(first posted 8/30/2015) Lincoln had somewhat of a surprise hit with the 1988 Continental. Thoroughly modern, with front-wheel-drive and air suspension, the Continental offered the six-passenger comfort and smooth ride Lincoln buyers desired but with modern, aerodynamic yet restrained styling. It was seemingly designed to offend no one, and sold consistently well with few updates for seven years.
Cadillac had been reeling from excessive downsizing and sales of its Seville had slumped during this time, but they roared back with a vengeance by introducing the 1992 Seville. Here was a luxury sedan with class-leading performance and a chiselled exterior, which gave little away in interior presentation and dynamics and was ambitiously targeting the best from Europe and Japan. Suddenly, Seville sales shot up and the Continental was left looking dull and dated. Lincoln needed to act, but they ended up leaving Cadillac with a three-year headstart. The 1995 Continental was more ambitious, but perhaps it wasn’t ambitious enough.
The truth is, the 1995 Continental wasn’t as internationally aspirational as its crosstown rival. It wasn’t built to take on the best from Europe, as Lincoln-Mercury executives at its launch declared it was built to be the best front-wheel-drive luxury sedan on the market. Forget Lexus, BMW and Mercedes-Benz: the Conty was aiming for Caddy.
Things got off to a rough start. Firstly, the Continental arrived three long years after its rival. Secondly, focus groups had found the Lincoln wanting against the Seville and LS400, triggering engineers to hurriedly make changes to the Continental’s final drive ratio to aid performance. Race car driver and paid consultant for Ford, Jackie Stewart, was also critical of the new FWD sedan.
Perhaps the biggest blow that hit the Continental right out of the gate was its much higher MSRP. It now listed for $5k more than its predecessor, at $40,000. MSRPs were on the rise in the Ford fleet: the new Taurus/Sable and Contour/Mystique were also priced a few thousand higher than their predecessors.
However, a closer inspection would reveal the ’95 Continental offered a lot more over its predecessor. Riding a revised version of the D186 platform shared with the Taurus/Sable, the new Continental had 62% more power than the old model. The Essex V6 used in the Continental had always been singled out for criticism, considering the car’s nearly 4000 lb curb weight, and by 1994 was only offering a dismal 160 horsepower. The ’95 model packed Ford’s new 4.6 InTech V8 shared with the Mark VIII coupe, albeit now transversely-mounted and detuned some. It pumped out 260 hp and 265 ft-lbs and was mated to the AX4N automatic transmission employed in the Taurus. The InTech managed to outgun the Essex V6 – 0-60 was 7.7 seconds – with only a negligible difference in fuel economy: 17/25 mpg, only a 1 mpg drop in the city. This was especially admirable considering the Continental had gained an extra 300 pounds in curb weight, to 3969 lbs. Where the Continental was little changed was in overall dimensions: the same 109-inch wheelbase remained, and length was only up by around an inch.
In the technology stakes, the Continental impressed. The centerpiece of the car’s feature list was the Driver Select System. This feature, controlled through a driver information center, allowed you to choose between low, normal or high steering effort and a soft, normal or firm ride from the electronic, self-leveling air suspension. These selections could even be made while driving. In addition, a memory profile system could save two drivers’ preferred seat and mirror position and radio stations. There was so much tech that the Lincoln actually came with an instructional video tape that ran for 20 minutes.
Photo courtesy of Used Cars Group
Standard features also included heated mirrors, cornering lamps and power driver’s seat, while you could option traction control, heated seats, CD player and even a voice-activated cellular phone. The interior presentation was sedate but neat, although let down by one of Lincoln’s clunky, large steering wheels, and the cabin was quite spacious. Six-passenger seating was a no-cost option. A later option was RESCU, a GPS-based emergency location system.
The air suspension offered a plush, luxurious ride. Road noise was hushed, and the interior was serene. For all its adaptivity, the Continental was still no sport sedan, though. Body roll and understeer were worse than the Seville STS. And although Ford offered a sportier Taurus and Cadillac had the Seville STS, Lincoln offered no such performance model. The Continental had never been a sports sedan, however the availability of a performance model could have lent the Continental more panache. Cadillac had also found that the STS often accounted for a solid half of total Seville volume.
