Perhaps sadly, the panel gaps/misalignment doesn't seem to be any worse than the 2 recent JLR products I've had.

 

LS460? Any new car should be able to launch with proper aligned panels. There is no secret panel gap sauce that Lexus knows of that other car makers don't. This is just simply unacceptable

 

Oddly enough the panels gaps on my Ram truck are more consistent than what is shown in the photos, that is pretty sad. A sample size of one is a bit misleading, but again, if I was Lincoln I would inspect the hell out of the first runs to make certain my flagship car was perfect, you only get one chance to make an impression in the luxury car marketplace.

 

I totally agree. It should not be that hard for Ford to get panel gaps correct and consistent. Ford has been making cars for a long long time. But it is very disappointing for this car. But, again it's only one car that I have seen.

 

At one time there was. Rememer this ad?

 

So what? Are you suggesting that panel gaps where much larger in 1992 in other luxury cars? I don't think so. Lexus was simply promoting that a ball made out of metal could follow the panels. Toyota cars as well as Lexus models have generally been very good at quality.

The bigger issue is that Ford has had over a 100 years to get this small, quality thing in check.....And they can't....It is simply not acceptable.

 

And the point that me (and some others) are making is that panel-gap variations of the type you posted are not necessarily an indication of poor quality. Vehicles can, and sometimes do, run 200,000 miles with panels like that...even without wind noise.

In fact, some vehicles that use non-steel body panels HAVE to have wider gaps (though not necessarily uneven gaps) to allow the doors to open and close properly when the panels expand and contract in heat and cold. The 90s plastic-bodied Saturn S-series cars were a good example of that. They had very wide panel gaps....but also a good reputation for quality, especially by the American-badged standards of the time.

You are entitled to your opinion, and I respect it, but I think you are making too big a deal out of this (just like you sometimes think I go on too much about certain things).

 

Actually...yes they were.

When Lexus first came out their panel gaps were the tightest in the industry by a significant margin, it was widely discussed in the auto press at the time.

Nobody is saying this is acceptable, not sure why you think they are.

 

I think you really have to ask yourself why people on this forum run around and take pictures of cars at dealerships at night with cell phone cameras and tell you that in their estimation, that's the "breaking news" headline. Obviously Ford needs to fix this car's assembly quality, if that particular car is an eg. of how the Continental is assembled then that's a big problem. We live in the "CNN" culture and it seems like everything is about a particular issue with such and such car.

You read this forum and you would swear that there are all sorts of "marketing", "demographic" and fit and finish experts telling Ford what to do and when to do it. Why don't you just work for Ford then? I don't like this car, it's too little and too late. I am not a Ford buyer. But I'd like to find out if someone can drive it in person and look it over in daylight. Pennies, ball bearings and pics don't tell me much. I think it's an overpriced FWD vehicle that will not sell. But I don't want to jump to conclusions over some dealership pics on a cellphone.

Why not wait to see an actual real example of this car being tested out in the real world?

 

$76k? Lol

Why not wait 6 months and buy it for $40k? Or a couple of years and buy it at your friendly used car lot for a whopping $6,995.

 

The car I saw was a real example in the real world.

 

One of our local Ford/Lincoln shops in this area (D.C. suburbs) has some base-model Continentals on order (haven't arrived yet) that will list around 45K BRAND NEW....and if they don't sell (as some posters here suggest will happen), they might sell them for lower than that.

The only Continental you're going to find for that price in a couple of years is in a toy box LOL.

 

Because then what would we argue about on the internets?

 

I'll do a full-review on one (probably a lower-line, more affordable model) as soon as they arrive in here in the D.C. area. A number of them have been ordered by local dealerships, but are not here yet. In the meantime, (hopefully), somebody from the auto press will do a test-drive and record it......all we basically have from them, so far, is static-reviews.

 

Continental or no Continental, car talk here on CL goes on around the clock...it never stops.