When is a car actually rare? No, I’m not talking about being the only yellow Corvette with a blue interior, a transparent top, no Z51 package, and bronze wheels, I’m talking about total production run. Is it something along the lines of 11,273 examples? That’s how many Ferrari F355s were ever made.
How about 7,141 units? That’s how many Aston Martin DB7s were built, including all variants. What about 4,099 cars? That’s how many Murcielagos that Lamborghini produced. Most would say those are fairly rare cars in the grand scheme of things, and yet the Lincoln Blackwood is rarer still.
With a production run of just 16 months, fewer than 3,900 of these unusual pickups ever rolled out of Ford’s Kansas City Assembly plant during the early aughts throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks luxury light truck boom. Alright, so production was capped by demand rather than by design, but not only are these trucks now cool pieces of automotive history, but they also don’t cost nearly as much as some similarly rare vehicles.
What Are We Looking At?
When it launched in 2002, nobody knew quite what to think of the Lincoln Blackwood. In hindsight, this thing’s a marvelous chimera, mating the cab and frame of a rear-wheel-drive F-150, the front clip, interior, and 300-horsepower four-valve 5.4-liter V8 of a Navigator, and a unique imitation wood bed with inlaid aluminum strips together to create one of the weirdest pickup trucks ever sold in America.
You get all the toys of a Navigator, from heated and cooled front seats to an Alpine audio system to automatic climate control, but in a package that separates you from your cargo. While a towing capacity of 8,700 pounds comes in just under that of a Navigator, it’s still plenty enough to pull a new project car home in style, and it’s weird enough to make you a local celebrity.
Yes, the Blackwood gets seriously strange, with two main oddities worth pointing out. The first is seating, because the Blackwood features a pair of captain’s chairs instead of a rear bench. This means it’s a four-seater, with a huge center console taking up the middle space in back. The second is the bed situation, because it’s not really a traditional bed. Lined with carpet and aluminum and clad externally with fake wood, it’s more of a waterproof trunk than anything, which begs the question: Is the Blackwood technically a sedan? Car And Driver certainly seemed to think that the Blackwood was rocking a trunk, but the magazine was impressed with this oddball’s straight-line scoot and pillowy ride, writing:
The Blackwood’s 5.4-liter DOHC 32-valve V-8 generates enough snort to propel this hefty truck (at 5637 pounds, it weighs in a bit lighter than a 4wd Avalanche and is dimensionally similar) to 60 mph in 8.1 seconds, which is impressive scoot for a behemoth. We were also impressed with the Blackwood’s ride quality, which does a very good job of ironing out rough pavement and washboard dirt roads.
However, perhaps in part due to the strange appearance of the Blackwood, or its compromised practicality over an Escalade EXT, or its $54,495 price tag, Lincoln only managed to sell 3,383 units, with the 2002 model year being the only one for this truck in the U.S. market. It soldiered on for another model year in Mexico, but it’s still rarer than a Lamborghini Murcielago. Oh, and did I mention it’s relatively cheap for such a rare beast?
How Much Are We Talking?
Want one of the nicest Lincoln Blackwood examples in the world? That’ll run you about $24,500, like this pristine 17,000-mile example that sold on Bring A Trailer last year. With absolutely gleaming paint, the optional CD-ROM-based GPS navigation system, and an undercarriage you could legitimately eat off of, this is a concours-grade example of an exceedingly rare machine for about the price of a new Honda Civic.
Alright, you’d have to really love the Blackwood to spend that much on one, so how about we take a look at what examples with some mileage actually go for? Well, this Floridian example with 106,000 miles on the clock sold on Cars & Bids last year for $13,100, and it looks to be in properly good shape. No hits on the Carfax, very few visual signs of having six figures worth of mileage on the odometer, and just a surprisingly tasteful aftermarket head unit and tinted windows as the only modifications. This thing would make a killer tow rig, simple enough to fix wherever if need be but plush enough to get where you’re going in comfort.
That’s great, but what if you’re looking for a high-mileage hero that you can beat on a bit without feeling too bad? Well, this Blackwood is up for sale in Oklahoma for $7,995, and although it is rocking some very period aftermarket wheels and sports 146,921 miles on the clock, it’s also a southern truck with a clean Carfax, so it’s probably in decent shape underneath.
