It may not surprise you that I happen to be a fan of the Lincoln Versailles. Yes, it was a crass and cynical marketing cash grab, gilding a Granada and pricing it above the REAL Continentals and Mark V coupe, but I always liked the looks, despite that stupid gas-flap in the spare tire hump. But what if the Versailles was given a bit more identity from the start?
If the Versailles was to be the most expensive Lincoln on offer for 1977, why not give them a “wow” factor with a Landaulet version, with vinyl-covered targa top for the rear seat passengers? I also integrated the door handles into the bodyside molding, horizontally sectioned the car a bit, and moved the front wheel further forward.
Not enough? OK, how about a LWB model then? This ’80 model shows the much more Lincoln-like roofline that was added for the 1979 model year. They should have done this from the beginning. I’ve extended both the front and rear passenger compartments for more good old stretch-out room. After all, why buy a luxury car if not for expansive space?
And I had to right the biggest wrong with this car: the aforementioned gas filler flap. Not only did it look dumb, it moved the Lincoln emblem too high up on the trunk lid. I modified this ’78 I shot over a year ago and think the backside looks much better now. And the radiused rear wheel opening had to go too, as mid-’70s Lincolns were known for their squared-off wheel cutouts and fender skirts.
Are these Versailles coulda-beens still a pig in a poke? Perhaps, but Ford jumped the shark even more in reality: The Granada ESS, the “European Sport Sedan.” You could tell them by the rip-off MB color-keyed wheel covers, rip-off “pointy” MB headrests, black-out trim and other “refinements.”
Not to be outdone, Mercury also offered a Euro-inspired Monarch. And much like the Lumina Euro ten years in the future, it was about as European as a Big Mac and fries.
Oh yes, they look just like a W123, do they not? Me, I’d rather have a Dual-Shade ’80 Versailles. Now if you’ll excuse me, Heidi and I are going to lunch…
It may not surprise you that I happen to be a fan of the Lincoln Versailles
Nothing surprises me anymore 😉
A lot Lincoln friends have speculated as to what would have happened if the Versailles had been introduced with the 79 body instead. It is an interesting question given that nearly half of all Versailles sales were in MY79. Aside from the car being all to close to the Granada, I wonder if Lincoln buyers of the time just simply would not accept a smaller car. Remember, Lincoln held out the longest on downsizing during the late 70s. That maroon 79 LWD is not half bad considering the intended market. The look does remind of the dark brown Silver Wraith II that I had of the same vintage.
The most realistic and viable proposal would have been the the 1979 model with the new roof, with a 3 inch stretch on the rear doors only. Problem is, this would have put it close to the 1980 Panther Lincolns, if not in length, at least in weight. Versailles were porkers for their size, at 3916 lbs while the Panther benefited from state of the art weight control (1980 base 4dr 4061) .Lord knows how much a stretch would have added, but I figure at least 100 pounds. Once the new Panther hit the market, the Versailles raison d’être would cease to exist. 1960 Falcon-based platform with leaf springs vs all new chassis, at similar prices. No contest. But what of the Seville, you ask? Didn’t it have the same price-value-technical modernity shortcomings vs a downsized deVille? Yes.
The Seville actually had the same problem. All of the band-aid NVH fixes to the X-body structure put it’s weight around 4300 pounds, right around that of the physically larger 1977 deVille. If Ford could somehow rewind the sands of time, and do a proper roof design PLUS a wheel base stretch with new rear doors, they would have only about a 3 model year time window to amortize those costs. Ford wouldn’t have done it, but Cadillac got away with it because A)it’s Cadillac, B) GM had deeper pockets, C) the final product was just so darn appealing, sharing not a single panel nor pane of glass with the NOVA cars,not even the windshield. I highly doubt a stretched and re-roofed Granada could have competed. One look at the fenders, doors, and cowl windshield area would see to that.
Here’s a link to a few photographs of actual design proposals for the 1981 Lincoln Versailles (that never came to be)….
http://www.lincolnversailles.com/ca2002.htm
Those design proposals are very Dodge Dynasty… and the bottom one looks like a latter-days Edsel with the tall grille. Funny…
Iacocca took some Ford design talent with him to Chrysler….that plus his personal edicts for square roofs and “Rolls-Royce” grilles probably explains the striking resemblance of those Versailles concepts with the Dynasty/New Yorker/Imperial. What I always wondered about the “Dynorkerial” was which one was designed first and then the others badge engineered off of? Anybody know?
That looks like what basically turned into the Lincoln Mark VI. I wonder, and it is not speculated in the text that we see, if the four door Mark VI was the stop gap for the Versailles until the Fox Continental came out.
One other thing that was said there that did confirm my belief was that the Versailles was profitable. It was panned and did not sell well, but given the relative low investment the breakeven was low so while it did Lincoln no long term favors it did pad the bottom line. Chrysler tried that with the 81-83 Imperial but warranty costs ate that up.
Last thing that is confirmed, and anecdotally from Iacocca’s 84 autobiography, is how conservative Ford was in reacting to GM. Then, with GM’s market share and money pile, they could afford to take chances. Ford was #2 and could afford to compete most of the time but had to be more careful. Chrysler and AMC decided that they differentiated based on unique designs, models, and specifically Chrysler, technology.
When I started at Oldsmobile in 1976, the only model we ever really paid attention to from Ford (brand not company) was the Mustang.
I recall reading that Chrysler seriously considered LeBaron/Diplomat based Imperial, when “Seville-Fever” hit the D, but it was nixed
I have never heard of that (but I do not necessarily doubt it) since Imperial was pretty much dead. It was only Engle’s happenstance drawing that kept it going for 74-75 and then it was permanently consigned to the dustbin. The idea for the 81 Imperial was developed long before Iacocca arrived as sort of a companion to the Cordoba, but was kick up to Imperial level by Iacocca who wanted a halo car. Running the LeBaron as a Chrysler made sense since they had great success plushing up the New Yorker Brougham. I think Motor Trend or one of the magazines tested a Versailles, LeBaron, and Seville around 1977.
From everything that I have read, the Versailles was of course Ford’s attempt to fill the compact luxury market, but they purposely tried to keep the car as “American” as they could thinking buyers might like the idea of a more trim luxury car but some would prefer the traditional cues.
I remember seeing those in Collectible Automobile in an interview with Don DeLaRossa. The rear quarter shot of the black car reminds me a lot of a circa-1980 Electra.
Whats funny is that those prototypes still have exposed wipers, which is what I consider to be one of the cheap looking elements of the Versailles, if Ford would have bothered to spend a few dollars hidding the wipers it could have gone a long way to hidding the Granada underneath.
The 1982 Continental still had exposed wipers too.
The Versailles I can sort of understand the exposed wipers as the Granada/Monarch did not have them and the Versailles was a quick job. The 82 Continental had exposed wipers as did every other Continental subsequent. So I am not sure they really cared. That feature seems to have gone away anyways for a lot of cars these days.
From what I can tell, the first (only?) Fox body car that had hidden wipers was the ’83 Thunderbird/Cougar.
And the Mark VII, which is almost the same the ThunderCougar
The Fox based 1982-87 Continental was way, way better, even with it’s sort of bustle back trunk.
Too bad they couldn’t have brought out a Fox based Versailles sooner?
I may be the only one, but to me the windows on the ’82 Continental are too tall for the design – as tall as a Fairmont.
I am all for more LWB sedans. That actually looks good.
I like the first picture. I know, lets call it a town car.
As a high schooler, I always liked the Versailles, especially the wheels. We had a few of these running around in our neighborhood new; usually with with a mfg’r “M”-plate, or one of the blocks of alpha-sequences assigned to Ford.
I always liked the early Versaille, fully understanding it was simply an uptown Granada/Monarch. Furthermore, it was easy to option out a Granada/Monarch to almost a Versaille level. Witness my ’80 Monarch Ghia two door in lipstick red with a half white vinyl top. Optioned out with power windows, locks, seat, cruise, tilt, a/c, aluminum road wheels, cornering lights, luggage rack, and a particularly impressive looking am/fm digital output radio with Quadraphonic 8 track tape, my little Monarch elicited quite a few comments, especially from Ford dealership service people. About the only things it didn’t have were a moonroof and the V8 engine. I often wondered what the story was behind my car and who ordered it optioned out the way it was. Purchased with 8,000 miles on the clock in 1981, I drove it for almost three years before trading it in on a new ’84 Thunderbird. I fondly remember my little Monarch and wish I had it back.
If I knew where my Monarch was you could have that! Seriously, I was never as happy to see a car leave my possession as I was with that one. Sometimes I was tempted to park it in Detroit with the key in the ignition so somebody would steal it.
Don, I know what you mean as I had a Dodge Daytona that I felt that way about. My Monarch was a good car overall but I will admit if it had not had all the options mentioned – which is what caught my eye when I saw it on the lot -I would have never considered it for purchase.
The stretched version would have made sense considering how little space the back seat actually had.
I remember seeing the following picture in of their marketing brochures. At first I thought they might have shortened the bottom cushion to make it look more spacious. However, I think the model they used was asked to push herself against the corner where the seat meets the door to give the illusion of room.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Lincoln/1979%20Lincoln/1979_Lincoln_Versailles_Brochure/1979%20Lincoln%20Versailles-04.jpg
Actually, Ford was famous in the 70s for shortening their rear-seat cushions to give the illusion of space. I think they were banking on the idea that the average shopper in a showroom would just eyeball the back seat from the outside and wouldn’t actually sit in it. If the distance between the seat cushion and the front seat looked okay then it was fine.
