The future can’t be stopped. It’s somewhat hard for me to believe we’re now firmly entrenched in the first week (as defined by the first seven days) of the new year. Model year 1989 (identifiable on this example by the sloping rear panel, grille and amber front turn signals) was the last one for the original, angular, Panther-platform Town Car before it was significantly redesigned for ’90. As viewed on the last day of 2015 – roughly a quarter-century after rolling off the line at Wixom Assembly, this Town Car’s upright, solid, regal lines stood out in traffic on this stretch of North Sheridan Road.
As photographed by the author in Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois on Thursday, December 31 (New Year’s Eve), 2015.
Related reading:
- From Tom Klockau: Car Show Capsule: 1988 Lincoln Town Car – Black Cherry Landau Sundae;
- From Jason Shafer: Car Show Classic: 1982 Lincoln Town Car – Honey, I Shrank The Lincoln!; and
- From Mr. Tactful: My Curbside Classic: 1988 Lincoln Town Car – A Tactful Rebuttal.
My husband recently restored a Town Car much like the one in the photograph. He then sold it to a collector for $10000. It seems that this is a classic design for luxury autos that will stand the test of time.
cool not many people would restore a 1980-1989 town car – 10k is also a very healthy price for this type of car – was it one of the special editions i.e Cartier? – how long did it take your husband?
This car (it was a special edition, I forget exactly what) was in very good condition to start with. It was a Florida car with virtually no rust and only had a few minor mechanical and trim issues to deal with. Anthony (my husband) did a full restoration on it (replacing what few things it needed) and since it looked like new and ran like a new car also, he was able to sell it for a nice profit. The restoration took close to a year, as some of the parts (trim pieces) were hard to locate. He professionally restores antique autos and supplements his income with that “hobby.” He is fairly picky about the condition of the car, and only does restorations on cars that are rust-free and basically sound to begin with. This particular Lincoln was immaculate and that’s why it fetched such a good price. It was sold to a collector in Fall River, Mass..
Awesome. I love stories like this!
That was one of the objects of my car lust during my formative years. Big, quiet, and stately.
It’s a handsome beast.
I have always been a fan of this style of Town Car…any dark color would be fine.
Oh the ’89s. I never understood why they put round gauges into square bezels for ’88 and ’89. The previous gauges fit the ethos of the car. The round gauges looked like they grafted cheapo Mustang gauges into the square bezels.
I spent a lot of my formative years in the back of an ’87 Town Car. A good friend of mine from something like fifth grade on went to live with his grandparents in seventh grade. They treated me like a member of the family, to the point where they took me on family vacations. Friend’s grandpa was a “yard guy.” Every hedge was perfectly manicured. Every flower was perfectly placed. Every errant blade of grass was summarily chopped. Every errant weed was poisoned. I’d argue he had the nicest yard on the street.
And that same care went into his car, a black 1987 Town Car with maroon leather interior. No matter the weather, no matter the time, no matter where we’d been or where we were going, that car looked like it had just come out of the showroom. And what a magnificent piece of engineering compared to the LeBaron GTS my mom drove or the Cavalier Type 10 that came before that! It was beautiful and stately outside. It was quiet inside. It was big even in the back seat. It was comfortable. It had an actual temperature setting, not just a slider with blue and red ticks, and when they set it to 72, that car was honest-to-god 72 inside even if it was 100 outside. I loved that car! I slept a lot in the backseat of that car. As an adult I know it was the car that defined so much of my automotive tastes.
My family was not very well off as I grew up, even by the standards of the working-class agricultural community from which I came. But when I rode somewhere with them, I felt like I was actually somebody.
When I was 17, friend’s grandpa decided it was time for a new car, and he offered to sell me the Town Car. I’d always lusted after that car, but my 10-15 hour per week minimum wage grocery store job money wasn’t enough to afford it. The thing that staggered me the most, though, was when he told me the actual mileage. These cars all had five digit odometers. I knew they drove a lot on weekends, but it never seemed like the car left town during the week, and given the state of the car I figured the 78,000 showing was actual. When he told me it was actually 278,000, I about hit the floor.
He was a good Christian man, so he was completely forthright with his listing-the car showed 78,000. He left it up to the buyer to ask him how many times the odometer had been around. The new pastor at his church bought it for his 16-year-old son, and the 16-year-old son smashed it within a month.
Of all the cars that got away, I wonder how a 17-year-old version of myself with that car would have done it differently.
A bittersweet story there .
Thanx for sharing it .
I had ’61 , ’63 , ’64 and ’65 Lincolns , great cars to be sure .
Too big for me in the end so they all went away .
-Nate
There is nothing “cheapo” about an ’88 Mustang except for its econo car line single stage paint job. The “HO” Mustang in particular has the same beefy rear differential as a Town Car (8.8 with trac-loc std.) a better AOD tranny (reinforced for ’88 with an A+ servo) and a better roller cam 225 hp 302 vs. 185 hp flat tappet non-HO motor.