Continental’s exterior styling was a mixed bag. The heavily sculpted sides echoed the ’96 Taurus and Mark VIII and the grille resembled that of the latter, but aspects like the headlights, full-width taillights and wheel designs were quite conservative.
It may have still used the same basic platform, but the new Continental was one of the most ambitious Lincolns ever and heavily touted its technology as a unique selling point. It also undercut the Seville on price. So you can imagine Ford executives’ disappointment when Continental volume dropped for its debut year and slumped even further for its sophomore year, from 44,854 units down to 29,455. Sales picked up a little bit for 1997 thanks to a 10% price cut achieved through changing the standard suspension set-up to air at the rear only, but clearly something more drastic needed to be done.
Lincoln decided to extensively overhaul the Continental’s exterior for 1998. There was a lot more chrome, which designers likened to “jewellery”. The rear overhang was lengthened by two inches but the front overhang was clipped by 2 inches at the center and 4 inches at the sides. There was now a much stronger familial resemblance with the Town Car.
The Driver Select System was shifted to the options list. Indeed, commercials no longer heavily emphasized the technological aspects of the Continental. The interior was revised, with genuine bird’s eye maple trim, neater switchgear and a suede dashtop, but antiseptic color schemes and tacky black plastic surrounding the switchgear were decidedly inelegant.
The conservative refresh worked, at least initially. The following year, though, sales were down to their lowest levels in a decade. By 2000, with the launch of the rear-wheel-drive Lincoln LS, the Continental’s position in the Lincoln lineup was even more confused.
To try and make it sell, they had made the Continental look and drive more like the Town Car and even priced it the same! So, who was buying the Continental? According to Road Report 2000, the Continental was appealing to much the same buying demographic as the Town Car: the average age of buyers for Lincoln’s big sedans were 66 and 68, although Continental buyers were slightly more affluent. However, the Seville had an average buyer age 10 years younger and an income twice as high.
The LS effectively signed the Continental’s death warrant. While the average buyer was surely quite different from a Continental shopper, it offered people wandering into a Lincoln showroom an option that cost $8k less ($4k less if you wanted a V8). Although quite conservative, the LS was a much better proportioned design with shorter overhangs and a 5.5 inch longer wheelbase; the Continental’s wheelbase was the same length as a Buick Century’s.
The LS put pressure on the Continental from one side while the Town Car pushed from the other. The Continental’s death warrant was signed, but it lingered on until 2002. For all its perceived danger to the Continental, the Seville’s sales dwindled alongside the Continental’s as both entered the new millennium, although the Caddy always retained a modest lead.
Perhaps Lincoln shouldn’t have targeted the Seville. Ford executives could perhaps have learned from the 1988-94 model’s success. Why did it sell so well? How could they have improved that formula? Instead, they set out to make the “world’s best front-wheel-drive luxury car”. It was good, but it wasn’t the best.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 2000 Lincoln Town Car Cartier
Curbside Classic: 1992-97 Cadillac Seville
Curbside Classic: 1998-2004 Cadillac Seville
I was very close to purchasing a triple sky blue 95 Continental. But I just could not get over the tech features and the fact that they would fail. You see too many of these on the road with the flat suspensions. I didn’t want to go to the expense, so I skipped it. But it just looked so beautiful
I am amazed that the previous generation Continental (1988-1995) sold so well. To me it always looked like what would happen if Ford tried to build a Buick.
These cars were lookers but I have heard that the transmissions were trouble prone. Still I’d rather have a 95-2002 Continental over a similar year Taurus SHO.
The 1988-94 Continental initially benefitted from the collapse of Seville sales after the debut of the disastrous 1986 model. It was considered handsome at the time. If it reminded people of an “old school,” large Buick, that was probably a plus. More than a few people felt that GM had carried its downsizing effort a bit TOO far when its first front-wheel-drive full-size cars debuted.
