2004 Lincoln Navigator 14 Seater Limousine on 2040-cars

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Here are a few of our automotive guilty pleasures

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. The world is full of cars, and just about as many of them are bad as are good. It's pretty easy to pick which fall into each category after giving them a thorough walkaround and, more important, driving them. But every once in a while, an automobile straddles the line somehow between good and bad — it may be hideously overpriced and therefore a marketplace failure, it may be stupid quick in a straight line but handles like a drunken noodle, or it may have an interior that looks like it was made of a mess of injection-molded Legos. Heck, maybe all three. Yet there's something special about some bad cars that actually makes them likable. The idea for this list came to me while I was browsing classified ads for cars within a few hundred miles of my house. I ran across a few oddballs and shared them with the rest of the team in our online chat room. It turns out several of us have a few automotive guilty pleasures that we're willing to admit to. We'll call a few of 'em out here. Feel free to share some of your own in the comments below. Dodge Neon SRT4 and Caliber SRT4: The Neon was a passably good and plucky little city car when it debuted for the 1995 model year. The Caliber, which replaced the aging Neon and sought to replace its friendly marketing campaign with something more sinister, was panned from the very outset for its cheap interior furnishings, but at least offered some decent utility with its hatchback shape. What the two little front-wheel-drive Dodge models have in common are their rip-roarin' SRT variants, each powered by turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines. Known for their propensity to light up their front tires under hard acceleration, the duo were legitimately quick and fun to drive with a fantastic turbo whoosh that called to mind the early days of turbo technology. — Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski  Chevrolet HHR SS: Chevy's HHR SS came out early in my automotive journalism career, and I have fond memories of the press launch (and having dinner with Bob Lutz) that included plenty of tire-smoking hard launches and demonstrations of the manual transmission's no-lift shift feature. The 260-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder was and still is a spunky little engine that makes the retro-inspired HHR a fun little hot rod that works quite well as a fun little daily driver.

Junkyard Gem: 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII

Except for a pause during the 1960s, the Lincoln Mark Series of personal luxury cars stayed in production from the 1956 through 1998 model years. These were big, swanky machines loaded with the latest in gadgetry and — other than the handful of 1984-1985 Mark VIIs with BMW diesel linline-sixes — they cruised with great opulence on American highways courtesy of powerful V8 engines. The very last generation of the series, the Mark VIII, boasted a spaceship-style interior, slick body lines, and a sophisticated dual-overhead-cam version of Ford's Modular V8 engine. Here's a 1995 in Deep Jewel Green Metallic paint, photographed in a Colorado self-service yard. I've documented examples of the Lincoln Mark II through Mark VI while performing my car-graveyard studies, and the Mark VIII's distinctive wraparound cockpit makes most of its predecessors look cheap and stodgy by comparison.  The four-valves-per-cylinder version of Ford's rugged 4.6-liter Modular V8 made 280 horsepower in the Mark VIII, just two fewer horses than the V8 in BMW's 840Ci coupe that year. The Mercedes-Benz S500 coupe had a 315-hp V8 that year, while the Lexus SC 400's V8 made a mere 250 horsepower. The BMW cost $69,900, the Mercedes-Benz had a $91,900 price tag, and the SC 400 went for $47,500 — the Mark VIII could be purchased for just $38,800 that year. That's about $66,300 in 2019 dollars. Of course, the Cadillac Eldorado coupe was the real competition for the Mark VIII in 1995, and the unfortunately-named ETC (Eldorado Touring Coupe) came with a 300-horse DOHC Northstar V8 (admittedly, driving the front wheels) and a dignified wood-trimmed interior. At $41,535, though, the Cadillac had a higher base price than the Lincoln. I think this one was pretty clean, prior to getting banged up in the junkyard, and 140,905 miles seems low for a flagship Ford of the era. Perhaps it got too many unpaid parking tickets, or maybe that complex DOHC engine developed some expensive problem. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Tempted? Featured Gallery Junked 1995 Lincoln Mark VIII View 17 Photos Auto News Lincoln Automotive History

Lincoln Continental death looms with changes at Flat Rock Plant

Ford's Flat Rock Assembly plant just south of Detroit produces the Ford Mustang and the Lincoln Continental. Automotive News reports that the automaker plans to produce two battery-electric crossovers at the facility, the EVs scheduled for sale in the 2023 model year. The EVs were previously meant to be built in Ford's Cuautitlan Stamping and Assembly plant in Mexico, which builds the Fiesta. According to the AN piece, moving the EVs to Michigan means the end of Lincoln Continental production in the U.S. Sunset is expected in "late 2021" for a sedan that is just three years old, and that never got the momentum to assert itself and reassert the Continental nameplate. The Continental has been on death watch since at least March 2018, when Ford Authority reported that the luxury sedan wouldn't get more than one generation. The changing of several guards in the top ranks scotched a plan to move the Continental onto the CD6 platform for rear- and all-wheel-drive vehicles. In September 2018, Jalopnik put more meat on those crossbones, saying Flat Rock workers alleged the big Lincoln could bid adieu as soon as this year, and automaker insiders had seen production merely scheduled — not approved — for 2020, with nothing beyond that. Then, as now, Ford appears to be leaving open the possibility for Continental production to continue in China, and just maybe be exported here. The two twinned midsized EVs, using the codenames CDX746 and CDX747, would come in Ford and Lincoln flavors. Said to be roughly the size of the Ford Edge/Lincoln Nautilus platform siblings, the automaker has requested suppliers gear up for annual production of up to 65,000 units between the two models. When they arrive, they'll form part of the 16 EVs Ford plans to have on the market worldwide by 2022. The others we know of so far are the crossover that will channel the Mustang, an electric F-150 pickup, and an EV project with Rivian.