1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III, Inside And Out – Unsubtle But Effective

Dramatically lit side view of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with a black vinyl top against a black background

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III in Medium Blue Metallic / Bring a Trailer

 

Years ago, I called the 1969–1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III vulgar, which continues to get me periodic hate mail. While I still don’t much like the Mark III, I’ve come to admit that in certain important respects, it was a more successful effort than a rival I like a lot better — the 1967–1970 Cadillac Eldorado. Here’s why.

Dramatically lit front 3q view of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with a black vinyl top against a black background

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Bring a Trailer

 

In some eras, some automakers are engineering-driven, while others are dominated by styling. Ford in the ’60s and ’70s was all about product planning.

Dramatically lit rear 3q view of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with a black vinyl top against a black background

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Bring a Trailer

 

What’s product planning? There are various definitions floating around, many of them painfully buzzword-heavy, but the basic concept is ensuring that a product — in this case, a car or truck, or a specific model — has enough of the right features to meet its marketing goals. “Features” can mean many different things, some quantitative, some qualitative, some purely subjective. For example, a sporty car à la product planner might combine exterior design features (e.g., a blacked-out grille, stripes, styled wheels), some interior design elements (e.g., bucket seats, floor shifter, extra instruments), and a few performance cues (e.g., a slightly stiffer suspension and a racier exhaust note). The resulting car might not offer great performance in any objective sense, but if it looked and felt sporty in the showroom or on a test drive, it would have a good chance of selling well regardless, which is the product planner’s ultimate goal.

Dramatically lit closeup of the left front fender and closed headlight cover of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Bring a Trailer

 

Ford Motor Company got to be outstandingly good at this sort of thing in the ’60s. They had some lapses (the big-engine Fairlane GT/GTA was perfunctory, and the late ’60s U.S. Falcon seemed calculated to limit its desirability relative to its Mustang and Fairlane cousins), but also some big hits, like the Mustang, the LTD, the first Mercury Cougar, and the Capri. These weren’t necessarily outstanding cars, but they were exceptional products, and very successful commercially.

Dramatically lit tail of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III, seeming to glow against a black background

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Bring a Trailer

 

Which is a good segue to the Lincoln Continental Mark III. Introduced in April 1968, the Mark III was essentially a fancier Thunderbird variant, a bigger two-door hardtop sharing the longer wheelbase of the four-door Thunderbird Landau and the new 460 cu. in. V-8 of the latest Lincoln Continental. Conceptually, the Mark III was to be the ultimate personal luxury car — a genre Ford had more or less invented, and understood well — topping even its august Thunderbird sibling.

Front view of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III, parked outside in the sun

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Orlando Classic Cars

 

The Mark III was Lee Iacocca’s baby, and the car’s actual designers (including L. David Ash and Arthur Querfeld, who did the exterior, and Damon Woods, who led the interior design) have confirmed that Iacocca dictated the direction of the product and had a clear idea of what it should be. Moreover, he also had a crystal-clear idea of the intended customers: affluent buyers, primarily men, in roughly the same age range as Iacocca (born 1924) and Henry Ford II (born 1917).

Right front 3q view of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with a black vinyl top, parked outside with trees in the background

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Orlando Classic Cars

 

Thus, Mark III exterior design evoked high-end prewar luxury cars — a dollop of Packard Speedster, a splash of Duesenberg Model J, a and seasoning of Rolls-Royce Phantom II, with their endless hoods and stand-up grilles. These points of reference weren’t cars the target audience would probably have owned, but rather cost-no-object fantasy objects they might have coveted as boys, seen being driven in newsreels or movie magazine photo shoots by luminaries like Clark Gable or Gary Cooper.

Left side view of a pale yellow 1935 Duesenberg Model JN convertible coupe with its top up

1935 Duesenberg Model JN convertible coupe, originally owned by Clark Gable / Collecting Cars

 

At the launch of the Mark III, Ford Design VP Gene Bordinat had summed up the new model’s mission statement with unusual candor, remarking, “We have put things on the Mark III that make it evident that this is an expensive car.” There was no question of making the Mark III an actual cost-no-object luxury car (Ford had tried that with the Continental Mark II in the ’50s and lost a ton of money in the process), so the new Mark was essentially still a Thunderbird under the skin, albeit with tweaks to the structure and suspension to improve isolation and NVH. The Mark III even shared the Thunderbird windshield, side glass, A-pillars, and roof, although raising the upper back panel made the roof look lower, and the longer hood, faux Rolls-Royce grille, and Continental hump further disguised the resemblance.