I’m still very sad that the Continental and the Mark are gone. Since I was a boy, those were the two models I always associated with Lincoln. I’ve always wanted to know the story of the last Continental. Thanks for sharing it.
These abound in the junkyard. The 4 speed couldn’t handle the Vulcan V6 for over 120k, and the Duratec 30 kills it even quicker. I can’t imagine the average failure mileage on a 260-275 hp Continental.
InTech V8, indeed. Quite “in.”
Having lived with variants of this engine for 7 years (albeit in RWD, higher output packaging), it’s really a fantastic motor. Could use a little low-end grunt but it’s midrange is excellent, plus it’s inherited the durability of its sibling.
The transmission? Another story. The AOD-E and 4R70W/4R75W could handle the power, but the FWD gearbox really just wasn’t up to the task.
I had one of these in college, really a better car than they ever got credit for. Purchased my 1997 in immaculate shape, with 70k miles in 2002 for only $6500. CD player, sunroof, leather, seating for 6, fast, enormous trunk, everything a student could ask for. Plus things I’d never heard of at the time, the projection dash was gorgeous, still would look good in a new car.
And the 3 way adjustable suspension combined with 3 level steering effort settings was amazing, and actually noticeable. The owners manual had a little diagram describing each combo. Softest suspension and softest steering: “The Classic Lincoln luxury experience” The only one it wouldn’t let you do was lowest steering effort, along with hardest suspension “Unavailable: Creates an undesirable effect”.
2 friends and I took it on a 6k+ road trip from OK and camped/lived in the Continental for almost 3 weeks. Non stop drove it from here to Toronto, then Montreal, up to Maine, down Rt 1 into Boston, NY, Philly, Baltimore, DC, the Carolinas, back to OK. A lesser car would have been tortuous, instead it was one of the best times of my life. (Pictured is the car parked off 5th Avenue in NYC from the trip)
It wasn’t without faults (mainly trying to park the boat on campus), but the aforementioned air suspension isn’t as bad as it gets credit for. Mine leaked for years (ie it would sag if parked a couple days), but the compressor was fine, and it would air it back up to level when started. The death blow is if the compressor gives out, but mine never did.
Still one of the most comfortable, best riding, most solid structured cars I’ve ever been in.
80% depreciation in 5 years. Yikes.
That’s pretty much par for the course for any American luxury car. Anyone buying a brand new Cadillac/Lincoln/Buick might as well set their money on fire. All the better for us 2nd owners…
The only other cars I considered buying at the time was (coincidentally) an STS or an Aurora from the same dealer. The STS had signs of a head gasket leak already, and the Aurora had pieces literally falling off of it. Both were similar ages/mileages, and within $1k of the Lincoln.
That level of depreciation keeps the domestics out of the import leasing game, at least without truly giant lease incentives. This also keeps the dealers out of the lucrative CPO volume, which also protects residuals. This was the area where there was much to learn from the imports.
I am glad you liked yours and the traditional ride could be dialed up from the myriad electronics. But the 61 was a world leader, even the Town Car, though not given the attention it deserved, was at least a reminder of what was. This was just a Taurus with bling. Where was the car Lincoln put some effort into. The car that showed what they were about.
Very true on the leasing part.
I don’t know about this “Taurus with bling” though. Its like how every enthusiast dumps all over the Jaguar X-Type as a “fancy Mondeo”. If you went in not knowing they shared a platform, all you’d say is it’s a nice car. It didn’t share any panels or interior with the Mondeo, just a platform you can’t see.
Same with the Continental. I didn’t buy it because of its “pedigree”, I bought it because the car as it sat in front of me was fast, luxurious, and loaded. A Sable is a “Taurus with bling”, a Continental is an entirely different car that shares the firewall and some stamping points with a Taurus.
Taurus has really good handling for its size and time, because I pushed it to limit few times and I am impressed, the body is really tight compared to many other cars. But Taurus has really bad interior and many other things though. It’s a good start point for Continental though.
