2006 Lincoln Town Car Sedan 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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1955 Lincoln Indianapolis concept up for auction

Lincoln was never a brand known for making sports cars. In fact it hasn't offered anything with less than four doors since the demise of the Mark VIII, and that was hardly what you'd call "performance oriented". But that doesn't mean that Ford's luxury marque never toyed with the idea.
In 1955 Ford delivered a Lincoln chassis (along with a 200-horsepower V8 engine and four-speed automatic transmission) to Carrozzeria Boano, an Italian coachbuilder that had just branched off from Ghia the year before. The resulting orange coupe you see here was named after Indianapolis and was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show. And while its detailing may have been divisive, the overall shape certainly caught the eye.

2017 Lincoln Continental spied inside and out

Lincoln certainly made us stand up and take notice when it unveiled the Continental concept at the New York Auto Show this past March. Showcars, however, are only worth so much if they never reach production. But as these latest spy shots indicate, Ford's luxury division is hard at work taking the new Conti from show floor to showroom. The team from Dearborn has clearly gone to great lengths to disguise this prototype, wrapping it in a new type of camouflage with trompe l'oeil bulbous-looking shapes to keep us from seeing just how close the production version will keep to (or how far it may stray from) the concept's design. Our spy photographers did, however, manage to snap some shots of the inside through the side glass, and though it's still evidently some ways off from reaching production, some key details give us an idea of what to expect. Look closely and you can make out the buttons for the transmission running down the side of the infotainment screen, just like on other new Lincolns. The chromework appears to have been toned down some from the blinged-out dashboard of the showcar, but it may be too early to say how much shine there will be to the production model. The overall design of the center console looks pretty darn close to the version we saw in New York, though. The Continental is expected to replace the MKS, as Lincoln moves away from alphabetical nomenclature back towards actual nameplates. Assembly is slated to be undertaken in Flat Rock, MI. There are a great many more details yet to be uncovered, but as far as early indications go, it looks like Lincoln is well on its way to making its concept a reality. Related Video:

Analysts warn Lincoln shouldn't follow Ford out of the sedan market

Lincoln looks set to mimic Ford's on-going shift away from sedans. The move makes sense on the surface, but analysts warn the luxury brand needs to keep some low-riding models in its portfolio. The company's current lineup includes two sedans, the MKZ and the Continental, plus five SUVs. The sedans aren't long for this world, according to The Detroit Free Press. The publication learned Ford's Hermosillo, Mexico, factory will stop manufacturing the MKZ in late 2020 or early 2021, and it pointed out UAW documents note Continental production will continue "through its product lifecycle." In other words, it's the last model on the Continental branch of the Lincoln family tree. These two nameplates represent 23.3 percent of Lincoln's annual sales so far in 2019, which is a surprising and respectable statistic. One in four cars the company sells is a sedan. The problem is that they accounted for 27.6 percent of the firm's sales in 2018, and that number will continue to fall in 2020 as customers flock towards crossovers and SUVs. And yet, exiting the sedan market isn't the right answer for a company that wants to re-establish its reputation as a luxury automaker. Eric Noble, the president of consulting firm CarLab, told The Detroit Free Press about 40 percent of American buyers in the market for a luxury car choose a sedan. The Chinese market — where Lincoln hopes to gain a secure foothold in the coming years — also has a healthy appetite for sedans. Going SUV-only is a strategy that might work well in the United States, but it doesn't suit Lincoln's ambitions. Germany's big three luxury brands all have a flagship sedan at the top of their range. We can't argue against sales data; the sedan market is shrinking. There are ways to keep buyers in the fold, however. The Continental is a stellar effort from the brand, and a solid foundation on which to build. Noble pointed out Lincoln could use the rear-wheel drive platform found under its Aviator and Ford's latest Explorer to build a four-door model with a fastback-like roof line in the vein of the Audi A7. It's a sleeker, sexier body style that tends to attract more buyers than a more conventional three-box sedan, which is often criticized as old-fashioned. Automakers can normally get away with charging a little bit more for these cars; the A7 is more expensive than the A6, for example. Electrification could be the Lincoln sedan's saving grace.