2008 Lincoln Mkx Awd Limited Edition Panoramic Roof Loaded Gorgeous Best Price! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Weekly Recap: An '80s encore in the auto world

The '80s returned in a big way this week, as National Lampoon's, Ghostbusters, Miami Vice, and even Tetris were back in the news. While there were far more serious topics (see below), nostalgia mingled with modern marketing to put these Reagan-era favorites back in the spotlight. The '80s were alternately cold and corny at times, but their cultural touchstones can still generate big money. That's why Infiniti recreated an iconic scene from National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) for an advertisement that hawks the QX60 crossover. Actor Ethan Embry, who played Rusty Griswold in a later Lampoon's movie, pilots the Infiniti – which is serving as a modern Family Truckster – for a trip to Walley World. A blonde pulls alongside in a red Lamborghini. They flirt, and she drives on. Christie Brinkley, who played the original girl in the red sports car (she drove a Ferrari in the '83 flick), is riding shotgun and chides Embry with: "A blonde. In a convertible. Seriously?" Okay, it's hardly on the level of "here's looking at you," or even "you can't handle the truth," but it should resonate with '80s babies, many of whom are now having children of their own and moving into three-row SUVs like the QX60. Naturally, Hollywood is going back to the well, too, with a Vacation remake that premiers July 29. Meanwhile, Ghostbusters is returning next year, and director Paul Feig offered a peak at the new Eco-1 in this tweet. In the 1984 classic, the team drove a modified 1959 Cadillac. Now, it will drive a late '80s Cadillac. As expected, the announcement generated support and controversy from movie and car enthusiasts. His tweet had generated several thousand retweets and favorites in the days following the news. Though the '80s Caddy looks, uh, less elegant in comparison to the now-iconic fins and curves of the original Ecto-1, it's about the same time lapse into the past as the '59 Caddy was to viewers in 1984. Speaking of 1984, Miami Vice, which debuted that year on NBC, is seeing one of its hero cars hit the auction block, Mecum Auctions announced this week. The 1986 Ferrari used on the show will be offered for sale Aug. 15 during Monterey classic car week. The white supercar runs a 390-hp flat 12-cylinder engine paired with a five-speed manual transmission and was in storage after the show ended in 1989 until earlier this year. It has 16,124 miles on the odometer and is authenticated by Ferrari North America and Classiche.

Here's our best look yet at the production Lincoln Continental

The team at Lincoln continues to strip off camouflage from the Continental in each new round of spy shots, and the latest set presents a luxury sedan that looks nearly ready for a debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January. This one doesn't even need a tow truck to get around. The production Continental takes the handsome concept's design and translates its cues to the road with tiny alterations. The rectangular, mesh grille doesn't shine with chrome on this one, but that would be an easy addition for the Detroit show. The LED headlights look nearly the same with running lights that sweep upward at the corners. The bottom of the lower fascia sees the biggest tweak the company drops the thick chrome strip in favor of a thinner lip. Lincoln doesn't put any camo on the pillars, so these shots provide a great view of the roofline in profile. Look carefully along the beltline and you can spot where the designers incorporated the high-mounted door handles from the concept. This minor styling touch greatly helps to clean up the lines along the side. The rear sees bigger changes from the concept. For example, these undisguised taillights share the same shape but now have more visible red in them. The production version also wears a fairly simple integrated exhaust rather than the more complicated design before. The Continental will reportedly be available with the Lincoln-exclusive 3.0-liter EcoBoost and front- or all-wheel drive. Unlike the MKS that it will replace, the model's production will likely occur at the Flat Rock, MI, factory. Related Video:

Junkyard Gem: 1986 Lincoln Town Car

Ford's Lincoln Division applied the Town Car name (originally the Anglicized name for a coupe de ville horse-drawn carriage) to new cars beginning with the 1959 Continental, but it wasn't until the 1981 model year that the Town Car became a Lincoln model in its own right (earlier Town Cars were Continentals). Those boxy, sharp-edged Town Cars were built throughout the remainder of the 1980s and sold well, but they're almost extinct today. Here's one of those cars, found in a Denver-area self-service yard recently. The Town Car was built from the 1981 through 2011 model years, with a complete redesign for 1990 that kept the same chassis but added a less angular body and rear air suspension. In 1998, the Town Car got the full "whale" body treatment seen on its Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis siblings, and production of that version continued until the end. In China, Hongqi built a version badged as the CA7460 Qijian. All 1981-2011 Town Cars lived on the versatile and sturdy body-on-frame Panther platform. For a 1970s design, the Panther stayed relevant for a surprisingly long time. This car was closely related to the Ford LTD Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis, not to mention the Continental Mark VI. The interior is full of "wood-tone appliques" and the gauges come straight from mid-1970s Lincoln-Mercury products. These "twin comfort lounge" seats were just as comfy as they look here, and the Nearly Velour™ fabric just needs a cleaning to be in like-new condition. Of course, the optional Cartier package had much classier upholstery. You'll find one in every car. You'll see. Every 1980s Town Car had some sort of padded vinyl roof as standard equipment. This roof has not fared well beneath the Colorado sun. It's a shame that opera lights have gone out of fashion. Every 1981-1990 Town Car got a 302-cubic-inch (5.0-liter) Windsor V8 under the hood. 1986 was the first year that electronic fuel injection replaced carburetors in the Town Car; this engine was rated at 150 horsepower and 270 pound-feet. The jarring mashup of typefaces on the HVAC and radio controls of mid-1980s Fords always makes me uncomfortable. This car has the optional "wire-style" hubcaps, which cost an extra $341 (about $920 in 2022 dollars). Several flavors of aluminum wheels were available on the '86 Town Car, but no true wire wheels. The MSRP on this car was $20,764, or about $56,130 today. The Cartier Edition would set you back $25,235 ($68,215 now).