I don’t know about this “Taurus with bling” though. Its like how every enthusiast dumps all over the Jaguar X-Type as a “fancy Mondeo”. If you went in not knowing they shared a platform, all you’d say is it’s a nice car.
Agree, the Mark VII was Fox platform but still managed to be a credible luxury performance coupe for its time.
The level of depreciation is always something coming with two sides. Some dealership these days finally figured out a way to exploit those Toyota/Honda with higher resale value.
In a dealership I know, they had an Avalon not so well optioned, not so well cared with not so low miles at a higher price, and it was parked in the middle of the lot. Around it, there were many more Buick Lucerne, Ford Fusion, Chevy Impala even not so competitive Taurus with better option in better condition with lower miles at lower price. After a while, they all disappeared but the Avalon in the middle, and they had many other similar cars around it again.
On the other hand, the higher resale value from Camry in particular doesn’t make sense, as it doesn’t have that better quality to back up. And the vehicle often has many mechanical defects resulted from owners’ neglects riding on the reputation, and Camry is a rather good cover for rebuilt/salvage title from the dishonest dealerships as the demand is way higher than its actual value.
Very interesting! Some people probably just buy a Camry and blindly assume it will be reliable and run forever. And then once they own it they blindly assume it will be reliable and run forever! Personally, if I were buying used, I’d prefer to get something that has depreciated considerably. There are plenty of fairly reliable domestic cars with much worse residuals than a Camry, eg the Lucerne and Impala.
6500 with 70k at 5 years? Wow. That is pretty heinous depreciation, either that or you got one hell of a deal. I paid 8600 for a 47k mile ’96 Mark VIII in 2004, and while I didn’t get a great deal, I don’t think I got taken to the cleaners either.
These Continentals are definitely a lot of car for the money on the used market. Or were in “midlife”, anyway. Just a matter of finding one that isn’t about to cough up the transmission…the air ride system really isn’t as big a deal as folks make it out to be.
I think building these off the Taurus platform comes close it earning the Continental deadly sin status, especially given this web site propensity to label almost every Seville one. The first generation even lacked a special engine, getting probably the worst offering from the Taurus stable.
They gave this one a V8 that was too much for the already iffy Taurus transmission, and a lot of air springs and electro gimmickry to hide the pedestrian suspension. Imagine if the eighties Seville was an A body even if tuned like a 6000 STE, or a 90s Seville a W body, again even with a Northstar. GM, for all their cheapness, never did this. Yet somehow it is okay that Ford did.
The race for the bottom now sees an unsuccessful Taurus based MKS battle an almost as unsuccessful epsilon based XTS. I know all of you will be surprised I had to look the current models up to get the letters in the right order.
The suspension wasn’t as hobnobbed as you’d like to believe, they got away with it because it worked, and worked well. Read any contemporary reviews of the ride/structure.
The previous version of these cars are truly the deadly sin. With the deficits mentioned before, it seemed like a very cynical way to trade on the once proud Continental nameplate. At least in this part of the world, these were the one to see the suspensions and engines fail at shockingly young ages and low mileages. I could never understand how FoMoCo managed to not get a huge black eye for those cars.
I see that Ford is trying to re-boot the Continental name again. I sure hope they make it work this time.
^ This. Perhaps after years of entrenched first Gen problems these were the root cause of the sales drop off for the second generation. King of CR’s black dots and “Used Cars To Avoid” lists,
Geozinger is right, as the 1988-94 Continental was the “Deadly Sin.” With the head-gasket munching 3.8 V-6, fragile transmissions and finicky electronics, I remember this generation of Continental as a car to avoid. That reputation was well-known by the mid-1990s. The 1995 Continental was a huge improvement in every respect. Unfortunately, it was tainted by its predecessor’s reputation.
I think there was a lot of hype at the time about Don Peterson and his euro inspired aero look, which frankly was not in evidence in either generation of Continental. When you just finished writing ten articles how the Taurus is great and a big step forward, it is hard to then switch gears and say maybe it wasn’t the best basis for a Continental.