What Could Possibly Go Wrong On A Lincoln Blackwood?
Underneath the skin of the Lincoln Blackwood, it’s mostly good news. Most mechanical parts are cheap, and it uses Lincoln’s 5.4-liter quad-cam 32-valve V8 so it doesn’t have the spark plug issues that F-150s of the era can suffer from. Outside of general old car wear and tear, the biggest common problem on the Blackwood pertains to the power-operated tonneau cover. The modules can pack up, although there is a company out there called Module Master that can rebuild them for $350.
Beyond that, the compressor for the rear air springs probably won’t last forever, although a third-party compressor is available for $226.79 on Rock Auto, and a solenoid’s $48 if you need it. Aftermarket rear air springs from an F-150 of the same vintage can also be made to fit with some modification, and the whole system seems totally DIY-able.
Should You Buy A Lincoln Blackwood?
If you’re looking for a weird older tow rig for a camper or a car trailer, or simply want to add to an already unusual stable of cars, a Lincoln Blackwood is a fine contender. It’s mechanically simple enough to be a reasonable proposition, yet unique enough to turn heads wherever it goes. Plus, you can’t help but get the feeling that few of these trucks lived hard lives, as they really were Town Cars for people who wanted something truckish.
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[Ed Note, I thought you might enjoy this tour of the Blackwood with a scrappy, little-known YouTuber – Pete]Â
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Came to read Thomas’ article, and saw the word “Corvette” in the first paragraph. I swear this article beckoned to me like Mjolnir.
I’m convinced several original owners of these have died recently because I keep seeing them with temp tags around. And they keep popping up for sale everywhere. That or people were collecting them and realized it’s just a weird f150.
I didn’t understand at the time why they did it but looking where they industry has gone they were ahead of their time. I’m also surprised Cadillac didn’t do something on the gmt800 other then that avalanche Escalade. They could have made the ultimate cow boy Cadillac. I’ve seen a put together Escalade gmt800 shortbed pickup it was slick and the guy was using it as his work truck.
I remember a junkyard near me had this Cadillac GMT800 pickup monstrosity out front for a while. Escalade front end, custom triple cab (three doors per side), and a duallie bed (8′, I believe!) Fun that the parts could be swapped around like that!
Wow you see crazy things like that sometimes but wild it was a junk yard. I wonder if it had issues from all the frame extensions and someone just flicked it to them. Because pickups were so high for a while and full size SUVs were cheap I’ve seen several chopped monstrosities running around. Alot of times the bed is much newer probably pulled for a flat bed.
A few years back a neighbour of mine had one of these, which I thought was pretty cool! I wonder how many of these were sold in Canada, where American luxury brands have even less cachet, and where RWD is even more of a liability
I’m surprised they didn’t sell better. It’s a very large four door rwd luxury cruiser that doesn’t do any real work. Just like 3/4 of today’s pickups.
I remember it being suggested that one of the reasons for the Blackwood’s short life is that it was only available with RWD. One of the reasons for folks moving from luxury cars to luxury trucks was for the 4WD/AWD capabilities. I think it might have sold better if all 4 wheels were driven.
So as the former owner of a Lincoln Navigator with the 32V engine, I can tell you that it does not make an awesome tow rig. The powerband for the engine is too high, combined with the automatic transmission with not enough gears. I bought mine to replace a 88 F-250, and while it towed slightly better than that, it wasn’t much better. For instance, towing my e46 convertible home on very flat I-95 in the SE, every highway overpass it had to downshift and rev to over 4k rpm to maintain speed. Gets annoying after awhile. Acceleration around town while towing wasn’t great, either.
I bought a significantly larger boat that weighs in around 7k with the trailer (previous boat was around 3.5k) and that’s what pushed it over the edge for me. I bought a 2014 Ram with the Hemi engine and towing package (3.92 gears, limited slip, moose antler mirrors!) The Ram is rated to tow about 3k more load, but does so much better. It can pull my boat without breaking a sweat. RPM stays much lower, and the 8 speed transmission makes sure even it if does downshift it isn’t a huge jump in engine speed. It gets about 4 mpg better fuel economy no matter what kind of load you have, for instance the best I got in the Navigator without a load was 16 mpg (at 55-60) while the best the Ram got was 20 (at 70-75 mph). I recently towed my new Escape PHEV home about 300 miles and the engine just loafed along at 75 mph.