Black vinyl top on a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Orlando Classic Cars

 

As I said at the outset, I much prefer the contemporary Cadillac Eldorado, although if you wanted to judge it in the same terms, you could argue that it was really just an Oldsmobile Toronado with new sheet metal, a new roof, and a Cadillac V-8 in place of the Olds Rocket engine. Like the Toronado, the Eldorado’s engineering was more interesting than that of the Thunderbird or Mark III, but I doubt more than one Eldorado buyer in ten really cared, or even noticed. The main selling point of the original FWD Eldorado was and remains its exterior styling, which was an exceptional design:

Left front 3q view of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado with a black vinyl top parked in front of bare trees

1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado in San Mateo Red / Orlando Classic Cars

Rear 3q view of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado with a black vinyl top, parked with trees in the background

1968 Cadillac Eldorado / Orlando Classic Cars

 

Where the Mark III was retro, neoclassical, the Eldorado was crisp and modern — arguably the ultimate ’60s Cadillac, and much more to my taste, at least before it lost its concealed headlights for 1969.

Closeup of the left front fender of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado, showing the closed headlamp cover and Cadillac script

1968 Cadillac Eldorado, still sporting its signature concealed headlamps / Orlando Classic Cars

 

When it came to interior design, however, the Eldorado seemed to lose its focus. Other than the flat floor and a few Fleetwood trim touches, the cabin of this 1968 Eldorado could just as easily have been in a Coupe de Ville.

Driver's door trim of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado with a black interior and rosewood trim

1968 Cadillac Eldorado / Orlando Classic Cars

Dashboard of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado with a black interior and leather upholstery, viewed through the open driver's door

1968 Cadillac Eldorado with black leather upholstery / Orlando Classic Cars

 

It wasn’t bad (as I’ve said before, I think 1968 was the last really good year for Cadillac interior quality), but it didn’t offer anything new or unique to complement the knockout exterior or novel engineering.

Black leather upholstered front seat of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado, viewed through the driver's door

1968 Cadillac Eldorado with black leather upholstery / Orlando Classic Cars

Dashboard of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado with a black interior and leather upholstery, viewed from the passenger door

1968 Cadillac Eldorado with black leather upholstery / Orlando Classic Cars

 

It’s here that the Mark III gained a lot of ground over its Cadillac rival. I should be clear that I don’t especially like the interior of the Mark III aesthetically (although the attractive dark blue trim of the car pictured below certainly helps), but I think the Lincoln-Mercury interior designers understood the assignment in a way their counterparts at Cadillac didn’t.

Driver's side door trim of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather and vinyl upholstery

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

Driver's side door controls and courtesy handle of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather and vinyl upholstery

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

 

The interior design of the Mark III had two major challenges: It need to mask the Mark’s similarity to the Thunderbird, and it needed to pay off the promise of the exterior styling, whether with the standard tricot cloth and vinyl upholstery …

Dashboard and front seat of a 1969 Lincoln Continental with blue cloth upholstery, viewed from behind the driver's seat

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with light blue cloth and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

Front seats of a Dark Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue cloth and vinyl upholstery, viewed through the open driver's door

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with light blue cloth and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

 

… or with leather and vinyl trim, a $137.26 option.

Dashboard of a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather upholstery, viewed from the passenger door

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

Dashboard and steering wheel of a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather upholstery

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

 

I appreciate the Mark’s full instrumentation (which was actually shared with the Thunderbird, adding different faces to the same instruments), but there’s a lot I don’t care for: the squared-off instrument bezels, the two-spoke steering wheel, the acres of woodgrain applique. (The 1968 Eldorado veneer was still real wood, which the Mark III didn’t get until 1970.)