I don’t think that many people who thought Caddy shrunk too much ended up in a Continental. I think the Continental sold on price, notice how sales dried up when the price became level with Town Car.
Although the target audience probably liked its sedate styling, I think the car’s sedate styling actually hurt its sales. By that point the Continental name had been diluted so much over the decades, that it had little meaning. These cars never stood out enough to be noticed or recognized. They didn’t have the sheer presence of the Seville, nor the instant recognition like the Town Car.
The interiors were a letdown too, when compared to foreign competition and even the Seville. The leather seats looked nice, as did the bird’s eye maple in the refreshed version, but everything else just looked too common Ford parts bin, and not reflective of a luxury car that cost over $40,000 in the late-1990s/early-2000s.
All true, but I’ll respectfully disagree with the interior compared to the Seville. They were a pretty much equal blend of cheesy plastics and shared corporate buttons. The overall effect was still pretty premium. I gave some French foreign exchange students a ride home in mine after class one day, and they were all “oohs and ahhs” over the interior. One girl asked “This is car, like, the President is in, yes?”
+1 The exterior design was/is quite anonymous. It doesn’t share the character and grace the Seville and the Chrysler LHS managed. Meanwhile, the Seville started the ‘brawny’ chiseled look Cadillac exterior design theme, it maintains today. This Lincoln looks oversized and bloated. While their competitors carried their scale better, with more individuality.
There was so much hype around Ford’s new ‘ovoid’ design theme of the mid to late 90s. But other manufacturers seemed to execute the aerodynamic theme better.
Meanwhile, the Seville started the ‘brawny’ chiseled look Cadillac exterior design theme, it maintains today.
Funny thing is that Ford was close to that look and image first with the Lincoln Mark VII LSC but inexplicably abandoned it.
+1 I always prefered the Tbird/Cougar cousins for that very reason, since they were still immersed in the aero look when the ovoid Mark was released.
I never liked the Mark VIII, thought the look was ‘Bleh’ and wished they had simply updated the Mark VII look on the longer, wider MN12 platform with the OHC engines.
And making the Continental a sedan variant of that look would have been where Cadillac ended up only ten years earlier.
Detroit sure jumped on the ovoid fad in the 90s. The Taurus, the VIII, the Sable… throw in the final Riv and the gen1 Aurora, too.
I can’t believe how much they charged for these, new. They had a breathtaking capacity for depreciation. (I stole that line from Patrick Bedard, who was speaking of the fuselage Imperial.)
I don’t like the styling of this car or that it is front wheel drive. To me the choice between this and a town car is a no Brainer. Town car was a far superior car looks wise and mechanically and comfort wise. For a compact luxury car it looked bloated. I think the Chrysler lhs was beautiful and modern. Lincoln should have made continental look like that and not the town car. They should have kept the town car looking like the 90-97.
I’ve never entirely understood why the ’95 Continental didn’t do better. It was sleek and attractive, and much more aesthetically pleasing than the ’96 Taurus. It had V8 power and just about every feature you could desire in a luxury car and then some. It was more stylish than a six-cylinder Lexus GS and cost less; though it was front-wheel drive.
I still remember the TV commercials that aired when these cars were new: A Continental was lifted off the ground and balanced on the head of a pin, while the announcer touted “the perfect balance of luxury and technology” the car contained. Maybe the “technology” was overkill, since any car requiring a 20-minute instructional video was undoubtedly a usability fail. Of course, we know how the story ends: The 1998 facelift decontented the car and beat it with the ugly stick, and the 60-year-old nameplate became wholly irrelevant in a division captivated by Navigator profits and alphabet soup. Such a shame…
In the early-00s I worked for a Ford supplier who provided company cars. The lower grade levels got Taurus or Windstar-whatever-they-called-it, higher levels got Grand Marquis or Continental. Being in MI, the GM v. Cont choice usually came down to who wanted to contend with RWD in the snow/ice.
So in effect this car is the answer for the portion of the market that wanted a FWD Grand Marquis (More so than the Town Car since, by the end of its life, the Continental was closer in real price to GM than TC).
