2001 Lincoln Town Car Base Limousine 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

McConaughey's bizarre new Continental ad is perfect parody material

So let's say you're running a car company and have a luxurious new flagship sedan and need to advertise it. What do you do? Did you answer with "film a commercial with a barely coherent Hollywood actor standing in a pond?" If so, perhaps you work for Lincoln, which brought back Matthew McConaughey to do another bizarre car ad. It starts with McConaughey and a Continental standing on a body of water. He starts talking about staring (or not staring) at the Conti, and then about sitting in the back seat (or not). The ad then cuts to McConaughey in the back who replies to the McConaughey in the front seat. Presumably, there are two McConaugheys at this point, and the front seat one just laughs in a slightly unsettling manner. He then makes a clicking noise, closes the center console and drives away. You can't make this stuff up. It's thoroughly strange, but we can't say we're entirely surprised. When Lincoln first launched some bizarre ads with McConaughey muttering sweet nothings about the MKC, the company got loads of attention. Admittedly a lot of that attention was to make fun of it, but you know the old saying that there's no such thing as bad press. Lincoln even brought him back for an encore in ads for the MKX and MKZ. In truth, we're also glad to see another bizarre Lincoln ad, mostly because we're hoping for another round of great parodies like the classic Jim Carrey spoof that aired on Saturday Night Live. Check out the ad above to see the strangeness. Related Video:

Roll like bad, bad LeRoy Brown in this '74 custom Continental

In the 1973 number one hit single, "Bad, Bad LeRoy Brown," Jim Croce sings about a gentleman from the South Side of Chicago who has "a custom Continental and an Eldorado, too." The Eldorado presumably was unremarkable factory fare, but we have to believe that the custom Continental Croce was thinking of when he wrote the song was something very much like this Lincoln Continental Mark IV. For sale right now on eBay Motors, the car was customized, apparently when new, by ASC (American Sunroof Corporation). The client was not LeRoy Brown but was a Mr. Ronald M. Nassar, and his name is engraved on gold plaques on the door armrests. Mr. Nassar was an industrial designer and worked at ASC. The makeover is quite extensive. Besides the chrome wire wheels wrapped in wide whitewalls, pinstriping, and the twin leaping greyhound hood ornaments, there's an entirely customized padded vinyl top. The factory oval opera windows are replaced with vertical oval oper windows, and landau bars are applied. The rear window is also oval. Inside, the gold crushed-velour upholstery and factory fake woodgrain merely provide a starting point. The custom features include a refrigerator/food warmer, a crystal goblet holder on the dash, and a television built into the back of the center console. Note what looks like a miniature oil painting on the inside C-pillar. In the trunk, there's a fur spare-tire cover. Perhaps the most amazing aspect of this creation is that it has been driven less than 100 miles. Ever. The odometer shows just 64 miles, which is supported by the lack of wear showing on any of the interior items. The floor mats look like they have never been sullied by the soles of anyone's shoes, and those are just the factory mats. A set of white fur floor mats in a plastic bag are also included. The asking price is $18,900, which is certainly not out of line for a vehicle of such inimitable 1970s style. For an even greater dose of Mr. Nassar's vision, check out his home, which went on the market two years ago. It's not on the South Side of Chicago, but the north side of Detroit, and it makes this Lincoln look understated. Featured Gallery custom '74 Lincoln Continental Mark IV View 10 Photos Lincoln Coupe Luxury Classics

Lincoln scales back free maintenance

Complimentary scheduled maintenance programs have been great tools for luxury automakers to draw in new customers, but some are starting to scale their programs back considerably. According to Automotive News, Lincoln is joining Jaguar and Volvo on the list of automakers reducing the length of time it will be providing free maintenance to its customers.
Lincoln's four-year/50,000-mile maintenance program first kicked off as an incentive in 2010 and became permanent later that year, but starting with the 2014 model year, this will be cut to just two years and 24,000 miles. This could make short-term leases even more appealing for some consumers, but according to Automotive News, some Lincoln dealers are unhappy with the scaling back. The move admittedly comes at an odd time for Lincoln, with parent Ford seemingly working hard to increase consideration among luxury buyers as it looks to reverse the marque's long decline.