I love Lincolns. I hate Lincolns. Which Lincolns fall into which category is the stuff for which a website like CC was made. In which of those two barrels may this particular Lincoln be found? I am on record as being one of the most vitriolic haters of the 1980 Lincoln lineup of anyone who lives on this Earth. Yet here I am writing about one of the later versions of this car. One of us (the car or me) is going to take a beating here, and I am not yet sure which one it will be. So keep reading and we will all find out together.
It is hard to believe that CC has featured but a single late-’80s Lincoln Town Car in all these years. Hundreds (if not thousands) of early morning Curbside Classics have come and gone and a car like this has had its turn precisely once.
Why did I hate the 1980 Lincoln? Not dislike, but hate. Full-blown, car-hate as only the most passionate among us can accomplish. Paul Niedermeyer has his 1971 Ford LTDs and JPC has his 1980 Lincolns. We recently re-ran my take on the Mark VI so I am not going to re-ignite that controversy.
Neither car belonged to the author’s family, but both were essentially the same in color and trim. 1978 Town Coupe top and 1980 Town Coupe below.
In brief, I hated the 1980 Lincoln because I loved (just as deeply and passionately) the 1978 Town Coupe that my father got new and drove for two years. It was beautiful, stately, smooth, quiet and reeked of presence. A drive in that car was just what it was supposed to be – a wide, soft seat, oodles of torque from the big understressed 460 and a serenity that came from an isolation from the ugly world. Just as an ice cream sundae is topped with a cherry, the big Lincoln was highlighted by the chrome plated star waaaaaaaaaay out at the goal line of that gridiron-length hood.
1978-79 Continental Town Coupe interior in cordovan, the color also chosen by my father for his car.
The Chryslers handled better and the Cadillacs (being smaller) were faster, but the Lincolns were the absolute best way to smoothly and stylishly arrive. Any time, anywhere – it just didn’t matter.
Then, in the fall of 1979 Dad turned in the 2 year old Town Coupe for a new one. A brand spanking new 1980 Town Coupe in a nearly identical white with dark red velour color scheme. Did you ever awaken from a dream in which everything was perfect only to discover that you were back into your own not-nearly-so-perfect life? That was the transition I experienced going from the beloved ’78 to the ’80. That I got to experience panic on a warm early fall day as the ’80 spiked its temp gauge all the way to hot on my very first time behind the wheel was just the beginning.
The doors felt cheap. The body structure jiggled. The steering wheel tilted oddly. I believe the horn was on a separate stalk. Stupid, stupid, stupid. And it was just plain ugly. This was not a Lincoln. It was like Renault trying to do an impersonation of a Lincoln. The gearing was bad so that the engine bogged down early and often behind the horrid AOD transmission, clearly tasked with the mission to jump as early as possible into the highest possible gear and then remain there. Can I let you in on a secret? Dad’s ’76 Mercury Monarch Ghia with its 351 V8 and leather seats was more of a Lincoln than this thing was. This was not a luxury car. This was the compromise a luxury car buyer was forced to make in a fast-deteriorating world that many believed was five years away from a Mad Max-style dystopia.
Although he never admitted it, my father must have agreed with me because after he dumped that pretend Lincoln, he would never for the rest of his life choose another vehicle on a Panther chassis (and I am counting at least five subsequent FoMoCo cars, with two of them being Lincolns).
But the boys at Lincoln-Mercury did something that the folks in charge of the 1979-81 Chrysler New Yorker (as an example) would not do – they went back to work and eventually turned a turd into a decent car.
By 1987 FoMoCo had fixed much of what was wrong with the 1980 version. The 5.0 V8 was massaged and tuned until it put out a semi-respectible 150 bhp (compared with the 1980’s 129). The AOD was still there but the additional torque from the stronger engine made its weaknesses a little less glaring.
The styling was updated a bit, with some of the sharp corners rounded off and the interior got some significant upgrades. By the time this car was built Cadillac had attempted to rule the world in a way that turned out to be more of a suicide attempt. So maybe part of the Town Car’s growing appeal was in simply standing still as Cadillac became a cartoon and Chrysler had nothing but Volare Broughams to offer. It was in this era of newfound strength that Lincoln determined to build a car in commemoration of Team America’s winning of the America’s Cup sailing race.
There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,800-2,000 Sail America Edition Town Cars built (out of 76,483 Town Cars of all sorts), and boy were they loaded.
