1977 Lincoln Continental - In A World...Of Smaller Cars...

 

 

It was the summer of 1975  when I first learned that General Motors was going to downsize its lineup starting in 1977. A foot shorter and nearly one thousand pounds lighter? I was heartbroken. Luckily, save for the ugly Chevys, GM's 1977 downsizing program became the stuff of automotive legend. However, as great a job as GM did I had a hard time accepting the fact that I would grow up in a world of "smaller" cars. This little nipper from the concrete and asphalt jungle of South Nassau liked 'em big. Really big.

So, one would think, I'd become a Ford kid what with their UN-downsized lineup of giant automobiles that somehow always seemed to be larger than the my beloved GM barges.  Well, much like "Old What Was Her Name", that pretty girl, who was everything you'd want in a girlfriend but for whatever reason you don't even like let alone love, the big Fords, particularly these late '70's Lincoln Continentals, left me yearning, no, wait...more like pining for, those GM's dreadnaughts of yore even more.

 

 

I never cared for Fords because in addition to my liking GM designs, in general more, I felt that Ford designs were nothing more than an attempt to be GMs. Throughout the 1970's, the Ford Motor Company didn't have an original design idea in their collective graphite pencils and the Continental, not to be confused with the lovely Continental Marks which originally came out in 1969, way back in the '60's, was never more than Dearborn's attempt to do a Cadillac. A Cadillac with a little Chrysler fuselage thrown in. 

Now, to be perfectly honest,  I thought the Continental a rather handsome design from 1970-1972. This is a glamour shot of a 1971 from a brochure. The coupe is even better looking although it is more Cadillac DeVille than this four door sedan is.

However, with the government mandated 5 mph "safety bumpers" starting with the front in 1973, this is a '74,  Ford, which did little more than bolt them onto the front and back of their existing design, ruined what was a pretty nice looking car. 

The addition of the big chrome log out back for 1974 did nothing for the car, "safety" aside, other than make the car longer. It wasn't Ford's fault that the 5 mph bumpers had to be; fault lies in that they didn't do a very good job of making it seem the government mandate was in the front of their minds when they designed the car in the first place. Like GM did. I guess someone at Ford missed the email from the government about the mandatory bumpers.

 

 

With the "C" pillar becoming more upright or what they call "formal looking" in 1975, the Continental became just a big, fat, ugly ass car that had really only one thing going for it between 1977 and 1979; it was bigger than anything GM had at the time.

  

 

You got to hand it to Ford, though and their attempt to exploit what they saw as an opening in the late 1970's when in fact they were just late to the downsizing party. Starting in 1980, Ford shrunk their wares even more so than GM did.

The 1980 Continental confirmed what I thought for years; that Ford didn't have a clue. Throw in another gas crunch just as they rolled out this thing and it's a miracle Lincoln made it to 1985 let alone still being in existence today.

Lincoln did make a lot of changes and improvements to the "1980 Continental" ultimately making it into a near iconic automobile for the limousine and service industries (Town Car). Ironies of ironies, Ford outlasted GM in the big, body on frame, rear wheel drive sedan market by more than a decade.

As for the 1977 Continental, it's refreshing, to me at least, to look at a car after all these years and have it bring back the flood of ambivalent memories that it does. I like it no less and certainly no more today than I did when I first saw it almost forty years ago. Same goes for "Old What's Her Name".