So there’s this ’56 Lincoln coupe that’s been on Craigslist for a couple of months now. It’s not selling, probably because (like most sellers) he’s asking too much ($15,995). But even so, this 38,000 mile example looks mighty desirable to me.
Let’s see what we have–a ’56 Premiere coupe, in Desert Buff and Starmist White. No pink flamingo or perfumey lavender peacock is this car! Artistic, but not gaudy at all . . .
. . . with that great Futura dream car-inspired front end! True Batmobile styling! (And we all know that Batman and his Batmobile are indisputably cool!) It just looks so beautiful parked there.
As Lincoln copywriters noted, it is a “sculpture in steel . . . Every line and plane unite in a clean harmonious whole–pure as a bird in flight.”
From every angle, this car looks good. The previous owner wisely decided to bypass the original bumper exhaust ports. It’s one deviation from stock I approve of.
This is a luxury car, and it shows! Matching two-toned pleated seats front and rear. But again, in the overall spirit of the car, it is lush but somewhat minimalist in conception.
The dashboard is kind of minimalist too, especially compared to Cadillac and Packard. However, it does have one unique feature . . .
. . . a straight-line speedometer that goes to 130! (120 was common at the time). Yes, there is some road-race DNA left in this ’56 Lincoln. Also, why are numbers 30 through 100 taller than the others?
Under the hood we have a 285 horsepower, 368 cubic inch “V-Eight” with 9:1 compression and what the ads describe as “More usable power than any other car!”
I think the air cleaner pipe with a missing hose is a kind of Thermo-Matic carburetor device.
What about the claim that this is the “best looking” of all postwar Lincolns? The generation that came before–nice, but too easily mistaken for a Mercury or Ford. A luxury car must look distinctive!
The ’57 revision is certainly newer, finnier, and has more lights on it. Whether it is better in a timeless sense is another question. I personally like it; it looks longer and has a personality of its own.
The 1958-60s: An acquired taste (that may be difficult for some people to acquire). The longer-lower concept stretched to previously-undreamt-of limits. I admire it for its sheer over-the-top Jet Age lavishness. Like the ’57, the headlight arrangement is probably the most controversial aspect. The ad needs an ocean liner to make the car look small!
The “classic” ’61s. A lot of people think it’s beautiful–I respect it more than I like it. It set the pattern for the plain, boxy cars of the ’60s.
The beginning of neo-classical broughamism.
We’ve come full circle–Lincoln now reflects the glories of the past, rather than the promise of a space-age future. It’s an “old man’s car.”
Not so the ’56. It’s old, yes, but a stylish jet–not stodgy in the plastic wood, vinyl roofed, opera window sense. Let’s hope this transplanted southerner now living on Long Island finds a good home.
Great group of ads for Lincolns. I got a kick out of the Worcester couple from Weston, Massachusetts (a hoity-toity town, incidentally). “Well, dear, we are known by our Lincoln.” (paraphrase) Now, attaches is my favorite picture of a ’56 Lincoln Premiere.
Same here about Weston. https://www.bostonmagazine.com/property/2018/04/10/wealthiest-zip-codes-massachusetts/#:~:text=According%20to%20data%20released%20by,richest%20place%20in%20the%20nation.&text=On%20average%2C%20residents%20who%20reside,highest%20average%20in%20the%20country.
And I get a kick out of the couple mentioning their Lincoln’s “simple elegance.”
Coming on the heels of the featured Premiere and the Continental Mark II, the ‘58s to ‘60s look fussy and overwrought. It may have “simple elegance” when compared to the Cadillac of the same year, but in my opinion the ‘58 Imperial does it best – and I’m not much of a Chrysler Corporation fan.
Adjacent to, and and directly north of Weston, Massachusetts is… Lincoln, Massachusetts. I guess Ford couldn’t find any Lincolns in Lincoln.
Marilyn had a 55 cvt Capri, Jayne’s was a ’57 Premiere (saw it in long closed ‘Cars of the stars’ museum) same color as mine. pic is very faded memory of one ’57 coupe i had 55 years ago, tried putting some color back before computers
17-18 inch long Japanese tin model PREMIERE ive had since ’56
That’s a great looking car. The old car market is weird right now. Some cars are just sitting at an inflated asking price for months and months; others are selling faster than you’d expect for more than you’d expect. What do you think would be a good price for this Lincoln, Poindexter? I imagine $10-12,000 would be about right.
The problem is actually less about price and more about finding someone who appreciates a car like that and has a strong desire to own it. The number of those potential buyers is already small and getting smaller.
Dropping the price to $10-12K might result in a sale, but only if you find someone who has any interest in the car in the first place.