The 1980s and 1990s were pretty challenging times for Lincoln, in that their less impressive “retro” offerings sold like mad, while their future-oriented designs were hindered in the marketplace.
In the 1980s, the old-looking Town Car racked up impressive sales, likely due to Cadillac’s blunders, but impressively profitable nonetheless. The Mark VII was critically acclaimed, but launched into a market that was rapidly losing interest in big personal luxury coupes, so its sales were nothing to brag about. Ditto for the FWD Continental. When launched, the 1988 Continental was a nice, modern design, but the lack of an appropriate power plant absolutely killed it.
So, given those signals, Lincoln must have been in a quandary when it came to redesigning the Continental. They would have undoubtedly seen the enormous impact of the LS400, and had to have known that a world-class RWD offering was needed. But, at the same time, the coffers were ringing with the resounding sales success of the aero Town Car and the smash hit Taurus. So they took the cheap, easy way out with the ’95 Continental, and the results were unsurprisingly uninspiring.
That direction of cynical platform mining then reached a fevered pitch, resulting in FoMoCo making the move that I think ultimately killed Lincoln (I know, it’s not actually dead yet, but does life support count as living?) If gobs of money were still to be made by re-skinning Panthers, imagine how you could whore out the ultimate cash machine, aka the F150 platform and its spinoff jumbo Ford SUV! Cue the ’98 model year, when the disgracefully badge-engineered Brontosaurus from Lincoln, the one and only Navimonster, set the sales charts on fire, enabling Lincoln to beat Cadillac in the sales race. The most jaded, cheaply executed rebranding imaginable suddenly redefined the American luxury landscape, and steered it decidedly away from international excellence and into tasteless, super-sized excess. The Navigator and the fast-following, equally lowbrow Escalade, became the new–and enormously profitable–standards for their respective brands. Therefore it was really no wonder Lincoln let this sad Continental wither on the vine.
There’s a lot of truth in the comments on the Navigator except for two significant differences in comparison to the Continental – the First Gen Navigator wore its Lincoln styling cues very well as well as offering a distinct upgrade in powertrain.
As the article points out, the lack of an STS equivalent was always a shortcoming but Ford probably knew that 1) The LS was coming down the pike (The DEW98 was in development forever) and 2) Their FWD transaxles couldn’t take the torque anyway (No way would I have volunteered to run any of Ford’s FWD trans of the time behind a 4V Mod V8).
GN: you ripped the facade off the “premium” Lincoln and Cadillac SUVs. That was very satisfying to read.
The most technology advanced Mark VIII flopped too. Most parts eventually found their way into many other cars though, including the digital display.
Stylistically these were such an improvement over the weiner dog looks of their predecessor. Shame they didn’t sell better. I remember being impressed with the tactile feel of the interior vs the domestic competition.
Tail lights were better than the “stolen from a Buick” units used on the earlier version.
Designers have forgotten the visual impact [and branding potential] that distinctive tail lights provide. They’re as important as the front end design and many brands today seem to have just phoned it in.
It’s sad the last Continental was such a drab, forgettable car. I’m stoked that the upcoming 2016/2017 Continental may have a chance to do right by this legendary nameplate though.
On theory, Continental is always a Lincoln based on a mainstream Ford, some works better and some doesn’t. For the last generation, it works alright, and that’s the best the platform can do. The next generation will be very similar in theory as the late ’90s one, but without many competitors emphasizing on comfort, it has a better chance than then.
A 97 Continental was my father’s last car. He picked it up a year old, IIRC, so saved a bundle. To him, it said “modern” in a way that the Town Car did not. I do recall that the V8 moved out nicely, and the instrument panel looked very high-end. After he died, I thought about buying it, but was afraid of the level of technology in an older car.
Also, my Uncle Bob bought a black one with the jazzed up grille and taillights. I believe it was his first FoMoCo car since a used 64 Galaxie, and he kept it for eons – he may still be driving it at age 80.
