The Comfort-Loving Cult of the Lincoln Town Car

Nothing wrong with nostalgia, but the Lincoln Town Car died because it was an generally undesirable vehicle. Before Uber, I too rode often in them, including with a driver that I hired directly and almost exclusively for a period of time. But the vehicles are awful by today's standards. For example. On multiple occasions where there was frozen precipitation, the Town Car could not make it up my driveway at all, when other vehicles had no problem. Sometimes it couldn't even make it up the slight incline out my street. When it was underway is the snow, it was a nightmare. Visibility from the back seat is simply horrible, compared to the view you get from the full size SUVs that replaced Town Cars. The middle rear seat was a disaster if you were traveling with family or colleagues and someone had to sit there. The center tunnel destroying all space for your feet. The engine was old, terribly inefficient and would no longer pass current emission regulations. The ONLY reason these drivers are still driving Town Cars is because they are dirt cheap. And they are dirt cheap because they are undesirable. All those riding in them for nostalgia, should know that you are riding in an inferior vehicle in every way compared to it's modern counterparts - specially, make sure not to breath in what comes out of their tail pipes.

Looking forward to the day when The Times publishes loving reviews of bicycles, instead of misplaced paeans to polluting, climate-destroying steel cages ... Oh that's right, the car industry spends more ad money.

I loved my 80 Continental two door and my 84 four door. Lincoln’s were a great buy used, they depreciated more than Caddy’s. The luxury went away with front wheel drive.

The Town Car is a stretched Ford Crown Victoria -the cop car of choice for a very long time. Ford made them a few years longer than the Lincoln version. The big difference is body on frame construction that provides a kind of isolation difficult to achieve with a unibody design.

My 92 park ave was stolen when cash for klunkers came along what a machine. Replaced for about 5 years with 93 caddy which was a very smooth ride gave that away to make a wish it still ran with 100,000 miles on it. Our baby is a 2007 Lincoln MKZ which is Black with white leather very nice sedan. Nothing like the old days gone forever as we as a society get bigger and bigger the cars get smaller.

The Town Car started out as just a version of the Continental; it was the "Continental Town Car" until the early '80s, when Lincoln dropped the Continental name. Given how the Town Car name has, as one of the story's sources said, "embedded itself in the lexicon of transportation," it seems odd the carmaker isn't taking advantage of that. Now that Lincoln has revived the Continental, why aren't they making a trim level of that same car aimed at the livery market and calling it "Town Car?"

The black car/Town Car that most are referring to was the Executive L series. It had an extended rear seat and door. Now THAT was the car to be in.

"Floats?" More like vomit inducing bouncing with blown rear shocks and the body roll of an ocean freighter. It was always interesting watching them slide down the quality scale as they were passed from one livery company to the next, I think All-7s was the lowest rung on that ladder but others opinions may differ.

"Explaining that he favors the “pure mass” of a large Lincoln over airbags, Mr. Corbett said of his fellow Town Car aficionados, “We’re old enough to come from an era when driving someplace was an event. We weren’t concerned about trying to get from Point A to Point B as cheaply as possible. We don’t care about a 40-mile-per-gallon car that’s so small that you could put it in the trunk of my Lincoln.”" OK boomer. The rest of us would rather breathe cleaner air and be less likely to die when you hit us with your over-large, overweight car. Prioritizing private comfort over public health and safety is a core part of automobility in general, but it's on fine display here. Good riddance to the Town Car!

Come on people, really? These cars are not only supremely uncomfortable compared to anything you likely own, but they're also death traps. A good hit from the back and they explode like a car bomb (Heather Bratton and Bob Simon are only the ones we know about). Give me a RAV4 any day of the week.

Reading this article in an incredibly thick, Goodfellas "wise guy" accent will give it the perfect provenance.

oh - to live in America, the first thing I would do will be buying a town car, or a Lincoln, if I could not find one of these models, then a Crown Vic - old police car...... but I live in Europe, with tight and narrow streets, so I drive a Nissan Micra, good car but...........you got to have dreams !

I was a temp proofreader back in the big mergers and acquisitions days in the 80s. It didn’t pay much and I was a nobody, but if you worked late you got to get a car service home. I have a sweet memory of sitting in the backseat of a Lincoln town car listening to jazz and looking at the city skyline.

Town Cars are the love-hate objects of desire or derision. Objectively, they can't compare to anything made by the Germans, or the Italians, or the Swedes, but they are to be loved in their way, if only covertly. They are not 'engineered' for mountain passes and hairpin turns with nimble handling, high red-lines, and adrenaline boosting performance, but are the perfect machine for a leisure cruise from LA to Vegas. Long highways, with big vistas, in pure comfort with the low pure of a high displacement unstressed V8. Very American indeed.

This makes me so happy, there aren’t words. Ten years ago, I introduced my husband to the delights of mid-90s GM, via my beloved 1994 Caprice Classic station wagon. The wagon remains, now accompanied by my husband’s Buick Roadmaster, as well as our orchestra vehicle, a Cadillac Fleetwood hearse- both 1994, as well. Here’s to the land yachts, steadfast, reliable, easily repaired and surprisingly fuel efficient!

The Lincoln Town car was a classic. Why is it that they always discontinue the best models and then complain that they can’t sell cars?

There were plenty of shops in the outer boroughs who could fix them, quickly and cheaply, knowing that the guys driving them needed economical mechanics to help them turn a profit. Those places could swap out an engine or transmission in the blink of an eye. Today the only option is to plug in the diagnostic computer and do whatever it tells you too, regardless of cost.

Any day I'll take a real car versus a little truck or a minivan. Plus I want rear wheel drive. For a car that drives passengers around on the City's bumpy streets a body-on-frame car will do fine.

I've ridden in my share of Town Cars, all of them in NYC and associated with car services. They were always quieter and smoother riding than anything I've experienced before or since. They were usually owned by drivers who took meticulous care of them. And they were famous for longevity. I think the last one rode in had more than 300,000 miles on the odometer. They will go down in automotive history as one of the greats.

Sorry, John but a chauffeur is still a chauffeur - not a professional. And if you ever 'hopped in the back seat" of a Town Car (presumably with a driver) and are now ferrying people around in one - sorry to say, your star has lost its glitter for some time.

The old Town Cars were the best type of car. There was something very special when you walked out a building and hopped in the back seat. I think it brings the old idea of a professional driver. Not an Uber driver, but the chauffeur. The days when you had to call Carey or another one of the myriad of services in the city. They were only used for the special occasions. They made a night out, just that much more special.