Every one was painted Arctic White and equipped with a navy blue fabric carriage roof. We laugh at the carriage roof treatment today, but in 1987 it was a fresh (if not universally loved) treatment. I liked it because it covered the awful opera windows that had carried over from 1980 like a bad disco song.
Genuine wire wheels and Sail America logos completed the look outside. But it was inside where the magic happened.
White leather seating. With navy piping. Lots and lots of piping. Show of hands, who here likes piping? OK, at least some of you. This is your car.
At $2,456 (over $5,500 in 2019 dollars), the Sail America package was not cheap, at roughly 10% of the base price of the car. These extra dollars were not, however, hidden where your neighbors and passengers would fail to notice them, so there was at least that.
The Americas Cup sailing race was a big deal in 1987. An Australian boat had won the previous contest in 1983 and a U.S. entrant was, for the first time, forced to run the race as a challenger for rather than as a defender of the cup. The Sail America Foundation was the body that backed Dennis Connor and his crew in the boat christened Stars and Stripes, an effort that was ultimately successful. Unless, of course, you are one of our valued Aussie readers, in which case, um, sorry.
It was a good thing for Lincoln that Connor won, or the company would have been stuck selling something that reminded everyone of a tragic sailing defeat. Or perhaps Lincoln had a second name-option ready to go in the event of another Australian win? That the race was not determined until February of 1987 probably dictated that Sail America Town Cars were so-identified by decals and not by plastichrome badges. I wonder what Lincoln’s Plan B looked like? Would Bill Blass have agreed to stand in? Or maybe this could have been the Detroit Yacht Club Edition. We will never know, thanks to Mr. Connor’s efforts.
And one more thing, although many call these the “Stars & Stripes Edition”, this was not actually the correct name (although those folks can be forgiven, considering the big “Stars & Stripes” decals on the craft’s forward hull.) The scant advertising given to this late introduction called it the “Sail America Edition”. So good, we have cleared this up.
I might not have made the effort to photograph this car but for the fact that a friend brought it directly to my driveway at dusk on a late winter Sunday. His son was on the verge of getting a driver’s license and a car search was underway. A friend of a friend of my friend had owned this one for quite a few years, treating it as more hobby than transportation.
The car is in exceptional condition for a midwestern car and had me momentarily imagining my own personal self at the tiller wheel.
I have, however, reached a kind of fatigue on these cars. I owned an ’85 Crown Vic and my eldest son owned an ’89 Grand Marquis. Those two pretty much sated me on a car I found challenging to love in the first place. As for my friend, his son concluded that this sloop was too big for him and they decided to move on. (“Too big? Listen you young whippersnapper, lemmie tell ya about big cars in MY day . . . . “)
I must say, however, that never was there a car so aptly described by its maker. If it was possible to make something more nautical than the Lincoln Town Car of the 1980s, I would be hard pressed to name it. That this one would include canvas up topside and piped white leather in the cabin to augment the white hull as it bounded over waves in the asphalt, well what better car to go Sailing America in? All that is missing is a little teak trim and some chrome fittings for tying up at the dock. Great sail, everyone. I would be pleased if you would join me at the yacht club for a cocktail.
There is a Lincoln town car exactly like this one parked outside of a house not too far from where I live…white with a fake blue convertible top. Unfortunately somebody has put that particular car on hydraulics. Ugh.
If you live just south of Nashville, that’s my car and it gets driven regularly.
That car is remarkably similar to the Town car that was stored on my mates lawn recently white red leather interior crumbling black vinyl top crusty spongy roof under the vinyl someone imported it but theres no way known it will ever pass compliance a total heap of shit it was a runner but according to the owner gutless, his daily is a 95 V8 Falcon, it got taken away a few weeks later when either storage was found or it was wrecked for parts hugely unimpressive for whats meant to be a flagsip model. Oh it didnt have wire wheels just aftermarket alloys.
I have actually seen/examined one of these! The stickers for the sail identification must had been removed. I liked the piping at the time. I see it is coming back on new cars too. Look at an Impala Premium as an example.
If you are going to go full nautical, shouldn’t it have those little handles around the circumference of the steering wheel? 😉
On the whole I don’t hate these, but find them pretty “Meh”, this however looks like a very nice example to find in the Midwest after 30 years.
Yeah, this car and I grappled for a bit but then we shook hands and agreed to walk away as neither enemies nor best friends.
Count me in as a fan of piping!
Although I’ve never been a fan of these cars, I can appreciate them for what they were. This edition is proof that sometimes you can put lipstick on a pig and it will look better.
Still, I think I’d rather have a Volvo V90 XC Ocean Race Edition 🙂
“sometimes you can put lipstick on a pig and it will look better.”
Hahaha, you have distilled this entire piece into a single sentence. Nicely done!
I can fully understand your hatred for these cars JP, but these still exude a sense of cool to someone like me. Do they compare to the 70s versions? Nope. But taken in isolation for what these are, I think they have a certain charm all on their own. For the longest time, there was a black 89 Signature Series for sale on Autotrader, nearly 60k on the odometer and going for 6500 dollars. It sold off in late 2015 and it was quite a ways away, but sometimes I wonder how different I would’ve felt had I gotten that instead of the Eldorado. Of course, now I drive a Panther of a different breed, but that’s a story for another time.
This Lincoln makes my head hurt. A car that has evolved from being common to being a novelty. And this is a novelty car among novelty cars.
The wheelbase is still too short although for whatever reason it doesn’t seem as pronounced as it was on the 1980 to 1984 models.
Much as I admire these for continuing to carry the torch of tradition in the face of further downsizing plus their sheer durability, in retrospect these come across as the Halfassification of Lincoln. They just aren’t as inspired, or inspiring, as the 1979 and earlier versions.
Halfassification – perfect.
Word of the Day!
I can picture myself in the passenger seat hearing my orders echoed from the helm after each execution.
Prepare to come about.
Come about.
Steady as she goes.
Sorry. I couldn’t resist nautical derision. Once the suspension gets a few years on the components, the expression “handles like a boat” fits these Lincolns soo well. . .
Now pass the dramamine please.
Wow, $66k in 2019 dollars for a fancy Crown Vic. For $50-55k this would’ve been a solid deal, but $66?
Helps to explain why GM and Ford are ok with charging $50-100k today for their full size SUVs that are nothing more than tarted up pickups…I sometimes forget there’s a long history of doing this.
Could it really be that the 1980s Town Car has been written up so little here at CC?? Just a few weeks ago, I came across the 1989 Signature Series below (with Lacy-spoke wheels!) and thought “This is nice, but they’ve been dealt with so much, I don’t need to take a lot of pictures.” Oh.
Well, I’m glad you took the plunge, and this is the perfect car to write about. Late enough in the model run that it was actually a decent vehicle, and probably the best of the myriad special editions.
From a corporate strategy perspective, the 1980s Town Cars provide an interesting study. I think the concept of a full-size traditional luxury car was all but written off for dead around 1980, and it was widely assumed that these cars would fade away quickly. But then interest in traditionalism rebounded, quite unexpectedly. I doubt anyone at Ford could have predicted that Lincoln would sell 100,000+ of these cars per year ever, let alone at the end of the decade. (1987’s 76,000 sales was low because it was a short year… the ’88 began to be produced in the spring of ’87). During its 1981-89 tenure, 64% of all Lincolns were Town Cars.
Now let me get this straight… this fine specimen was for sale, and it actually drove into and then out of your driveway, and didn’t find it’s forever home there? Wow, you really do have Panther Fatigue!
At the bottom of the window sticker it says “Bumper Height Adj”. What’s that?
“Bumper Height Adj”
I have no earthly idea what this could be. But at no charge, what a deal!
Bumper Height Adjustment? “Your new Lincoln comes with a bumper with its height meticulously adjusted at no extra charge.”
Bumper Height Adjective? “Your new Lincoln comes equipped with a bumper at the most fabulous, stupendous height ever!”
I will never not see the itty-bitty wheelbase, which makes these things look all out of proportion.
Not to mention the slab-sided styling (even moreso than the ’70s models) accentuating the narrow track.
My biggest irritant (that may outweigh the short wheelbase) is the perfectly round wheel openings paired with the sharply rectangular everything else. It really does look like the kinds of cars I drew when I was six.
I hadn’t paid much attention to post-60s Lincolns, but your 78 vs 80 comparison picture is dramatic. The 78 still carries the 61 proportions. The 80 tries to get there but fails worse because it’s trying so hard. Reminds me of those Mitsuoka retrocars.
Good proportion is impossible to define verbally or mathematically, but the eyes recognize it easily.
A good experience to emerge from unscathed. I’ll join you for the drink back at the club, but our bayshore walking trail goes by the sailing club and the chain link fenced graveyard of broken nautical dreams with “For Sale” signs on them.
This Lincoln would be in the same group for me. Walk by, spend ten seconds imagining pleasant cruising, spend ten seconds imagining trying to work on that thing, walk on.
And a free bumper height adjustment! Our Riviera from yesterday could have used that..
