2000 Lincoln Town Car Limo -6 Passenger ,new Tires, Front Passenger Seat Clean on 2040-cars

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Here are a few of our automotive guilty pleasures

It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. The world is full of cars, and just about as many of them are bad as are good. It's pretty easy to pick which fall into each category after giving them a thorough walkaround and, more important, driving them. But every once in a while, an automobile straddles the line somehow between good and bad — it may be hideously overpriced and therefore a marketplace failure, it may be stupid quick in a straight line but handles like a drunken noodle, or it may have an interior that looks like it was made of a mess of injection-molded Legos. Heck, maybe all three. Yet there's something special about some bad cars that actually makes them likable. The idea for this list came to me while I was browsing classified ads for cars within a few hundred miles of my house. I ran across a few oddballs and shared them with the rest of the team in our online chat room. It turns out several of us have a few automotive guilty pleasures that we're willing to admit to. We'll call a few of 'em out here. Feel free to share some of your own in the comments below. Dodge Neon SRT4 and Caliber SRT4: The Neon was a passably good and plucky little city car when it debuted for the 1995 model year. The Caliber, which replaced the aging Neon and sought to replace its friendly marketing campaign with something more sinister, was panned from the very outset for its cheap interior furnishings, but at least offered some decent utility with its hatchback shape. What the two little front-wheel-drive Dodge models have in common are their rip-roarin' SRT variants, each powered by turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines. Known for their propensity to light up their front tires under hard acceleration, the duo were legitimately quick and fun to drive with a fantastic turbo whoosh that called to mind the early days of turbo technology. — Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski  Chevrolet HHR SS: Chevy's HHR SS came out early in my automotive journalism career, and I have fond memories of the press launch (and having dinner with Bob Lutz) that included plenty of tire-smoking hard launches and demonstrations of the manual transmission's no-lift shift feature. The 260-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder was and still is a spunky little engine that makes the retro-inspired HHR a fun little hot rod that works quite well as a fun little daily driver.

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).

Production 2017 Lincoln Continental arrives with 400-hp V6

Lincoln still isn't saying much about its new flagship, the long-awaited Continental. Instead, it's got to get everyone's attention. The brand that's been threatening to get a genuine luxury game going for years probably wants people to sit inside the fullsize sedan to learn what it's got, and we think that's a great idea. One good bit we know is that the new Continental is powered by a 3.0-liter, twin-turbo V6 with "a projected" 400 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque. We also know the marketing folks have the luxury-speak down, with lavish promises of heated, cooled, and massaging Perfect Position 30-way seats that adjust to shape and weight, as well as climate-controlled seats for rear passengers that also recline, and "generous rear legroom." Themed interior appointments come in Chalet, Thoroughbred, and Rhapsody selections, perceived-quality boosted further by a specific number of stitches-per-inch on the leather, a laser-cut door on the instrument panel, and real wood and aluminum trim. Acoustic laminated glass, active noise control, and available Revel audio are meant to insure serenity. Technology points are scored with optional adaptive steering and all-wheel drive, three drive modes, dynamic torque vectoring, surround-view cameras, adaptive cruise control, and pre-collision braking. We will really begin to know the new Continental when we sit in it later today at the Detroit Auto Show, for now there's the press release below. All-New Lincoln Continental Delivers Quiet Luxury: Elegant, Effortlessly Powerful, Serene - Lincoln Motor Company introduces its elegant new flagship – the all-new Continental – coming this fall - Effortless power comes from new 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine that produces a projected 400 horsepower and 400 lb.-ft. of torque1; advanced safety technology is also featured - Serene interior offers the comfort of Lincoln's innovative Perfect Position Seat, spaciousness, rear seat amenities, Revel® audio system and top-grade materials DETROIT, Jan. 12, 2016 – Lincoln Motor Company heralds the return of its flagship – the all-new Lincoln Continental – an elegant, effortlessly powerful, serene full-size sedan that delivers quiet luxury to the industry's most discerning customers. Beginning this fall, Continental offers first-class travel for clients in America and China, bringing warm, human touches and a contemporary design.