This house in Montclair NJ is a smashing bargain at $1.2M for what you’re getting. But few people today appreciate its old world craftsmanship and want to live in an “Addams Family” mansion-type museum with all that dark wood!
https://www2.gsmls.com/publicsite/common/media.jsp
Any old car is worth what someone will pay for it. To have any memories of a 56 Lincoln new you would have to be at least 70. Even if it stirred up old memories, most people realize that it’s time to start liquidating assets and not acquire such bold and grand ones such as this at that age. Most of the younger crowd want stuff from their youth.
OTOH, mid-century modern houses built about the same time as this Lincoln are hot commodities.
of all the cars I had, the ’56 Lincoln is the one that got away, I had a ’56 Mark II, but prefered the Premiere. I did have three ’57 Premieres, a coral convert, taos/ivy green coupe amd black coupe (it and the cv had the opt tri color int), all at the same time. I love the ’56-57’s, sold the 3 ’57s to get my Electra ive had since, also had 58-59’s . if i had 15,000 i’d pay it in a second (my son paid more for a Versa) add a/c and have a lifetime car you’ll fall in love with
Fifty’s cars are getting to be harder and harder to find a buyer and get sold. Original owners of the time are dead. Their teenage sons are in their 70s and getting a car like this is not normally a goal. Grandkids, who may have never seen the car, could care less. The current interests of the current demographics buying older cars are nowhere near this car. On top of that someone who is interested can bide their time and wait for the price drops which is what I would do.
I love, love, love the 56 Lincoln. It was as if Lincoln, after trying for so many years, had finally found the secret. And then immediately lost the recipe. The 57 ruined whatever the 56 had going for it, and the 58-60 was a whole nuther thing. The 56 got virtually every detail just right.
There must have been plenty who agreed with me because Lincoln never hit the sales numbers it did in 1956 (over 50k in production) until 1966. Not even in an industry-record year like 1965 and a car that was a legit luxury contender could Lincoln hit the target like they did in 1956.
I agree. They took a perfectly good ’56, and ruined it for the sake of “styling trends,” at the time. At least the ’57 engine now made an even 300 hp.
The ’56 model is also my favorite in terms of styling between 1949-60.
This one has the padded dash, which I’ve never seen in pictures before. Looks solid, no cracks.
’56 was definitely the first time Ford gave the Lincoln brand the distinction it deserved. From ’49 to ’55, Lincoln looked like the cheapest of the three brands, not the best.
Incidentally, Ford seems to have realized that Mercury was the luxury-looking brand, because they copied the ’56 Lincoln from the ’55 Merc, not from the ’55 Lincoln.
And watching the 1956-57 Lincoln, we could wonder what might have been had a deal between Packard and Ford had come to fruitition to give us the “Packoln” or the “Linkcard”(or Linkard/Lincard)?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/glenhsparky/3710623629/
Actually the price is pretty accurate according to Hagerty.
https://www.hagerty.com/apps/valuationtools/1956-Lincoln-Premiere
Agree with your opinion. The ’56 won the International Design Institute Award for industrial design, rarely given to automobiles. The ’57 was ruined, and that year IMO was a high water mark for styling.
Looking at pics of American luxury cars for ’56, Lincoln and Packard pretty much tie for restrained, tasteful styling. Imperial was not, a tie with Dodge for the ugliest Mopar grill that year and goofy gun sight taillights tacked on. Those here with sales figures at your fingertips will probably verify that the bloated looking Cadillac easily outsold all the others combined. Especially then, luxury buyers wanted to be “seen”.
I guess I am the odd opinion. I look at the 56 Lincoln, and while I appreciate that FoMoCo FINALLY came up with a design that Lincoln could truly call its own, to me, the 56 through 60 Lincoln look like someone wasn’t sure how much ” bigness ” was a true illustration of luxury and so decided that they would err on the big/HUGE side.
I am a child of the 50s but of the Big 3 luxury cars, the only one I ever saw in my small, rural, town was the Cadillac. But then, the nearest truly official dealers for the Lincoln and the Imperial were over an hour’s drive away in ” the big city “.
If I were buying a vintage Lincoln, I would be inclined to go for the ” inverted bathtub ” models or the 61 through 69(?) model.
As far as the featured car? I would think it is priced reasonably. However, I think selling vintage luxury cars, in very good condition, on Craigslist is kind of silly. That’s like taking a near new Vera Wang wedding dress to a flea market. If the seller REALLY wanted to sell his car he should bite the bullet and go national/international with Bring A Trailer or EBay.
Or Hemmings.
My Dad worked as a part time salesman at my Great Uncle’s L/M dealership in south central Illinois about this time. Before the 1956 models were introduced to the public, we had a 1956 Lincoln “hidden” in our garage. I hosted all of the neighborhood kids over for a sneak preview, telling them that “no one else has seen this car.” As a result, I’ve been especially fond of this model, and even worked at a L/M dealership for several years in the 2000’s.
Very reasonable price for this model in that condition.
I actually have a ‘56 Lincoln owner’s manual, or perhaps it’s a smaller summarized version – only 30 pages.
It doesn’t explain why the 30-100 numbers on the speedo are bigger, but it does highlight that the numbers are easy to read.
Chassis lubing isn’t quite so simple though.
Hmm, not sure why subsequent photo’s aren’t coming through, maybe one of the editors can free them from spam jail.
If they’re bigger than 1200 pixels width or height, they won’t post. Reduce and try again.
Makes sense, but since the first pic worked, it didn’t occur to me.
I’m surprised that they were touting the vacuum powered wipers. Maybe there was a vacuum reserve canister to keep them going when accelerating or going up a steep hill. By 1956 even a Plymouth Plaza had electric wipers.
By 1961, and probably starting in 1958, Lincoln wipers were hydraulic, run by long hoses from the power steering pump. Take that, Citroen. And the door locks were vacuum, not electric. On the other hand, with AC there were three blowers. Left and right side heaters so you could have different temperatures like on even my Subaru? Nope. Incredible cars, some weird engineering decisions.
I forgot to mention the Lincoln Cosmopolitans in the list of landmark Lincolns in terms of styling. And the 1930’s Zephyr and Continental. Quite a track record. The 1952-55’s were OK, but looked like they shared a lot with Ford and Mercury, and by 1955 clearly past its sell by date compared to any other 1955 car. So one break from greatness in the early-mid fifties.
And hers the chassis lube info. There’s an additional page for body lube schedule, including convertible top hydraulic fluid.
That manual should show that the car battery is mounted behind the front passenger’s toeboard, and is accessed by a metal door. I wonder what that’s like to deal with…
You’re in luck, Poindexter, it’s in there. And not just any battery, an “aircraft type battery”.
Never noticed the logo on the truck before – it looks like a DC-3.
30-100 is the relevant range so that is why they are larger.
The much bigger thing I note about the speedo is that it appears to have a trip odo. If not the first certainly one of the earlier ones.
Good trivia question!
My ’53 Buick has a trip odometer, but I don’t know who was first.
This is strictly a guess, but I’m going to say GM was the first with a trip odometer, probably with Cadillac, sometime in the 40s.
My 1938 Buick had a trip odometer, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen cars from the teens and twenties that had them.
Like this one.
https://shop.classicinstruments.com/stewart-warner-barrel-speedometer
It says something about the market that this car can’t easily get $16K–I wonder what you’d get for a Chevy Bel Air in the same condition.
This sure looks great to me now, like a Futura toned down for production. Nice car!
Of course I knew about these, but a couple of years ago a guy drove one in the Coney Island Mermaid parade – a pink two door hardtop like in the ad. It was literally dazzling in the midday sun (bumpers no doubt rechromed), looking like some Midcentury Modern concept car (called “dream cars” back then) driving down the street. Amazing.
With these, the 1958 (yes I think they are great also) and the 1961, not to mention the 1956 Continental, Ford stylists were knocking one after another out of the park. All of them were nothing like anything else, and all were the products of a unified concepts inside and out. Too bad the original buyer of the one for sale didn’t get the trunk mounted AC, although there are pretty slick aftermarket installations available today for cars like this. Probably another five thousand bucks for that (?)
My take was that the 1953-54 Lincolns were the perfect blend of style and size. I loved the subtle re-interpretation of the headlights-in-tunnels, with those “struts” bridging the gap. Two years later it all got stretched out and pointy at both ends, and elegance became all “show-offy”.
Just a lovely design. Clean and tasteful. Prestigious without the bombastic look of some other period prestige cars.
A kind American friend sent me a resin kit of one. Really need to shoot some better photos.
There’s a 1/43 model from GFFC toys in 1/43 scale of this car. The color shows a little brighter. The model also has the plastic air conditioning ducts,
The smaller numbers on the speedometer are the range that you want to stay in, while driving in the city. Most side streets are still 25MPH, and this makes it easier to watch your speed . Our police crossing guard in the mid 60’s, drove a Summit Green with White top Lincoln. I would stop to look at that car every day. On days when she left the windows open, I would stick my head in just to take it all in. That thing was 3 blocks long and 1 block wide! WHAT A CRUISER, WHAT A MEMORY!