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2025 Buick Enclave vs Honda PilotLincoln Town Car Generations: Through the Years
The Lincoln Town Car was the luxury automaker’s flagship sedan for decades, and a favorite of livery drivers everywhere, as we cover in this article.
The Essential Luxury Sedan
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Hard to believe the Lincoln Town Car is no more considering it was one of the most successful luxury cars in automotive history. Recent memory recalls the Town Car as an upscale airport shuttle and high school prom-mobile. However, this former Lincoln flagship has roots stretching back over 60 years with a namesake that reaches way back, to ye olde horse and buggy.
During that pre-motorized transportation era, a common carriage design consisted of an open-air chauffeur seat up front with a fixed roof passenger compartment out back. This high-end way to travel came to describe lavish limousines in the 1920s otherwise known as “town cars”. Later on, Cadillac applied the French term “de Ville”, which loosely translates to “town” for its own luxury liner, while Lincoln went with Town Car.
1959 Lincoln Continental Town Car
The Town Car nameplate first appeared in 1959 as a formal bookend of the Continental lineup. That year, the Town Car trim line debuted with pillared construction and a more traditional notchback roofline to distinguish the Town Car from the standard Continental with its reverse-slanted rear window. This had the added effect of more rear legroom by simply moving the second-row bench back.
Other differentiators included special upholstery and every available Lincoln option as standard equipment. Only 215 Town Cars were made in 1959, making it one of the rarest Lincolns of all time. Though the original Continental-based Batmobile may be more famous. It wasn’t until 1970 that the flagship model would return.
Lincoln Continental Town Car 1970-1980
The Town Car was back in 1970 as a high-end trim package for the Continental full-size luxury sedan. Features included ultra-thick carpet and leather upholstery. It was during this period that the vinyl roof, B-pillar lamps, and “opera” windows on the C-pillar would appear. All a nod to old-timey coaches, these design touches would come to define the Lincoln Town Car for years to come.
It was also during this time that traditional full-sized luxury cars, like the Cadillac De Ville and Chrysler Imperial, would experience waning consumer demand. Lincoln stuck it out the longest, until 1980 when a lineup-wide downsizing led to dealers trying to sell the Continental, Continental Town Car, and Continental Mark VI at the same time. This strategy worked when the cars were different sizes, but now all three vehicles were nearly identical just with different price points. Unsurprisingly, sales suffered.
Lincoln Town Car First Generation 1981-1989
To correct this error, the Lincoln lineup underwent a multi-year lineup reshuffling that included the debut of the Panther platform. Though Blue Oval brass likely couldn’t have predicted it at the time, the Panther would go on to underpin a variety of vehicles for 30 years. But the really big news was the Town Car becoming a standalone model for the first time.
It was 10 inches shorter than the land yachts of the 70s, which translated to a weight savings of 1,400 pounds. However, it was a robust rear-wheel drive chassis with body-on-frame construction that quickly gained fans in the livery market. The look from the previous decade – flat body panels, square-edged fenders, and a radiator-style grille – was retained as was the 4.9L V8. Both of the old big blocks, 400 and 460 cubic inch affairs, were however dropped in the name of fuel economy.
Fancy for the time, features like 6-way power-adjustable front seats, a digital trip computer with “miles to empty” and “estimated time of arrival” readouts, and a keypad entry system were introduced with this new Town Car. The Cartier Edition was reserved as the fanciest model, a trim line that remained in production until 2003.
Updates over the years included carburetion giving way to sequential fuel injection on the 302 V8 – that was always paired with a 4-speed automatic – the option for a rear air suspension, and 8-track players being replaced by CDs. But the Town Car remained otherwise the same during this official first generation as Lincoln had originally planned to replace it with an FWD vehicle in anticipation of gas price volatility. That didn’t happen, so the automaker let its top-spec model get a bit long in the tooth before finally replacing it in 1990.
Lincoln Town Car Second Generation 1990-1997
Though the Lincoln Town Car remained on the Panther platform for its second generation, parent-company Ford shelled out 650 million bucks on development. Those funds were used to design a far more aerodynamic envelope while maintaining the flat sides, radiator-style grille, and opera windows that the Town Car was known for.
Inside, curved panels replaced the formerly flat bits, available heated front seats debuted and options included a 10-disc CD changer, integrated cell phone, and anti-lock brakes. Dual front airbags and the rear air suspension became standard equipment for this Town Car generation, accompanied by the carryover 302 V8. However, in 1991, that powertrain was replaced by the 4.6L SOHC Modular V8, a motor that would see Blue Oval application for more than 20 years.
As with the first-generation model, this Town Car could be optioned with a towing pack – it was a body-on-frame vehicle with a solid rear axle after all. A host of special editions were offered during this span including a Jack Nicklaus Signature Series model that featured green paint, a white roof, and white leather upholstery with green accents. Of course, these Town Cars also sported Golden Bear badges in a nod to the famous golfer’s nickname.
The decline in full-size luxury sedans that had begun a decade earlier hit harder by the late 1990s. Chrysler’s Imperial – an icon of the 70s – was long-gone and Cadillac canned the Fleetwood in 1996. That left the Lincoln Town Car as the biggest – by length – sedan in the US market. That decline was part of the reason Town Car sales dropped below 100,000 annually in the late ‘90s as consumers began their love affair with SUVs.
Lincoln Town Car Third Generation 1998-2011
So, it was fitting that the third – and final – Lincoln Town Car generation arrived right around the time when the first Navigator showed up. Still riding on the evergreen Panther platform, this last of the Town Cars was the first to trade a flat-sided design for a rounded look. The 4.6L V8 gained power over the prior variant, now up to 200 horsepower in base form, and the 4-speed automatic continued to handle transmission duty, albeit with new tuning.
Other platform improvements included a Watt’s linkage being added to the rear axle for better handling, larger brakes and wheels, and a new rack-and-pinion steering system replacing the old recirculating ball design. The opera windows were gone, but the radiator-style grille was still there. There was also a new Signature Series Touring model that boasted higher performance thanks to a dual exhaust system, more horsepower, heavy-duty dampers, and a revised steering tune.
Over the first few years of third-gen production, the Town Car continued to gain power until 2003 when the 239-hp mill was lineup-standard. It became the first production sedan to receive a 5-star crash test rating in all categories from the NHTSA that same year along with the introduction of a ballistic protection version featuring armored body panels and bulletproof glass.
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By 2004, the base Executive trim was only offered to fleet and livery customers, which foreshadowed the Town Car’s end game. The following year, Lincoln showed off a redesigned Town Car steering wheel for the first time in nearly 10 years. And the 25th Anniversary Edition landed in 2006 with Eucalyptus wood trim, plenty of chrome, and special badging. However, it would also signal a slow burn toward discontinuation for the Lincoln Town Car.
In 2007, the long-standing Wixom factory that built the Town Car was shuttered and production was moved to Canada. Two years later, Ford announced the entire Panther platform, which included the Lincoln Town Car, Ford Crown Victoria, and Mercury Grand Marquis, would be gone by 2011. They did, however, promise to continue delivering vehicles to commercial customers over that stretch.
Though 2011 was the final year of Town Car production, the nameplate returned in 2012 to identify Lincoln MKT SUVs going to fleet and livery use. But by 2019, this usage ended and the Lincoln Town Car was gone for good.
