|
 The
alarm is ringing: Lincoln Town Car’s customers are getting older and
fewer.
Before the makeover in late 1997, average age of buyers was an alerting
67. This bring a warning: a few years later, how many of them will
still
be alive ?
The rescue
plan
was to revamp
the Town Car thoroughly, hoping to inject some new-found dynamic while
keeping the old customers loyal. There’s a fresh styling featuring
round
surfaces in contrast to the boxy tradition. There’s a sohc 4.6-litre V8
in contrast to the traditional pushrod V8. There’s improvement to
steering
and suspension.
But it is
still
the longest
mass production car in the world, with an overall length of 5 and a
half
meter. Its body is still built on a ladder chassis like many cars
showing
in your classic car album. Inevitably, it is short of chassis rigidity
but rich of squeak under hard cornering. It still rides on
non-independent
live axle rear suspension, further deteriorate both handling and ride
comfort.
Without a
decent
mechanical
configuration, how can the revamped Town Car fulfill its contradicting
target ? Soft spring rate was chosen for highway ride comfort, but body
control is inevitably neglected. Light steering is what the retired
67-year-old
requested, but the 50s would dislike it. After all, even with tauter
tuning,
I suspect if the 5.5-meter body would have allowed a decent
handling.
Matching
the
low-spec mechanical
structure is the packaging. Facing the import luxurious saloons such as
Lexus, it is obviously inferior in build quality and details attention.
In other words, lack of the sense of prestige at all. Of course Lincoln
knew that, otherwise it won’t fit the budget 215hp sohc V8 instead of
Continental’s
32-valve version. In addition to cost saving here and cost saving
there,
the Town Car is priced considerably lower than import luxurious cars.
It
is deemed to be in a market segment dominating by itself and Cadillac
Deville
only. This segment is called "the dying ancient American luxury", with
an expire period of just a few years. |