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Huge JFK auction includes two classic Lincolns

Want to own a piece of American history? Perhaps you should consider 35th President John F. Kennedy's limousine, a stretched 1960 Lincoln Continental, or the last car he safely rode in before his assassination, a 1963 Lincoln Continental convertible. Both of them will be up for sale at the Camelot: Fifty Years after Dallas auction on October 24, a JFK 50th anniversary auction in Boston.
The black 1960 Continental was part of the presidential motorcade and is bulletproof. The body has been restored to the tune of about $35,000, according to RR Auctions, but the interior was left alone. That's okay, because the winning bidder will be able to enjoy lounging in the well-preserved seats and stepping on the original tan carpeting, just as President Kennedy did. The next owner can even play President, with a divider window, passenger air controls and a two-way telephone - if a chauffeur is hired, of course. The starting bid for the Continental is $25,000.
The other car is more historically relevant (but in this writer's eye, less beautiful), and commands a starting bid of $50,000. The white, convertible 1963 Continental was the last car President Kennedy rode in before his assassination in Dallas - with a notarized document by the car's owner at the time as proof. It was used to transport the President, his wife, Jacqeuline, and Texas governor John Connally "from a breakfast and speech at the Texas Hotel ballroom through the streets of Fort Worth to Carswell Air Force Base, where they boarded a short flight to Dallas on the morning of November 22, 1963," according to RR Auctions. Lincoln specialist Baker Restoration in Connecticut restored the car, which included an engine replacement, body work and paint. Most of the interior, including the seats, are in original condition.

2020 Ford Escape, Lincoln Corsair ace crash tests, earn Top Safety Pick from IIHS

The redesigned 2020 Ford Escape and its platform-mate, the 2020 Lincoln Corsair, have both just completed their bout of crash tests at the hands of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and while they did not emerge unscathed, they did come away with the agency's Top Safety Pick Award. One caveat: The rating only applies to the Escape equipped with the available LED headlights, which were deemed Acceptable. Similarly, the Corsair needs the available curve-adaptive LED headlights, also rated Acceptable, in order to achieve Top Safety Pick. The Escape's standard halogen headlights scored only a Marginal rating, while the Corsair's base LED headlights were deemed Poor due to glare. Those low headlight ratings knock the vehicles out of contention for Top Safety Pick. Had either vehicle offered headlights able to achieve a Good rating, that would have been enough to get them the agency's Top Safety Pick+ rating. Outside of their headlights, the 2020 Escape and Corsair acquitted themselves well. The Escape saw a big improvement in the difficult small-overlap front crash test, going from a Poor result in the previous generation to Good with the new one. The Corsair performed identically, and both achieved Good ratings in all six crash tests. The IIHS also tests automatic emergency-braking systems, and the standard and optional systems in the Escape and the Corsair both earned Superior ratings.

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.