I’m sure the 32V engine is great for Mustang swaps, and even the Navigator or Blackwood is fine with it when it isn’t towing, but for towing it’s not great.
If the idiom “all hat and no cattle” could be embodied in automotive form, it would be the Lincoln Blackwood. I remember seeing these around when they came out and everyone had the exact same criticism, it had the looks, handling, and gas mileage of a pickup without the utility of a pickup. I always liked the way they looked but if I’m going to put up with truck handling I wanna be able to fill the bed with truck stuff.
*See also the SRT-10.
Presumably people knew what they were getting into with the SRT-10, but to be fair its bed was usable and the quad cab could tow a reasonable amount.
The biggest problem with the Blackwood was it was too early. Damn near every truck on the road these days is more hat than cattle, Lincoln just got to the party before it started.
(They also overestimated how much black tie they needed to put in – that carpeted bed is a pretty big misread of how much cowboy cosplaying the audience for this truck is trying to do)
It would be interesting to know why Lincoln decided to put carpet in the bed and use a bed cover that is difficult to remove. As written above, this basically turns the bed into a trunk, but a trunk that is difficult to use due to the dimensions and the way the cover opens. The cover and bed carpet never made any sense to me.
The “Lincoln 5.4 Quad Cam” and “Triton 5.4” refer to the same engine. So all the Badness associated with the cam phased 5.4 Triton is present in most people’s minds, though it should be mentioned that the phaser issues were not until 2004.
Still, the reason those were universally shunned was the weak visual differentiators outside of the striped bed sides and useless bed in general. GM perhaps did it a bit better with the body work of the Caddy avalanche, and at least offering the 6.0 where the avalanche versions never saw. but they too looked an awfully lot like the avalanche in the end to me.
I like weird cars, so half way through this I was thinking I might get one, if I were in the US. I know nothing of trucks or Lincoln, but I do like weird.
But then I saw the back of the bed has a vertical split in the middle and so the central K of the badge has to be offset to the left. Did they really make the L and the K of that font slightly narrower than the other letters just to make that work? It looks horrible. I can’t bear it.
Its crazy to me how these (and the Navigator) felt so visually bulky at the time, particularly the front end- big grille and all, but have aged to look incredibly sleek due to the arms race of making trucks bigger, taller, and wider. I’d almost confuse that front end for a Town Car these days.
A 2025 F150 SuperCrew is a full foot longer than a Blackwood, and that’s with the shorter bed. The F150 is also two inches wider and at least two inches taller, depending on config. Absolutely absurd.
It amazes me how often things are just too far ahead of their time. The Blackwood would sell like crazy now, the split tailgate is getting common and is a desirable feature now, many trucks now feature power tailgates which would pair well with the power tonneau, and I see more luxury trucks than I do traditional luxury cars. Let’s try again Lincoln!
There’s one of these parked around the corner from me. I see it every day walking my dog.
For literally years (Google Street view shows it from 2015!) the tailgate was missing the letter C in Blackwood. I’m happy to report that the owner just recently replaced it.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/SuW8pinMzuAf4thn6
Can someone explain to me (without going too in-depth) what makes this engine different from the 5.4l 4v V8 in similar year F-150s known for sending spark plugs to meet the manhole cover?
Also, I would love a piece explaining why this bombed but the Mark LT sold nearly ten times the amount. There’s actually a Mark LT in a driveway near me. Is it merely that luxury trucks were more of a market with the passing of a few years? Or is the Mark LT simply a superior vehicle? Etc.
“Blackwood” is certainly the cooler name, though.
This and the Navigator had a DOHC 5.4L with 4 valves per cylinder. F-series trucks in these years all used a SOHC 5.4L with 2 valves per cylinder. Not sure if the DOHC had the same issue of ejecting spark plugs as the SOHC. I’ll take Thomas’ word for it.
There was no 4v 5.4 in any F150, it was Lincoln and performance cars only.
