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Lincoln Continental suicide doors: A lot has changed since 1961

It looks like we've hit peak Lincoln Continental for the 21st century with the Coach Door Edition. At least, 80 people will be enjoying the best that Lincoln (and Cabot Coach Builders) can offer. We figured now was a perfect time to look back at the original Continental with suicide doors, now that there's a return to form. Make sure to scroll through the barrage of historical Continental photos Lincoln provided to us from its archive above. Lincoln was aiming to offer a design throwback to the 1961 Continental with its return to suicide doors. Back then, Lincoln wanted a car to compete with GM's " Standard of the World," ergo Cadillac. The goal was to make a car so enticing that people might want to buy a Lincoln instead of a Cadillac as their next luxury-mobile. It never stomped down Cadillac, but the Continental made a strong statement. Sales spiked at 54,755 Continentals in 1966 – Cadillac sold 196,685 cars that same year. For nine years (1961-1969), Lincoln made the Continental with suicide doors as the only option (barring the two-door coupe introduced in 1966). The car was offered as a four-door convertible or hardtop for most of the suicide-door generation, but the convertible was dropped after 1967. It was the droptop that was most iconic, and the car many of us picture today when thinking about that Continental. The pillar-less look of the Convertible with the top removed and the doors swung wide exudes class and luxury. This generation of Continental appeared in movies like "James Bond's Goldfinger", and more recently in "The Matrix." Celebrities owned them back in the day. Who doesn't want to exit their large convertible through suicide doors onto the red carpet, right? 2019 Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition View 51 Photos Obviously, Lincoln wanted the normal Continental released for model year 2017 to take the world by storm. As rumors swirl of its untimely death after 2020, it's safe to say the new Continental hasn't exactly done that. What if it had suicide doors to begin with? Would we have been looking at the next Mercedes beater? Probably not. But still, we would have been blown away if that's what Lincoln showed us at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show. Maybe those in the market would have been too. The new Continental with suicide doors serves an entirely different purpose than the original. Producing only 80 of them makes sure of that. Maybe a few celebrities will buy one, but this one won't have the same cultural impact of the old.

2017 Lincoln Continental: Was this mic-drop moment just a big flop?

The Lincoln Continental may have been our fifth-place pick for Best In Show at this year's Detroit Auto Show, but it's probably the one we argued about the most. In fact, we're still talking about it. And we'll no doubt be discussing it long after we finally get to drive the new sedan later this year. We do this with lots of cars, all the time. The Continental is an especially important, high-profile car right now. It has the task of being a torch-holder for the struggling-to-run Lincoln brand, and that's a tough job these days. But did Lincoln do right by its Continental name? Did its Detroit showcar stop us in our tracks, or were we left feeling cold? In an effort to show you our full discussion, we're trying something different. About a week after the Detroit Auto Show press days concluded, Autoblog's Jonathon Ramsey sent an email around to some editors about the Continental to open a discussion. It got heated, and fast. And while we considered summarizing it, we decided to instead post the whole, largely unedited (adjusted for typos and swear words) chain. From: Jonathon Ramsey To: Autoblog Team Does anyone else think it's a problem that the new Continental looks 85 percent like the MKZ? And another 10 percent of it looks like a Jaguar and a Bentley? Because I think Lincoln screwed the pooch. The German Three plus Porsche can make cars that look alike – they've earned the right, even if I'd rather they didn't. The MKZ looks like a car for regional sales reps. Lincoln broke the glass in case of emergency, grabbed the Continental name, then put it on a car that looks a lot like that sales-rep car, but one for regional VPs. Do we really think this can work? Because I don't. From: Steven Ewing To: Autoblog Team Personally, I'm pretty disappointed in the final execution of Continental. I'm glad Lincoln isn't obsessed with chasing the Germans, but at this point, it's not even chasing Cadillac. I think that introducing the new front end and TTV6 engine on the MKZ before the Continental was a huge mistake. And while I have high hopes for the Conti from a comfort/driving standpoint, my gut instinct is that it's going to be more "better than the MKS" than "best American luxury sedan." Introducing the new front end and TTV6 engine on the MKZ before the Continental was a huge mistake.

NHTSA will investigate some Ford Fusion, Lincoln MKZ models for power steering issue

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is opening an investigation into the 2010-2012 Ford Fusion, Fusion Hybrid and Lincoln MKZ, the 2012 MKZ Hybrid and 2011 Mercury Milan because the agency has hundreds of complaints of electric power steering failure in these models.
According to NHTSA's data, it has received 508 complaints of the power steering allegedly suddenly malfunctioning and resulting in increased effort to turn the wheel. In four incidents, these failures resulted in loss of control and crashes. According to the reports, in some cases a power steering warning message came on as the fault occurred, and other times the system restored itself by turning off and then restarting the vehicle. NHTSA said it has also received further field report data from Ford, but that information hasn't been publicly released yet.
For the moment, there isn't a recall for this failure on these models. NHTSA is just investigating them to "assess the scope, frequency and safety consequences of the alleged defect," and the agency says an estimated 938,000 vehicles could potentially be affected.