But yeah, that model clearly is sitting in an unnatural position to make the space look bigger.
What if Lincoln had used a German MKII Granada V6 with fuel injection or an Australian Fairmont V8 instead? 5mph bumpers and US emissions would have been cost competitive with re-skinning the Granada and would have given Lincoln a unique product. The Granada 2.8i was pretty close to a 5 series BMW in size and performance although marketing something outside the white shoes and belt demographic would have been a challenge.
GM thought of the same thing for the Seville, using an Opel Diplomat, but it really didn’t fit what Cadillac wanted.
Press releases for the new MY86 Eldorado/Seville mention an Opel replacement for the Cimarron. Interestingly it too until the Catera in 1997 to actually get something. I never thought the Catera itself was particularly bad, especially the last years but the marketing was awful. Buick tried to revive its Opel connection in the late 1980s reselling Bitters which were based on Opels.
Press releases for the new MY86 Eldorado/Seville mention an Opel replacement for the Cimarron.
Which, given The General’s “thinking” at the time, might have meant sticking a Rolls radiator grille, a padded landau, and wire wheels on the mid-80s Opel Kadett.
Anybody out there have the Photoshop skills to Cimarron-ize this Kadett?
The Kadett is too small. It is smaller than the Ascona which was the European cousin to the J cars in the US. The car that was considered was the Rekord. Which was replaced in 1988 by the Omega that ultimately became the Catera. The Rekord/Omega were popular in Germany at the time being a midsize cars (for US purposes) but a large car in Europe and RWD with competent handling.
I think Ford (Lincoln) had the copyright on faux Rolls grilles and over thick padding roofs. From the factory at least…
I will say this for the rear gas cap: I am a big fan of rear mounted fuel fillers. It’s so convenient having it back there. All things being equal, I would gladly live with some awkward badge placement to have that feature. You never have to worry about which side of the gas pump to park on. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any new vehicles with a rear mounted filler. I believe the 96 B-body may be the last to have it.
The relocation of the gas filler to the sides had as much to do with safety as well as practicality as the tanks moved in front of the axle. Running 4 foot necks isn’t practical. The 96 B body design dates from 1977.
Why do I feel like I woke up on Bizarro World?
But even the crispier roofline of the second gen model was not nearly enough to differentiate it from the Granada…mainly because few, if any changes were made to the body or the interior. Same with the LeBaron/Diplomat being pretty much a gussied up Aspen/Volare.
At least with the Seville, you could not tell that it came from the Nova. And I never liked the Seville.
I think the long wheelbase version is a winner. It made the car looks much more elegant, upscale. They really should’ve gone with that as the only version.
The Versailles was such an oddly equipped car. I never understood such options as two way power seats. My family had a 79 Seville at the time. I remember riding in a friend’s family’s Versailles and thinking it rode better and was a bit quieter. I didn’t understand why it did not have the features of our Seville.
The first power seats were two way deals then 6 way came into being which became the de facto standard except on certain cars offered crazy 20 way seats. My 76 Seville had 6 way driver 2 way passenger. My Imperial has 6 way driver 4 way passenger with manual recliner. My 93 Century wagon has 6 way driver + power recliner and manual fore and aft passenger but power recliner. Up until the 1980s, power door locks were often no standard on luxury cars but power windows were. I do not think they Versailles had any more or less features than any other Lincoln of the day. They were pretty well equipped for their time, if I am not mistaken, actually had more standard features than the Seville, as far as things standard that were optional on Seville.
While the Versailles was of course meant to compete in the same market as the Seville, Lincoln strived for the most luxury, ride and quietness, while Cadillac stressed its performance and, especially in 1976 when C’s were still huge, relative nimbleness. Sort of a hint of European manners without deviating too far from Cadillac roots. Versailles really just wanted to be a smaller version of the Continental. Despite having the same body structure of the Granada/Monarch, Lincoln did go to pretty serious lengths to make it quiet and tight.
The Versailles did not offer as many options or standard equipment as the Seville; no six way power seat (which most of the Lincolns of that era had), no power passenger seat of any kind, no automatic headlamps, no level control, no power trunk pull down, etc.
As for power, our 79 Seville was weak. It was a handsome car but the worst car we ever owned for dependability. My friend said he does not remember their Versailles having many issues. I would jump at the chance today to drive a Versailles or Seville around the block, but for me
I find both Cadillac and Lincoln to be insignificant brands today. That makes me a bit sad.
Thanks for a great article…had two Granadas one used other new1977 Ghia….both good cars…always wanted the Versailles…..recently found a 29000 mile unit in great shape…a few issues…still had original tires…hasn’t disappointed me….yes a Granada/Monarch body share…as we so many other big three options…makes a great semi daily..