Lastly the audio upgrades were as good as a Town car, and IMO the instrumentation was in class of itself (among Detroit cars) by ’88, as good and modern as any Audi of the time and significantly better than a Town Car (which had no tach and idiot lights for oil pressure, voltage, coolant).
Perhaps that is the crux of Lincolns problems, they really have not had an exceptionally better car than Ford since 1979 when the last Really full size Lincolns were made (save for perhaps the 90’s MkVIII).
Whether it was from a 1988 Mustang Ford sourced the gauges or not, my point was not that the Mustang was cheap. It was that the gauges in the 1988 and 1989 Town Cars looked cheap. And stupid.
Seriously, does that look tasteful and luxurious? Of course not! It looks grafted in and cheap.
Now, I will certainly give you that Ford lost the plot in the late 1990s with Lincoln and mostly started making alternate Fords instead.
I’d also argue that the 1984-92 Mark VII was exceptionally better than the Thunderbird, at least the mid-run LSCs with the HO 302. Once the new MN12 ‘Bird came out in ’89, maybe not, though the VII was still an appealing car despite being based on the older platform.
I do agree with you that the VIII was head and shoulders over any Ford, despite its FN10 platform being based on the MN12. That was a special car, and I miss the one I owned.
Although they were technically related to the Thunderbird and Cougar, The Mark VII in any guise also seemed to be “screwed together” better than it’s “lesser” brothers.
What a waste! That was so depressing. A car’s condition can often be tied to whether it was bought with one’s own hard-earned money, or a gift from someone else. I always tried to take care of my cars (and things in general) in both scenarios.
Reminds me of the two square LTCs I had. An 85 and an 86. Looked virtually identical but everything had changed on the 302 going into 86. The 85 had tbi and the 86 models were now called 5.0s and had the electronic fuel injection. That car also went to almost 300k and I last saw it when my ex departed with it.
The 86 was a hot rod compared to what I was used to and sometimes I have missed that cavernous trunk and ability to eat the miles so relentlessly on highway trips. Head and shoulders above the 85 and afaik just about identical to the one in the picture.
These were EVERYWHERE in retiree-heavy central Florida during my high school and college years. I always regarded them as old-guy landyachts and so never really connected with them from a desire standpoint. One good friend’s Dad had a series of Town Cars and his wife a series of Grand Marquis’ so my buddy always drove his hand-me-down ones. The EFI 5.0’s had decent low end torque and we were all used to terrible malaise-era hp and torque from cars, so these were a bit of a revelation in that they ‘felt’ at least lively and willing and not just wheezy like the earlier v8s I had driven. Sure did tear up some fire roads and gravel backroads with these practicing our Dukes of Hazard power slides. They did survive a good beating and kept on going…
I still have such mixed feelings on these. My father drove three different Lincolns through the 1970s. Then he got a 1980 Town Coupe. Lincoln died that day, in my mind.
These have kinda sorta rehabilitated themselves in my eyes, but not by a lot. It is a Grand Marquis with a longer wheelbase and a better hood ornament. Which is not nothing, I suppose. Still, the 1970s cars have genuine presence, while the 1990s models are superior drivers.
Perhaps I am still nursing a grudge towards the son’s 89 MGM that ended with a failed AOD transmission.
You’ve nailed it right on the head vis-a-vis the ’70s Continentals to the ’90s Town Cars. To my mind, 1997 was the last year the Town Car was really something. They still had Lincoln presence and hadn’t yet become the stupid-looking New Edge Lincoln. 2003’s refresh fixed the styling, but by then the content wasn’t noticeably better than a Grand Marq. The ’97 we had, even with over 200,000 miles, still handled pretty decent. It actually got a lot of comments (positive), which surprised me since it had a fraying top and a dented rear quarter from the previous owners. But, getting out of the ’78 and into the ’97 was a time warp! The ’97 felt half as big to drive as did the ’78.
Thing was, in the end we’re lucky we got a 2003 refresh of Town Car at all. My understanding is that all three Panthers were supposed to get full refreshes, but Nasser axed the program during his reign of terror. Town Car’s refresh was supposed to be first, and the work was far enough along that they didn’t have to forget the whole thing. GM and CV’s refreshes, though, were to come later, so aside from a few structural updates they got nothing.
Interesting note about the Panthers, mostly unrelated to the 1989 Town Car featured in this post: In 2005ish, I was conversing with the Crown Vic team lead (I don’t recall his exact title anymore, but I’m sure he had other things to do as well), and I asked him why they didn’t stick the then-new 3V V8 into the CVs. His only response was a sharp intake of breath, the sort that clearly signals that there’s no point in continuing to tilt against that particular windmill, before moving onto a new topic.