Well, in the spirit of saying something nice, at least the ads made it look good. Or better than it was.
There are a plethora of bad disco songs out there. My choice of the day today is Gloria by Laura Branigan. I can’t believe the St. Louis Blues used that song to celebrate a win this year. However I was happy to see them finally win.
I will admit to having to pick myself up off the floor from laughing when I read the words, “Hull” and “Sloop”! I never heard of a living room on wheels car like this described in such wonderful nautical terms. We’ll reserve the term, Battleship, for use on a huge gargantuan pickup truck of today. Thanks for taking us for a virtual ride in this Linc!
Add me to the Haters-club mailing list. A five-liter engine producing 129 HP; 13.8 seconds to 60 mph. In a Lincoln. A body design that looked like an aluminum-siding wholesaler decided to make a Lincoln replica out of sheeting. A K-Mart-Kwality interior, with genuine slab-o-plastic dash. Can you say “sad and cheap” boys and girls? You know you can.
And then there’s that @#$&*!! turn signal stalk horn button. If you want to visualize “panic” imagine you are at the wheel of your 1980 Lincoln (or any Ford product of the day) and a giant pick-up truck replete with trailer hitch that’s stopped in front of you pops on his reverse lights and starts backing up towards you. You go to toot the horn by pushing the center of the steering wheel to warn him off… and nothing happens. It’s suddenly like watching The Ice-Berg®️ reverse into the Titanic. You as Captain of the ship ,Er, Driver suddenly recall that the damn horn is …somewhere unusual…. and to the amazement of your passengers start cursing and slapping the steering wheel like it’s covered in bees. All while awaiting the inevitable crunch.
The truck, being lifted, has its hitch higher than your spiffy 5-MPH bumpers, and so punctures your radiator while flattening the nose of your car. As the truck comes to a halt some 6 inches into the nose of your Lincoln, you manage to accidentally slap the end of the turn signal lever resulting in a pathetic little beep of the horn. Even those stupid rim-blow steering wheel horns were better than the turn signal stalk thing.
Having had a ’79 Fairmont Futura, and then an ’83 Aero Bird immediately after that, you got used to the turn signal stalk to activate the horn.
So much so, that when I got my ’88 T-Bird where the horn switch was back on the steering wheel, it took me a couple of weeks to get used to that again.
These things are always derided here, but they really were not all that bad.
Not that I’ve owned one in a car (yet), but a wimpy horn on a turn signal stalk doesn’t bother me, because that’s the same thing most of our tractors have.
It took me several years to get used to it in my Cortina, Just as well I didn’t need to use the horn much. As for the pathetic little beep, turns out my horn had an adjustment screw that made a huge improvement. Maybe Ford’s US horns did too?
Sail away! This package reminds me a bit of what Lincoln is doing today with the Black Label treatments. Here’s the “Yacht Club” theme for the Navigator, in blue with white piping. Whether or not it is to your taste, at least it is memorable and a nod to Lincoln’s Special Editions heritage.
Recalling the 1980 Lincoln introduction only brings one word to mind: disappointment. After a year of folded-paper 1979 Crown Vics and Grand Marquis, it was depressingly what was expected since platform sharing was firmly in place throughout the industry. As the aptly-described “Lincoln replica by an aluminum siding wholesaler from sheeting stock”, it was the culmination of the Don DeLaRossa-lead design themes of the Mark V, pasted uncomfortably on a highly compromised package with too short a wheelbase. Not much to love here, nothing like the successful downsizing of the ’61 Lincoln.
As the drivability and durability improved throughout the 1980’s, these did become a decent alternative, especially with the 1990 restyle but still suffered the short wheelbase ill-proportions to the end.
A cousin on my mother’s side of the family bought one of these Sail America edition Town Cars, was immensely proud of it, symbolic of her successful career. Riding in the rear seat one became aware of how completely lacking the spaciousness was, given the overstuffed seats. Only latter did they finally correct that deficit with the longer L in the late iterations, those became the choice of the black town car livery-limousine services.
So you’re saying you prefer a barge over a yacht?
“So you’re saying you prefer a barge over a yacht?”
I prefer to think of the earlier version as more of an ocean liner. 🙂
Aha! Something like this scaled up a bit? 🙂
I cannot imagine a better “after” picture for the transition from the 79 to the 80 Lincoln. 🙂
Another fine article, JPC. When I first got my ’83 Ranger, I too thought the horn was broken, but I didn’t care as I rarely use it. About a year later, I was working under the dash, and as I was extracting my carcass I accidentally hit the stalk, and the horn went off! Huh?? So I looked in the owners manual, (who reads those?) and sure enough. The little horn icon was completely worn off the stalk. So are you a Ford guy that happens a closet Chrysler fan (like me) or vice versa?