Closeup of ammeter and temperature gauge and ventilation/wiper speed control in a 1969 Lincoln Continental

Ammeter, temperature gauge, rear vent control, and wiper/washer control in a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Bring a Trailer

 

I’d also much prefer a tachometer to the Cartier chronometer with its pompous Roman numerals (added in December 1968):

Closeup of Cartier chronometer in a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III

Cartier chronometer in a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Bring a Trailer

 

However, I can’t deny that the woodgrain trim and diamond-pattern button-tufted upholstery did succeed in making the Mark’s interior look rich and extravagant (if perhaps a tad overripe in spots), where the Eldorado inside was just another Cadillac.

Back seat of a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather upholstery

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

Back seat of a red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado with black leather upholstery, viewed from the front passenger side

1968 Cadillac Eldorado with black leather upholstery / Orlando Classic Cars

 

Lincoln had sweated the details, too, down to the designed-in wrinkles in the upholstery — a controversial choice within Ford. (I think the wrinkled effect worked better with leather upholstery, helping to mitigate the plasticky look contemporary leather options had begun to exhibit.)

Front seat cushion of a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather upholstery, seen through the open driver's door

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

 

Between Iacocca and product planning director Ralph Peters, I assume the mandate was that the Mark III needed to look special and feel special enough to justify its price, even in minor details:

Bright step plate in the passenger side door jamb of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather upholstery

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

Driver's side seat back, folded forward, of a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue leather upholstery

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with dark blue leather and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

 

If you compared a Mark III and a Thunderbird side-by-side, some of the commonalities would become apparent, like the identically spaced instruments and nearly identical HVAC and radio controls …

Dashboard of a 1969 Ford Thunderbird two-door Landau with green interior and Flight-Bench seat (no console)

1969 Ford Thunderbird 2-Door Landau with dark ivy gold cloth and vinyl upholstery / Classic & Collector Cars

 

… or the overhead bank of warning lights between the sun visors, which was the same in both cars:

Overhead warning lights and sun visor of a 1969 Ford Thunderbird with green interior

1969 Ford Thunderbird 2-Door Landau / Classic & Collector Cars

Overhead warning lights in a 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue interior

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III — the overhead lights are for seat belts, door ajar, headlamps, and trunk open / Bring a Trailer

 

However, I don’t think many people made that kind of direct comparison, and the T-Bird was already in a pretty upscale class, so no one seems to have been too put out by the occasional flashes of family resemblance.

Flight-Bench seat of a Diamond Green Ford Thunderbird two-door Landau with green vinyl upholstery, viewed through the open driver's door

1969 Ford Thunderbird 2-Door Landau with dark ivy gold cloth and vinyl upholstery / Classic & Collector Cars

Front seat of a Dark Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with blue cloth and vinyl upholstery, viewed through the open driver's door

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III with light blue cloth and vinyl upholstery / Bring a Trailer

 

As people have often reminded me, whatever I might think of the styling of the Mark III, it hit its intended audience like a blockbuster. The Mark III didn’t quite outsell the Eldorado in this generation, but it came awfully close (impressive given that Cadillac had about 50 percent more dealer franchises), and it was in very high demand.

Closeup of the right rear fender of a San Mateo Red 1968 Cadillac Eldorado

1968 Cadillac Eldorado / Orlando Classic Cars

 

Perhaps the surest sign of that was the cars’ resale values: By July 1970, a 1969 Continental Mark III had a $450 edge over the similarly priced 1969 Eldorado in KBB trade-in allowance.

Right rear fender and Continental hump of a Medium Blue 1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III

1969 Lincoln Continental Mark III / Orlando Classic Cars

 

I’m still partial to the Eldorado, and I still think the Mark III is vulgar, but when considering both these cars as complete products, I have to concede that it was Lincoln, not Cadillac, that really brought their A-game.

Related Reading

Curbside Classic: 1968-1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III – Right On The Mark (by Paul N)
Vintage Reviews And Commentary: 1967-1968 Cadillac Eldorado – The King Of Cadillac From When Cadillac Was King (by GN)
Curbside Classic: 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado – Steak Knife (by Joseph Dennis)
Vintage M/T Review: 1970 Cadillac Eldorado Vs. Lincoln Continental Mark III – “Take Me To Beverly Hills” (by me)
Automotive History: 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV – Bunkie Knudsen Leaves His Mark (by me)