Introduced in 1999 the Lincoln LS is going away after 2006. That's a crying shame. This rear wheel drive sports sedan preceeded the Chrysler 300 and it's siblings and is a great car. Sharing it's chassis with the recently departed Thunderbird and the soon to be redesigned Jaguar S type, it had a choice of V-6 and V-8 power, independant rear supsension and attractive styling.
When it came out, the 3.9 L V-8 was rated at 252 hp, and in Sport trim was a very competent handler. The same V-8 in 4.0 and 4.4 liter versions is the top of the line powerplant for Jaguar and Land Rover. With some development work overseas this powerplant really puts out some respectable power, with supercharged versions putting out nearly 400 hp. The best the Lincoln saw was 283 hp.
What went wrong here? A well balanced chassis, a powertrain with potential, attractive styling. This car should have really flown off the showroom floors. With the supercharged powerplant from Jaguar, this could really burn up the road behind Cadilac CTS V-Specs and Chrysler 300 SRT8s.
Ford should have made this one work. It's hard to believe they only sold 14,000 of these last year and the best year was about 50,000. Sad, very sad.
Even sadder is word that the Wixom plant where it is built will more than likely be closed. The T-Bird was built there and is no more and they are moving Town Car production to another plant. So 1,800 employees have an uncertain future.
3 comments:
Sad indeed. It is a pretty solid car. Not quite up to BMW or MB standards but pretty darn good. After the second model year, they tagged it with a pretty healthy price increase and by 2004/2005 it had limited colors, both exterior and interior and the option packages basically gave you a cheap one for the low 30's or a nice one (V6) for just under 40. Maybe the other issue is they want to close the plant and are willing to sacrifice the car in the process???
Why why why why, This was/is a great car and Ford had the starting point for american BMW
fighter. to Bad cadilac and chrysler came late to the party and Ford is surrnedering.
now I don't regret NOT buying one in 2001. another disapointment.
Too bad on Ford, this car never measured up to it's potential. The demise of this vehicle, like the Thunderbird, is all on FoMoCo. Just another story of how Ford gives us less than par to appease bean counters. It is time for Ford to build and deliver the cars they promote, instead of watered down rental fleet versions.
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