1995 Lincoln Mark Viii Lsc Sedan 2-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2006 Lincoln Zephyr

The Lincoln Motor Company went all-truck for its North American offerings in the 2021 model year, announcing the death sentence for the Continental and MKZ sedans in 2020. The MKZ was the sibling to the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan (the latter car discontinued in 2011 when the entire Mercury Division got the axe), but it wasn't called the MKZ for its first model year of 2006. For that one year, it was given a name with deep resonance in the Ford Empire: Zephyr. Here's one of those cars, found in a Denver boneyard recently. Ford's first use of the Zephyr name came when Edsel Ford spearheaded the creation of the futuristic-looking Lincoln-Zephyr for the 1936 model year. The Lincoln-Zephyr packed a flathead V12 engine under its hood, which is the same engine that turned a Model A Ford into a Cadillac-passing hot rod in the 1955 Charlie Ryan song "Hot Rod Lincoln" (the better-known 1971 cover version by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen inaccurately refers to the Lincoln engine as a V8; ex-Commander Cody frontman—and Iggy Pop's high school classmate—Bill Kirchen still makes the V8 claim but he's earned the right by now). The Zephyr name disappeared from the Lincoln lineup after 1942. In 1950, Ford of Britain revived the Zephyr name for use on a Dagenham-built saloon; British Zephyr production continued through 1972, and left-hand-drive versions of the Ford Zephyr were sold in the United States from the 1952 through 1964 model years. Mercury finally got the use of the Zephyr name, for the 1978 through 1983 model years, on the Mercury-badged sibling to the Ford Fairmont. A Chinese-market midsize luxury sedan built by Changan Ford was given the Zephyr Reflection name prior to launch, but it hit showrooms last year as the Lincoln Z. So much history in the junkyard! The saga of the name change from Zephyr to MKZ didn't end with the 2007 model year, though. Members of the Lincoln top brass spent some months insisting stubbornly that the new name should be pronounced "Mark Z" (apparently in reference to the great Lincoln Mark cars of the past or perhaps the brand-new Mark LT pickup), but finally acquiesced to the "Em-Kay-Zee" pronunciation used by everybody else in the United States and the "Em-Kay-Zedd" pronunciation used by the rest of the English-speaking world. The interior of the 2006 Zephyr was quite similar to what you got inside the Fusion and Milan, but with real wood (maple or ebony) trim and standard leather.

Ford Q3 pretax profits drop to $1.18B

Following positive third quarter financial results recently from General Motors, rival Ford took a tumble in Q3. The automaker posted pre-tax profits of $1.18 billion, compared to about $2.59 billion in Q3 2013, a drop of around 54 percent. Net income also suffered with $835 million made in the quarter, versus $1.272 billion last year, a decline of about 34 percent. The Blue Oval blamed the gloomy figures on three reasons in its release: "lower volume, higher warranty costs and adverse balance sheet exchange effects."
There were problems of one kind or another in practically every region. North America experienced higher warranty costs than expected, partially due to recalls. The sales volume for the quarter was 665,000 units, versus 725,000 in Q3 2013, and pre-tax results amounted to $1.41 billion versus $2.296 billion last year.
South America and Europe both posted worse pre-tax results than last year. On the bright side, European volume was up slightly to 321,000 vehicles, from 303,000 in Q3 2013. The Middle East and Africa also lost $15 million, but that was an improvement compared to the $25 million loss previously experienced in this region.

Bentley designer calls Lincoln Continental concept a Flying Spur 'copy' [w/poll]

When you first laid eyes on the new Lincoln Continental concept, we'd wager you were likely impressed, because it's an impressive design. But if you also thought it looked familiar, you're in good company. According to Car Design News, design chief Luc Donckerwolke over at Bentley thinks the Lincoln concept bears more than a passing resemblance to another Continental: Bentley's own Flying Spur. "This behavior is not respectable. Building a copy like this is giving a bad name to the car design world," Donckerwolke told CDN, after posting some disparaging comments on Facebook and offering in jest to send over the tooling. "It is very disappointing, especially for an exclusive brand like Lincoln," added Sangyup Lee, his deputy for exterior design. The irony is further entrenched by the name, which Bentley only dropped from its Flying Spur in its latest iteration but still uses for the coupe and convertible models. Both automakers have a deeply routed history with the nameplate, but Lincoln's stretches back further, having first used the handle in 1939 before Bentley did in 1952. However it's not the nameplate that's the subject of controversy here, rather the design of the vehicle to which it's applied. So what do you think, did Lincoln borrow too heavily from its British counterpart? Related Video: