Yahoo Autos 2017 Lincoln Continental: New Life for Lincoln
In our era of such cinematic gems as Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies, there’s no such thing as letting dead icons sleep peacefully. Lincoln was looking pretty worm-eaten itself until recently, but there’s fresh product in the showrooms and a new, 400-hp twin-turbo Continental coming. In this zombie counterattack, both pride and prejudice will be decisive factors.
The brand needs something dramatic to raise it from the ranks of the walking dead. Like all other Lincolns, the new Continental starts as a jazzed-up Ford, but one that is less obviously so than the rest of the lineup. Whereas the MKS it replaces atop Lincoln’s hierarchy was built on Ford Taurus bones, the Continental rides on a stretched-and-widened Fusion architecture.
The 400-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 is exclusive to Lincoln and available only with four-wheel drive. Were we in charge, it would be called the Continental GT, just to send the Brits into a tizzy. (After seeing the concept that became the production Continental, Bentley’s chief designer, Luc Donckerwolke, asked David Woodhouse, Lincoln’s head designer, via Facebook, “Do you want us to send the product tooling?”) Lesser Continentals get two other engines, the 2.7-liter turbo V-6—Lincoln is eschewing the “EcoBoost” name for its turbo powerplants—and Ford’s naturally aspirated 3.7-liter V-6. They are available with front- or four-wheel drive. All Continentals use a six-speed automatic transaxle.
It might replace the MKS at the top of Lincoln’s lineup, but the Continental is a much more fully realized luxury car. Its name and shape aren’t the only Bentleyesque things about it; the Continental offers the full suite of today’s luxury equipment, including adaptive cruise, lane-keeping assist, a 360-degree camera, an automated-parking function, adjustable dampers, and heated, cooled, and massaging front and outboard rear seats. Reaching new heights in seat flexibility, the Continental’s optional front perches pack a record 30-way adjustments, including independently adjustable left- and right-thigh bolsters that allow for the most asymmetrical bottom cushion in a production car. What’s next on Lincoln’s to-do list? Prismatic cylinder bores? Lincoln claims that it selected its drilled-metal speaker grilles from more than 200 designs to optimize sound quality. And the door handles are integrated into the beltline trim.
In addition to the usual interior color choices, the top Continental trim, Black Label, is available in three different “themes,” or combinations of leather colors and accent finishes. Chalet is a wintry mix of white and various creams, Thoroughbred is a blend of tans and browns, and Rhapsody is a deep violet blue that, if this were 1976, would be rendered in velour.
Loaded with way more content and originality than the MKS, the Continental will start $5000 or so higher than its predecessor, at $45,485, and slides just under $70,000 fully loaded. Yes, it looked much better as a concept car than it does as a production unit, but don’t they all? Expect to see it in showrooms toward the end of the year as a 2017 model.
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