the rear tailights are straight from the british rover cars....well what else can one expect from ford!!!

 

Allow me to disagree - the 300C may look more expensive at a first glance because it's front resenbles a Bentley, but its just an initial impression. Upon closer inspection, the car looks outright cheap - the rear is as bland as it gets, the side profile is way too boxy, with tiny windows, the bentley copycat front is flimzy with cheap plastic grille. The whole body construction is that of a tincan with el-cheapo paint job. It's interior is one of the worst on the market in a new car, and is a major step down from previous chryslers.

And the engine options aren't anything to brag about. The V6 isn't powerful enough for that behemoth, and the Hemi while being powerful, isn't refined at all. It's too noisy and trucklike, and it majorly runs out of breath after 80mph. Not to mention it gets **** poor fuel mileage. I haven't driven the SRT8 version, so I assume it's fast but thats about it.

As far as this Lincoln, it look to be solidly built, the interior is gorgeous, exactly the way it should be in an American classic. The exterior is a little bland, but like I always say, every car in this class look bland - at least it's not bangled.

And to answer your question, no I wouldn't buy it over GS/E/5, M35/45 or a Rl or A6, they are way too different. But I would defenately buy it over STS/DTS or whatever these fugly new caddys are called.

 

Mike.....what did the LS in was not the styling. It was actually a pretty good-looing car, although like many domestic products, the interior hardware and materials weren't quite first-rate.

No...what killed the LS was the stubbornness of Lincoln Mercury marketers. They introduced the car in 1999 with many of the right things ( Consumer Reports at the time called it the best American-nameplate car they had ever tested ) but as a BMW-fighter, the main goal of its existance, it was a flop. As Lexus and Infiniti later found out with the IS300 and G35, you have to have a manual transmission, even in urban areas, if you are going to seriously compete with Munich. Lincoln, foolishly, instead of properly offering the manual with both versions, restricted the 5-speed manual to the V6 version....a serious mistake. The V8 came only with the Sportshift automatic, though both versions had the Sport suspension package option. This marketing strategy not only persisted after many warnings ( including mine ) that it was a mistake, but instead of properly fixing the problem by offering the V8 / manual combo, Lincoln actually went the other way and first cancelled the manual transmission and V6 engine altogether, and then simply took the whole car out of production. What a shame. Lincoln was so close to having a good BMW alternative if only they would have taken a little time to adapt the V8 Mustang's 5-speed to it.

Auto marketing people really disgust me sometimes. Some of them don't have the common sense of a jackass.


They can be forgiven, to some extent, however, if they do a good job on this new car....though, granted, this new car will be for a different purpose than the LS was.

 

hey marshall, i totally understand with what you are saying about the manual thing. i think taking customers from the almighty 5 would take atleast 3 gens of LS, because they need to prove themself. first of all they are totally different when it comes to pricing, second the most recent 550 delivers almost 350 hp where the lincoln is still at 252 or something closer to that. lets talk braking and handling, have you ever experienced the active steering in the new 5's.....the way they handle and brake. lincoln is light years away from that, just by offering a manual wont make the lincoln a worthy competition to the 5!! the only competition for this car was the cts or the older catera from caddy!!

 

Yeah, JDMUSCLE...it's not that I'm a big fan of manual trannies myself ( I drive mostly in urban areas ), but, like you say, the LS was meant to ****** 5-series customers, and offering that car without a stick for ex-BMW customers is like trying to substitute an ox for a bull.

I'm glad you like the new 5-series and its Active Steering. BMW has long had the best chassis dynamics and best steering gear of any sedans but I lost interest in them after the Chris Bangle re-designs.

Here at CL, moderator genearch is a big Chris Bangle BMW fan...I think he owns a new 5-series.

 

I so agree! 300C with nice aftermarket rims and grill looks decent though but so do just about all cars.

 

hey man, im really not a fan of BMW or thier new styling ....frankly i dont like them, but they are better automobiles when it comes to american cars and trucks!!

 

The Catera in many ways was a POS...especially in build quality. The CTS-V...now THERE is a real BMW competitior.

Anyhow, let's get back to the original thread topic. What do you think of the new Lincoln? If you are a hard-core BMW fan, it probably won't be the car for you.

 

actually im really not a big BMW fan, more of a jap spec dude!!

 

Sorry if I misunderstood you. I'm not a Bangle fan either...especially the I-Drive, but you have to give BMW credit where it is due.......they do have the best steering systems. The new BMW's though, have seen a big drop in quality, and the 7-series in particular is unreliable.

 

Don't like it. The interior is not good. Bad door handles and armrest. Lack of real style, looks too simple and plain. Maybe something my grandparents would like. The front grill looks course and doesn't blend.

What's up with the old folks looking dash carpet...

 

It may be done to reduce glare......but carpeting should never be put over a dash section with an air bag under it.

 

So is it basically an Acura RL type of vehicle?

FWD biased AWD, but with a V8?

Why aren't they using a RWD platform? Are they reserving RWD for another Lincoln sedan?

 

The Town Car already has RWD. The question will be if it gets dropped or not......right now Lincoln seems to be leaning that way.

 

I like this new Lincoln concept especially the front. The rear is not so great but is still decent looking. It has an agressive futurisic look without going over the top. The interior looks very nice and still has that Lincoln American look to it in parts like the grab handles and steering wheel yet is still modern and appears to use nice materials with a nice design. Unfortunately if it goes into production I think the bean counters at Ford and their designers will water it down like they do with most good looking concepts and cheapen the interior. They will be saying does it really need all this nice leather and real aluminum trim and other high quality interior peices when we can save a bunch of money and just use painted silver plastic, cheap vinyl, cheap leather, and crappy wood, from our other cars parts bins and this new Lincoln will end up looking bland with a Ford 500 like cabin with some painted silver plastic and so so leather.