“[A]nd Chrysler had nothing but Volare Broughams to offer.”
That took me a second.
Count me in as an old man, but I like that Sail America edition. I even like the basic edition Town Car. Yes, the wheelbase is too short but look at the Mark V’s overhangs. It’s a bit fussy but the details are well done. I was on another forum this morning and I read a L.J.K. Setright quote that a person has to be over 42 years of age to appreciate a true luxury car. Then you can truly appreciate quiet, serene, and effortlessly comfortable travel. That may be true. Yesterday I was out with the Wife in my Mustang,(with Flowmasters,but the quiet ones!) when several very loud motorcycles and cars went blasting by. I told her. “I now find overly noisy vehicles to be tiresome.” My desire is to be a “Freeway Ninja” quiet, unobtrusive, and fast.
Nice read JPC. I too share some disdain for these Town Cars, but I can’t say I have much love for the pre ’80 biggies either. I will agree the pre ’80 Lincolns were more true to form of what a Lincoln was. While the Panther Town Cars started off pretty poorly, they did improve greatly over the decade. The addiction of the 302 MPFI in 1986 was big step forward as that engine punched above it’s 150 hp rating. Ford continued to update and improve the car, until it became the preferred choice for many traditional American luxury buyers.
These Town Cars also really kept Lincoln going strong in the 80s. They were the bread and butter accounting for the majority of it’s sales. They also were responsible for stealing away many Cadillac customers who wanted traditional American Luxury. Cadillac’s Brougham was basically not even marketed after the new FWD C-Body Fleetwood was introduced. Those who were turned off by the FWD Caddy’s small size or its poor reliability, jumped over to Lincoln. Even if they did cross shop the Cadillac Brougham, its lackluster carbureted 307 and having essentially no updates since 1980, meant the Town Car was clearly the better buy.
Of course, us Aussies eventually got around to commemorating that 1983 win with a car of our own….
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule/curbside-capsule-1989-97-toyota-lexcen-a-different-kind-of-toyota-not-a-toyota/
Ah, so your ’80 had the analog instrument panel. My folks’ ’80 had the digital dash, which was at least as failure-prone as the rest of the rest of the sorry excuse for a car.
Because they were. Parts that didn’t fall off all by themselves were easily pulled off in response to normal force applied in a foolish attempt to do something unusual like…like…like open the door or close it.
Yeah, *just the wheel* tilted, not any part of the column. Which was almost as useful as a Ronco™ in-the-cup yogurt scrambler.
Aye—push the end of the turn signal stalk in toward the steering column to sound the horn. Oh, yeah, that’s real intuitive and easy to do in an emergency. Not!
Preach on, Brer JPC! Ridiculously tall rear axle ratio + ludicrously weak engine + overweight car + back-to-the-’50s “Slip-A-Flo” effect from the AOD made that slug huff and puff and crawl its way uphill from 5,500 feet where we lived.
Let’s hear it for using paying customers as beta testers! It’s the American way, in Jeeziz’ name aymen.
Ohhh, I donno if quite that big a dollop of praise is warranted. By ’87 they’d made a lot of the faults somewhat less execrable and/or perhaps a bit less excremental. The horn was moved where it belongs, on the steering wheel. The engines were less underpowered, the fitment and finish were a couple shades less drunken, the fixtures did a marginally better job of staying affixed…
…and the rear seatbelts were still a hideously stupid, seriously dangerous, zero-benefit design (belt pulls out from inboard, buckle is outboard). And the AOD wasn’t enough better. And the alternators and ignition switches still caught on fire. And the doors still pulled apart.
As for design and style: Opera windows and all—the oval ones from the Continental, please; I think the canvas roof opera window delete is a detraction, not an upgrade—I actually liked the ’80 design versus the ’79 (which to my eyes looked unreasonably bloated). . I did not like the ’85 refresh; the front and rear both got markedly less classy. For a long time I also thought they shrank the bumpers several sizes too small, but now I eyeball these pics you’ve posted, it’s apparent to me the problem isn’t so much their size as their finish: were they body colour rather than chrome, they’d be fine. They’re an awkward, worst-of-both-worlds mashup of earlier chrome-rail 5 mph bumpers and later aero fascia types.