So at any rate, I am pretty confident that Nasser’s cutting the Panther updates was the point at which the rites were read.
Nasser was such an idiot – he’s responsible for the gutting of Ford cars of that era – he allowed the Taurus to go rancid – there are so many reasons to loathe that clown.
Thankfully Ford was able to get Alan Mulally who saved the company and who started the resurrection of Lincoln which is starting to gain traction.
When I first started as a temp in early 1986 at the company where I still am the two top execs each had one of these. The president had a gold one. The senior vp had a silver one and they were usually parked side by side. The vp of purchasing had a new 300ZX. At the time I thought to myself ‘Someday that’ll be me’. Obviously things haven’t turned exactly as planned but eventually I did get my panther car and I always feel like a prez while driving it.
The last ‘box’ Panthers had one year only turn signal lens changes, and I always wondered why. The TC was the same for a few years, and then ’88 got the rear aluminum panel, and then ’89 got orange lenses. Why not both items for ’88?
Crown Vic went opposite lens coloring for 1991, orange to clear. Again, why only 1 year?
Joe, maybe this sounds corny, but I admire your ability to whip out your camera and get a great picture of a car that is moving 40 mph (given it being Chicago, I figure 40 may be a conservative estimate). You must walk around with it focused and ready to shoot.
I liked these during the ’80s. When the ’90 models were introduced, these suddenly seemed stale. However, time does indeed march on and these don’t look so bad anymore.
Thanks, Jason! I just always have my camera on me at all times. And you’re right about traffic on N. Sheridan – it can vary depending on the time of day. During rush hour, it can creep, but sometimes on weekends with less traffic, it wouldn’t be unusual to see a few speeders. I’ve spotted Ferraris and Aston Martins in traffic like it was no big deal they were just out. (Of course, I geek out.)
I was a fan of these in the 80’s, though I never had the chance to ride in one.. They did seem somewhat fussy and old hat when the cleaner ’90 redesign hit the sreets. But, as time marches on, these 80’s TCs have regained much of their appeal.
Nicely done pan shot. The slow shutter speed works well on a gloomy day.
Really nice photograph, I’ve always been a fan of the pictures you take. There are a lot of stories to be told in them.
Always liked these first gen Town Cars, to the point I actively looked for one as a first car. My Dad wasn’t a fan of the fact that it was bigger than most what most people my age were driving, but I still want to buy one to see how well it will daily drive in the modern world. Maybe as a second car, who knows.
My family had an ’88 Signature growing up as a vacation car. It still smelled like brand new leather when I last drove it a good eight years ago. Although definitely smaller than the 1978 Grand Marquis I have now, it was nearly as comfortable in the back and had a better seating position up front by far. I couldn’t believe it came with a CD player! The last I saw of it was when my grandmother threw it up on Craigslist for $14.5k with less than 25,000 on the odometer, 95% of them highway miles. I wish I could have afforded it. It was a hell of a car and yes, easy to daily drive if you don’t need to find a parallel parking spot too often. Mileage wasn’t too bad, the 5.0 V8 was incredibly smooth and adequately fast…I could gush on. The only weakness was a tendency to fall apart if you don’t drive it enough. Actually put ten miles on it every week and it will last though doomsday.
Back in 2005 I was a delivery driver for Pizza But in Atlanta. One of the cooks, aa 16 year old kid had a 89 Tonw Car, Cartier edition. I teased him many times about why a guy like him decided to drive a grandpa’s car like that and he used to shut me up saying: At least I drive a V8.
At every opportunity our schedule allowed us to leave the store together, he would prove is point doing huge burnouts with that Lincoln.
Owner of a 79 Lincoln here. Love it. Should have bought the 81 Mark VI that was for sale back in 06. Only wanted $950 for it. Next time I wont make that mistake.
I owned an “83 Lincoln Town car once. Bought for my ex wife. Paid a whole $200 for it. It was a tank,but it was also a runner. Those were some of the last,of the “real” Lincoln’s.
I loved the way these float down the highway, but I personally like the look of the 80-84’s over the revised 85-89’s. With the revised bumpers they almost appear to be to narrow for a car of this girth.
I had a 1985 Town Car – loved it – had to sell it when downsizing my budget as gas prices went up.
I will have another someday – it is a shame that some of the interior vinyl items are so cheap that they crack or malform – happens to every Lincoln of that vintage – but I was lucky to discover a way to fix those so I’ll do that to my next one.
This is truly the closest you can get to driving your living room!
Carroll here talks about interior items cracking. The one that I note cracking more than any… are the front door arm rest pads. Problem is that the whole door panels then were all one piece, making it quite difficult to find a right-color replacement.. withOUT a cracked door armrest. Other than that, 80s TCs are great!
Best cars ever made!favorite is the 88 had this one its a formal very few made sold it after 14 years of enjoyment now a close pal of mine has it .