Ah, the good old day when size really did matter and bigger really was better; or was at least construed as being so. However, at the risk of coming across ultimately hypocritical, Lincoln wisely marketed the size of their 1977 Continental directly at potential buyers who may have been put off by the new and substantially smaller 1977 Cadillacs. Marketers caring less about being contradictory, given how long it takes to design and engineer new automobiles, by the time this commercial was on the air Lincoln was far down the road on developing the smaller automobile that would replace it. Understand, though, that Lincoln, and Cadillac for that matter had little choice; there was no way that their two and half ton land yachts - no matter how much they improved their engines and transmissions - could come near ever stringent government mandated fuel economy requirements.
Based on the new for 1979 Ford "Panther" platform that it shared with the 1979 Ford LTD and Mercury Marquis, year to year Continental lost 14 inches bumper to bumper, more than an inch overall in width and almost one thousand pounds. What's more, the 1980 Lincoln Continental, our subject is a 1988 Town Car, was almost 40 % more fuel efficient than the car it replaced. Impressive. However, checking off all the boxes on what the government required didn't tell the entire story.
Unlike the downsized Cadillacs, the new for 1980 Lincoln looked more like someone who took their weight loss regimen too far. While Cadillac was able to retain the elegant design ethos of what made a Cadillac a Cadillac, the new smaller Lincoln looked like exactly what it was - a shrunken version of what came before it. The awkward proportion of the 1980 Lincolns further underscoring the good job GM did on just about all of their down sized, full sized 1977 cars. Now, I'll never say that any of the 1977 GM's were better looking than their 1976 forebears, I will begrudgingly admit, again, that they did do a "good" job on the downsizing, but I will whole heartedly argue that Lincoln missed the, ahem, Mark, with these cars. I never danced a jig about the blocky, boxy 1979 Ford LTD or Mercury Marquis either.
Can't blame Ford for sticking with what worked though; after all the 1970's were very good to Lincoln. Faux Rolls Royce grills and all. Throughout the 1980's, they also stuck with nameplates that had at least some cache in the marketplace. When this car was first introduced in 1980 it was a "Continental"; the trunk hump Continental was the two door Mark VI. "Town Car" was a level of trim. Starting in 1982, this car became known as a Lincoln "Town Car" when the Continental, complete with a trunk hump, moved to Ford's "Fox" body platform and in essence, mercifully, put an end to the Versailles. Incidentally, if you translate "Town Car" to French you come up with "Sedan DeVille". Try as they might, Cadillac has always been, literally and figuratively, in Lincoln's cross hairs. Oh, and don't feel bad if you can't keep the nameplate swapping straight. I think that only someone who lived through the nonsense would be able to make hell or high water of what went on with Lincoln in the 1980's.
Based on that TV commercial from 1977, it would appear that Lincoln went back on its word when they came out with a smaller car in 1980 but that didn't effect sales. What did effect sales was the fact that Lincoln failed to acknowledge or just flat out ignored the influx of compelling luxury makes and models from Europe that young, affluent buyers found appealing. If you go back and look at the actors that were cast in that ad for the 1977 Continental, you'll notice that they're all not thirty or even forty somethings. Classy and elegant looking? Yes. Young and vibrant? No. Lincoln knew exactly who was buying their cars and they first and foremost made attempts to hold onto them. What they didn't do was make automobiles that were appealing to buyers who found German makes and models alluring. You could argue that they attempted to with these downsized cars that were better performing than the leviathans they replaced, but the proof is in sales. Younger buyers stayed far away from these cars.
Let's not convince our selves that Cadillac did much better in the 1980's than Lincoln did. While their designs were subjectively more handsome, what with the myriad of power train issues they had it's a miracle that they survived the decade let alone still be around today. Cadillac and Lincoln slugged it out throughout the 1980's like two old prize fighters whom were way, way past their prime and continued fighting even though people were clearly losing interest in them. In fairness, Lincoln did make a somewhat honest attempt at a "Euro fighter" with the 1982 Fox body Continental but the die had been cast; Lincoln was for old people.
Again, Cadillac's aren't exactly for spring chickens either. Any success over the last near forty years that America's two luxury car manufacturers have had has been with either sport utility vehicles or the darling of the show room floor these days, cross over sport utility vehicles. And, sorry to admit it, those vehicles are popular not because they're Lincolns or Cadillacs but because of what they are.
Where would Lincoln be today had instead of introducing dowdy sedans like this thing they introduced a smart handling luxury car like a BMW 733? We'll never know of course but one thing we do know is that this car certainly did help matters. Did Lincoln's long slow demise start with the 1980 Continental? No, but if you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. Note the Cadillac CTS in the upper left of this photograph seemingly poised to go off in a direction that this Town Car could never attempt to go in.
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