2005 Lincoln Town Car Executive L Sedan 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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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.

Junkyard Gem: 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car

Just before Ford downsized the Continental for 1980 and made the Town Car a separate model for 1981, the biggest and plushest new sedan in the Dearborn universe was the mighty Continental Town Car. Here's one from 1978, the second-to-last model year of the two-and-a-half-ton Continental Town Car, found in nice condition in a Denver car graveyard last month. This car rolled out of the Lincoln showroom loaded, with the landau-style "Coach Roof" and just about every additional option. Base price on the 1978 Continental with the Town Car package started at $11,606 (about $48,350 in 2020 dollars), but this car cost much more than that. A new Mercedes-Benz S-Class cost better than twice as much that year (and it was worth it), but you still had to be a heavy-duty high-roller to buy a new '78 Town Car. The base engine in the 1978 Continental was a 400-cubic-inch (6.6-liter) V8 making a grim 166 horsepower, a truly horrific ratio of 25.2 horsepower per liter of displacement (torque came to a respectable 319 lb-ft, though). If the new Navigator got 25.2 horses for each liter in its turbo V6, it would have a mere 88 horsepower to haul its nearly three tons, rather than the 450 horses that 21st-century engine technology gives us. The good news with this car is that it came with the optional 460-cubic-inch (7.5-liter) V8, rated at 210 horsepower and 357 lb-ft. That was sufficient to get this car's 4,660 pounds moving well enough. Still just 28 horses per liter, but a significant upgrade. These cars weren't about performance, however. They were about a silent, cushy ride and poofy seats that swallowed you in velour comfort. When did Detroit stop making these pillow-top seats? And opera lights? And snazzy "coffin-handle" door pulls? Yes, even the wire wheels (a $333 option, or $1,385 today) stayed on this car to the very end. Why get a Rolls-Royce when you could have this, the grille of this behemoth seems to ask us. Though it remained in good condition when it arrived in its final parking space, a Malaise Era Continental sedan just isn't worth much in the enthusiast world. Even a 1978 Mark V in nice shape would be hard-pressed to find a forever home nowadays. At least it had a chance to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts before the end. In what came to look like a very smart move by Ford, in light of certain geopolitical events in 1979, the Panther-based 1980 Continentals weighed nearly a half-ton less than this car.

Report: Lincoln getting all of Mercury's ad dollars

Now that the curtain has closed on Mercury, Ford Motor Company will redirect all of its marketing dollars for the oft-overlooked brand to the Blue Oval's luxury outpost, Lincoln. In speaking to Automotive News, the chairman of the Lincoln National Dealer Council, Bob Tasca, Jr., said, "You'll see a lot stronger presence in the advertising of Lincoln in 2011."
Lincoln spokesperson Christian Bokich reminded AN that the automaker is "preparing the way for seven new or significantly refreshed vehicles" that will be launched over the next four years, and the largest ad blitz in 2011 will focus on the refreshed MKX crossover, as well as the MKZ sedan and its hybrid counterpart. Following that, Lincoln has plans to launch a completely overhauled version of its Navigator SUV, an all-new C-segment vehicle and the overhauled 2013 MKZ, which Tasca says will be "strikingly different from its Ford Fusion sibling."
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req. | Image: John Neff/Autoblog/AOL]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments