1977 Lincoln Continental on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1972 Lincoln Continental Mark IV

For most of the period from the middle 1950s through the late 1990s, the Lincoln Marks were the most expensive cars Americans could buy from the Ford Motor Company. During the 1970s, the Mark III, Mark IV, and Mark V personal luxury coupes were built on the same chassis as the then-massive Thunderbird, with curb weights hovering around 5,000 pounds. Here's a 1972 Mark IV, from the year when engine power really started its Malaise Era fall off a cliff, photographed in a Denver-area self-service yard. The list price on this car started at $8,640, which amounts to something like $61,445 in 2022 bucks. That was quite a bit less than the $10,634 Mercedes-Benz 280 SEL 4.5, though the Benz had the more powerful V8 engine. Power ratings had just gone to net rather than gross numbers, so this massive 460-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) V8 was rated at just 224 horsepower (ever-stricter emission rules knocked actual power down as well). At least the torque was still pretty good, at 342 pound-feet. Runs on regular gas! This car clearly spent quite a while, probably at least a couple of decades, sitting outdoors in the harsh Colorado climate. The seat upholstery is deeply irradiated. The padded vinyl roof didn't fare well beneath the sun. Someone has torn apart the dash, but you can still see the classy Cartier clock hiding in the wreckage. There's some rust, enough to scare off anyone who might have been interested in performing a restoration. The Continental Mark IV's main rival was the Cadillac Eldorado, which was slightly smaller and (marginally) less packed with bling. The '72 Imperial LeBaron was cheaper and boasted one more horsepower than the Mark IV, but seemed stodgy next to the devil-may-care Lincoln. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. More than 8,000 owners of that luxury car switched to Continental for '71.

Ford Model e losing billions as it says EV unit should be seen as startup

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s electric vehicle business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years and will lose a similar amount this year as the company invests heavily in the new technology. The figures were released Thursday as Ford rolled out a new way of reporting financial results. The new business structure separates electric vehicles, the profitable internal combustion and commercial vehicle operations into three operating units. Company officials said the electric vehicle unit, called “Ford Model e,” will be profitable before taxes by late 2026 with an 8% pretax profit margin. But they wouldn't say exactly when it's expected to start making money. Chief Financial Officer John Lawler said Model e should be viewed as a startup company within Ford. “As everyone knows, EV startups lose money while they invest in capability, develop knowledge, build (sales) volume and gain (market) share,” he said. Model e, he said, is working on second- and even third-generation electric vehicles. It currently offers three EVs for sale in the U.S.: the Mustang Mach E SUV, the F-150 Lightning pickup and an electric Transit commercial van. The new corporate reporting system, Lawler said, is designed to give investors more transparency than the old system of reporting results by geographic regions. The automaker calculated earnings for each of the three units during the past two calendar years. Model e had pretax losses of $900 million in 2021 and $2.1 billion last year, and it is expected to lose $3 billion this year. In the past two years Ford has announced it would build four new battery factories and a new vehicle assembly plant as well as spending heavily to acquire raw materials to build electric vehicles. By the end of this year, the company based in Dearborn, Michigan, expects to be building electric vehicles at a rate of 600,000 per year, reaching a rate of 2 million per year by the end of 2026. Ford Blue, the unit that sells internal combustion and gas-electric hybrid vehicles, made just over $10 billion before taxes during the last two years. Ford Pro, the commercial vehicle unit, made $5.9 billion during those years, the company said. For this year, Ford expects Ford Blue to post a $7 billion pretax profit, modestly better than last year. Ford Pro is expected to earn $6 billion before taxes, nearly double its earnings last year, Lawler said. Ford was to present the new structure, announced last March, to analysts and investors on Thursday.

Hot-selling Ford Expedition, Lincoln Navigator get production boost

Ford is investing an additional $25 million in its Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville to increase by 25 percent production of the hot-selling and all-new Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition SUVs. The investment adds to $900 million in previously announced spending at the plant, which also builds F-Series Super-Duty pickups and employs 8,400 workers. Assembly-line workers are putting in overtime and working voluntary weekend shifts to keep up with demand. The new investment will cover upgrades to the assembly line but does not involve further hiring, Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker says. The popularity of the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator is a bright spot as Ford stock has been battered by Wall Street amid concerns concerns about the automaker's future vision and slowness to detect trends. Ford says the investment is an example of its bid to improve "operational fitness," one of CEO Jim Hackett's common refrains. Ford says Navigator retail sales more than doubled in January, and Navigators are spending an average of just seven days on Lincoln dealership lots as customers trade in vehicles including Land Rovers and Mercedes-Benz. Nearly 85 percent of buyers are opting for high-end Black Label and Reserve trim packages, contributing to an average transaction price increase of more than $21,000 in January compared to a year ago. The 2018 Navigator won the North American Truck of the Year award and also topped a Detroit News poll of public favorites at last month's Detroit Auto Show. Sales of the Expedition, meanwhile, were up almost 57 percent last month as the full-size SUVs also spent an average of just a week on dealer lots. Platinum trim models represented 29 percent of sales, pushing transaction price increases up $7,800. Ford gave the 2018 Expedition an all-aluminum body to save mass in its first significant redesign since 2007. The plant last year got nearly 400 new robots, mainly in the body shop, to help increase line speed, and Ford added a robot lab where employees can test software tweaks or troubleshoot issues away from the factory floor. The Louisville plant also benefits from extensive new data analytics, with seven big-screen monitors providing minute-by-minute updates showing progress against hourly targets or alerting workers to pending parts shortages. A huge spare-parts "vending machine" lets workers more quickly locate needed parts and keep inventory at necessary levels.