The 2017 Continental will just be a tarted up Fusion, just as the 1988 was a tarted up Taurus, and the 1970 was a tarted up LTD. (The 61 – 69 Continental shared its platform with the Thunderbird, but not the regular Fords.) From a financial perspective, Ford is wise not to give Lincoln its own platforms – look at the struggles Cadillac is having.
I’ve owned a couple of Lincolns and for some reason there is always someone that has to point out to you, the owner of a Lincoln, that it is just a fancy Ford. Nobody calls a Lexus a fancy Toyota, or Buick a fancy Chevy. I would just tell them that “a hot fudge sundae is just a fancy bowl of ice cream. Emphasis on the word FANCY!” And walk away.
just imagine what I have to deal with… I drive a Lincoln Versailles! everyone notices it, either they have no idea what it is, or it’s the typical cliche.. “you know your car is nothing but a Granada” ….oh well, I really like my joke car.. it’s really comfortable and rides smooth and floaty, just like a 70s Lincoln should!
I think MKS is the modern day Versailles. It could be a good car on its own, but the difference between the Ford version isn’t distinctive enough to set far apart. ( on the other hand, a Chrysler Fifth Avenue is pretty different from Plymouth Volare even though they share much more parts )
Well, Varsity Lincoln. I think it’s the most luxurious Lincoln dealership ever, and it’s just right next to the old Wixom plant.
Somehow I like this car better now then when new. Maybe it looks more distinctive now in the face of change – it was just so bland in its time.
Too bad that quality issues and the relative obscurity of these would make ownership of one now a true crapshoot.
Although I’m big fan of the Ford jellybean styling, I just didn’t like the styling of the 1995 Continental. However I really liked the refresh in 1998.
A few years ago I wanted my next car to be a late 90s luxo–cruiser. My starting point was a 99 Continental. But then I did some research online it’s appeal wore off . Then I stumbled across a 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora.The Aurora seem to have all the luxury features but seemed to be a better car overall, much better handling, and beautiful styling. The owners just wanted to get rid of it, practically giving it away. It was an amazing car, I was happy with my choice.
As someone who was a fan of the Fox-platform continental (albeit as a child when they were new) I felt the first-gen FWD Continental was a major fail. Taurus platform? V6? Handsome but inoffensive styling? Bleh. Plus the styling, while managing not to look completely awkward, had (to my eyes) the same “taffy stretched” look that the LWB K-car based Chryslers had.
So when the ’95 model showed up, I was pretty excited. Still too young to even drive at that time, so I wasn’t exactly a potential buyer, but the specs and photos looked good to me. Finally a proper engine, chock full of technology, an attractive interior and nice styling. Great from some angles (I love the rear 3/4 view, especially if equipped with the chrome/polished alloys, but I’m a sucker for full-width tails). Decent from others, but an unquestionable upgrade from the earlier car.
Looking back now, though, I think Ford made a fundamental mistake with this car. By 1995, they should have seen the writing on the wall that the market for a FWD luxury sedan was starting to drift into an overlap with the average Town Car buyer. Did they not realize, *especially* after the ’92 refresh of the Seville, that the upcoming thing was sports-oriented? In my opinion, they really missed the mark (pun intended) by not putting the ’95 Conti on a stretched FN10 platform, essentially making it a 4-door counterpart to the Mark VIII. Counterpart, not version–unique styling. Heck, they could have gone with a tidied up version of what it actually looked like, but the proportions would have been better on a RWD platform. The 4R70W was up to the task of handling the power, and they could have rated it at the same 280 HP as the non-LSC version of the VIII. The economy of scale would have been there as it was a shared platform, just shared with a much better base point. Missed opportunities, missed opportunities. Now *that* could have been a legit compeitior to the Seville SLS, and an LSC version could have taken on the STS head to head.
That refresh for ’98, though, that was the final nail in the coffin for me. The “extreme aero” look of the car was looking a bit old by then, and (while I quite liked it) never was as handsome as the Seville. But instead of taking it in a better direction, they gave it a bigger, glitzier grille, made it *longer*, and gave it a tail treatment that looked to me like a Jaguar rip-off. And they took a decently attractive (if slightly materials-deficient) interior and made it a squared-off snoozefest. Why, Ford? Why?
This is very very least favorite generation Continental by far. Such a bulbous, uninspired design. I did think the styling change helped some, but not nearly enough.
Comments like this are what’s frustrating about this thread and, indeed, this entire website…. lots of armchair criticisms from people with plenty of opinions but precious little expertise about the cars they so enthusiastically criticize.
I’ve owned a ’98 Continental for some years now, and its very good. It’s been completely reliable. All the various technological features have not given any trouble including the alleged “weak” transmission that others on the thread swear won’t hold up. Well, no trouble at all.
As for sharing a platform with the lowly Taurus, again, the Taurus is a fine piece of engineering, but even then,, the Continental has been so thoroughly revised for its role there’s almost no parts shared between the two. So such platform sharing is a baseless criticism.
This car has lots of power, comfort, luxury, decent handling, unique appearance, high quality features and excellent reliability and STILL the armchair quarterbacks aren’t happy? To paraphrase Truman, if the Continental walked on water, you guys would complain it can’t swim.
Very nice car and old enough to be considered a hobby car. My 1998 Conti drives very well.
Its design was so outdated that it is fashionable again. I am an artist and I only buy aesthetically pleasing cars visually. This is 24 cars in my life and I’m pleasantly tired. I also have a 1980 Cadillac Cup Deville with a 500 cube engine, like in The Man, but I’m still very proud of Conti’s.
When driving off-road, I once lost the rear axle of my Jeep Comancel and it temporarily drove very well with the front axle.
A front-wheel drive car won’t kill you with the first black ice.
I used Google Translate.
Kaur from Estonia.
When the Taurus-based Continental was launched, it was like the Avalon version of the Camry – an attractive, comfortable slick stretched sedan. The problem was that when it needed to be redesigned, it tried to be more than a luxury or sporty Taurus. When it went upscale, it lost its uniqueness.
The Town Car was long-in-tooth and needed a replacement. Ford needed to do that. With the LS in wait, there was no longer a need for a Taurus-based Lincoln. I feel that Ford wasted their money and needed to call the LS, the new Continental.
FWD done properly rides and handles very well but aiming at Cadillac wasnt the way to go Ford should have aimed higher, if you want FWD with excellent ride & accurate steering try cloning some PSA cars, theres no understeer built in to scare you, I like that.
I don’t know when a Continental of this generation is going to really appeal to me. Ford design by this time had ran out of ideas. There was little special about them. I also recall seeing a concept Lincoln, a two-door convertible with this design, and it held absolutely no appeal to me. Ford design by this time seemed more concern about NOT making a mistake, than making something special. Consequently, it lacks lust.
The LCOC (Lincoln & Continental Owners Club) held its 1995 national meet in Dearborn where Lincoln Division trotted these out for the members to examine in detail. By comparison with all the stylish, classic Lincolns, it looked very bland and uninspired. The consensus was ‘nice but, meh!”
By 2010 when I was involved with a used car operation, attending the auto auction, these FWD Continentals received the cold shoulder even if low-mileage in excellent condition. The costly transmission repairs warned those dealers off handling one. I watched more than one 60K mile, garage-kept, one-owner example gavel for less than an older Camry with twice the mileage and obvious wear. Any high mileage Continentals wouldn’t get a bid.
A silver 2002 Continental closed out the end of an era in my small town. Our chatty socialite Delorisie had driven Continentals since the 1970’s, Mark’s then Fox and this platform sedans. She was known by and for her Continentals. But her wealth and glamour faded with age and she passed in 2014. Her daughter inherited the car, relegated to second car and finally high school transportation for her sons. By the late Spring 2019, the rundown, rusty Continental was traded on a good used Taurus.
RIP Delorisie and your “Delorisie Continental”.
Just dawned on me that someone I have known for 40 years drives one of these as his daily driver in town. He also has an 80s Land Cruiser sitting at home. What his wife drives I know not.