“…and the rear seatbelts were still a hideously stupid”
I remember those rear seatbelts. I had not thought much of the safety angle, is there any safety reason why the latch should be outboard or inboard? The outboard latch made attachment of child seats easier.
The part I recall was the cheap moulded plastic sleeve that prevented the inboard belt with the tongue end from slipping back behind the seat cushions. Or, rather, was *supposed to* prevent the inboard belt from slipping back behind the seat cushions. The plastic piece would always split at its seams, widening the opening so that the bunched belt would slide right on through. I recall my mother’s fix (not a bad one, actually) was to take a bit of twine and attach an empty thread spool on the top side of the belt near the buckle. The tongue of the buckle might slip through but that spool sure wouldn’t.
Consider a hard T-bone or sideswipe crash, or the car put side-on into a tree or wall or telephone pole. If the impact is anywhere near the side of the rear seat, pretty good odds it’ll put a sudden hard squeeze on that belt buckle, making it inaccessible by someone who will very urgently need to unbuckle the belt…which may be a moot point, given the inherent lousiness of that kind of seatbelt buckle at doing its one damn job.
Not only is the buckle outboard, but it’s also on very short stub-belt (“Seatbelts are for pansies! The interior of this car will NOT be crapped up with visible seatbelts!”, said some cigar-chomping, morbidly obese, pasty white Ford manager at some point). Dealers sold extenders for those who had the audacity to want to be able to reach the damn buckle. Available only in black, and doubling the chances of losing your belt when you needed it because now you have two fail-prone RCF-67 buckles to gamble your life on.
The AOD actually had very little slippage (and none in overdrive). Its chief performance issue was monumentally tall, widely spaced gearing. In fourth, it had not only an 0.67:1 overdrive ratio, but also a completely mechanical hookup, bypassing the torque converter; as with the old Studebaker DG, it was not a separate torque converter lockup clutch. Third was a split-torque direct, so getting any kind of actual torque multiplication meant somehow persuading the transmission to kick all the way down to second or first. (There was no “2” position on the quadrant because the AOD used what had been the intermediate band on the FMX as the overdrive band.)
This was not a good combination for a torque-deprived engine, but the AOD was not exactly brimming with extra torque capacity either.
This was my biggest gripe with the AOD. If you drive it gently, once you hit that 3rd gear lockup at maybe 25 mph and until you hit 65 mph, heaven help you if you need to accelerate. The only alternative is to 1) drive it like you are racing by keeping the throttle wide open to wind 2nd out as long as possible and then 2) keep the lever in 3rd and manually shift into 4th/OD at 50-55 instead of 40-45 when it wants to shift automatically.
If these Town Cars were SO terrible: How can the many former Cadillac De Ville owners, who switched over to Lincoln Town Cars in the1980’s….and never returned to the GM family… be explained?
Senile dementia and death, respectively.
(I’m half-joking, of course, but only half. The other answer is it’s not that the Lincolns were so much better, it’s that the Cadillacs were so much worse.)
So….you are saying that a Lincoln Town Car was so much better than “The Standard Of The World” (Cadillac’s long time advertising slogan)?
No. Sorry you’re having difficulty following. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Jes’ messin’ wid ja!
🙂
I’m a little late reading it, but great story! I understand hating 80 Lincolns, but I agree this car is rather cool.
I’ve got one of these cars with 40,000 miles on it. One year has passed since I picked it up in Tampa and drove it back to Nashville, a very comfortable ten hour trip. It needs a new exhaust and that was taken care of quite easily. Nothing since except for an airflow sensor. Everything else has been normal maintenance. I Drive is regularly and love it. This is my fourth Lincoln, a 64 convertible, which my son now has, a 65 and 73 sedans and now the 87. I loved. them all, for some reason the lime green with the dark green vinyl top and cloth interior 73, is still my favorite. This one is gaining on it though. It’s dependable and rides like a dream. Saw it back in 87, but didn’t catch up to one to purchase until last year. Glad I did.
Hey, let me know if you decide to sell the car.
Thanks!
I am near Raleigh, NC and have one of these Sail America Lincoln Town Cars. Clean and currently driven has 93k miles. Third owner with original owners information in glove box. FOR SALE starting at $10,000 but entertaining all offers. Car is in good shape no seat tear minor cosmetic issues outside VERY RARE
Hi, please let me know if a ’87-’89 towncar is for sale.
I bought my sail edition new 1987
Holman Lincoln maple shade NJ.
List almost 30,000
Best car I ever owned
Jbl radio moonroof real wire wheels
Roaster roof called simcon