocket science to think that the company could combine their best-selling pickup and all the luxury accoutrements they threw on the Navigator and build a ute for the upper crust.

Unfortunately the execution left a lot to be desired. The Blackwood came with only rear-wheel drive and, of all things, a trunk in place of a more plebeian utilitarian bed. In its favor, that trunk was freaking huge. It also featured a power hard tonneau and unique barn door gate, so I guess it wasn't completely dumbass. Still, it really couldn't compete with Cadillac's Escalade EXT which gave you both the availability of AWD and a funky rear gate/passthrough too.

You know what, I still kind of jones all over the Blackwood. And with fewer than 3,400 built, you sure as hell aren't going to be seeing one on every corner these days.

As you might expect, this 2002 Lincoln Blackwood is black. That's because, like Ford's Model T, that was the only color offered.

Fun fact, the Model T was available in Black-only for just 12 out of its 19 model years!

Okay, back to the Blackwood. It was stymied not just by color choice and a lack of AWD, but also by that weird bed and having only a single option to add any level of personalization. That was a navigation system with a screen that sits down next to your right knee. Do you have eyes on your knees? No? I didn't think so.

This one has that option. It also sports a meager 65,000 miles on the odo. There's a bug screen up front to protect the leading edge of the hood from smushed cicadas, however everything else seems to be stock. Power for the Blackwood comes from a 300 horsepower 5.4-litre InTech DOHC V8, and behind that sits an 4R100 four-speed automatic.

The dealer ad notes that this one has a few issues. Among those are a misfire CEL, bad tires, and a broken tonneau motor. Because of the tires, the seller says the truck is a tow-away. That's okay since you could just have it towed to a nearby Pep Boys or the like for some new meats. The misfire causing the CEL is a bit more concerning. That could be caused by a gasket failure in the intake leaking coolant into a spark plug well. It's a fairly common issue with these mills. The fix is to pull the intake and replace all the gaskets. That's a weekend/one six pack job if you're handy.

You wouldn't have to be too handy with the cash for this TLC-needing Blackwood however. The asking price is $7,999, and while it does demand some work, its bones seem to be sound.

Nobody wanted these trucks when they were new—and around fifty grand to buy—but time wounds all heels, and now at less than eight grand there's a lot to like here, if even just for the kitsch factor.

What's your take on this rare and TLC-needing Blackwood and that $7,999 price? Is that a deal to get this Lincoln back up to snuff? Or, does that price make it a Lincoln Black-wouldn't?

You decide!

Fort Collins, CO Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to picoFarad for the hookup!

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