I expect the reason the Mark LT sold so much better (although still poorly enough that Ford replaced it with Platinum F150s) is that it was usable as a truck. The carpet-lined bed and 2wd only are fun quirks that make this neat, but not very usable outside limited cases.
If you count the FWD Continental as a performance car 🙂
I don’t, but I count it as a Lincoln 🙂
I am dumb and skipped words
I’ll leave the engine difference details to someone more knowledgeable than I, but the Mark LT proved more popular simply because it was a better truck: no power tonneau cover over a carpeted cargo area, but a real bed, and available with 4WD.
The F150 had initially the 2v version of the 5.4, which was known for shooting spark plugs. I owned one, it had launched 3 of them by 100k miles (local shop did Time-Sert repairs).
I want to say in 2004, along with a body style update, the 5.4 was updated to the 3v variant, which got a boost in power, along with VVT. Today, that engine is universally on “cars/engines to avoid” lists. It traded it’s predecessor’s problem of ejecting spark plugs for a redesigned oiling system with extremely small passageways that easily plug with sludge over time unless owners have been meticulous with oil changes. This slowly starves the engine of oil, wearing literally everything out. The fix is to replace the engine, there’s nothing to really be done about it. Being such trucks are now at least 15 years old, generally means mechanically totaled, so they tend to get dumped cheap upon such a diagnosis.
The 4v version was a Lincoln exclusive (and I believe a supercharged version was in the Ford GT).
Oh, the spark plug launching wasn’t a “permanent damage to engine, need to replace the whole thing” kind of problem?
Separately, what differentiated the F-150 2v vs. the E-series 2v? Because I was told the E-series ones didn’t have the spark plug launching problem, which tracks because my family had a ’99 E-150 with the 5.4l that went 240,000 miles without ever doing that (scrapped at that point because Pennsylvania, rust, and needed new coil-on plugs or something like that.).
When these first came out, I thought they’d be a big hit as funeral coaches for pet cemeteries….
You laugh, but that sounds like a great business idea in a gentrified area.
I remember a well-off friend of mine wanted to buy one of these when they were new, but the dealer wanted over MSRP for it so he bought a Harley Davidson F150 instead. It’s wild to think about markups on something that sold so poorly…
When I first moved to the oil field my boss had one of these. Helping remove that dang hard bed cover was a huge pain in the ass. The side little storage cubbies were nice and I remember her always complaining about how gross the carpet was in the bed. Overall, didn’t seem like much a reason to get over a similar year F150.
Once you see it’s got the same style of headlights, grille, and taillights as a Lincoln Town Car, you can’t ever unsee it.
On another note, the 5.4 V8 in these is a popular engine swap for performance builds these days and is related to the motor in the Mustang Cobra of the same vintage!
Well they were lifted straight off the Navigator.
This is one of those vehicles that’s become somewhat more desirable with age. These were mocked mercilessly when they came out.
Rare does not often mean a good idea.
I’m surprised that Cadillac and Lincoln don’t currently have pick-up offerings.
I thought that too, but then realized the pricing that Ford and Chevy are asking for their current truck lineup (and the luxury levels you can get on them) really means there’s no point anymore in Lincoln or Caddy having a truck – what more could you do to them that isn’t already being done on an F-150?
Add the badge and $10k to the sticker.
Correct, and at the highest levels of luxury, the “pedestrian badge” is more desirable than a luxury one, because the people who spend $100,000 on a truck want the ability to say “I drive an F150 just like you do”.
Both attempts at Lincoln pickups were miserable failures, and the Cadillac truck was an offshoot of the Escalade, not closely related to any Silverado.
I find it so curious that this phenomenon seems confined to pickup trucks…unless I’m missing something. Because it’s definitely not a case of stealth wealth like a Phaeton, because the higher trims make themselves well-distinguished.
It’s still possible to get high-trim trucks that are reasonably understated, but the trend toward making everything loud and flashy is slowly taking away those opportunities as well.
A Denali used to be just a grille and body-colored bumpers, but now there’s chrome tailgate plaques, huge badges, etc on the expensive stuff. Sometimes you can delete it as an option, sometimes not. Makes me wonder if tastes will change or if they will try a Caddy or Lincoln truck again someday.
True, but even then, everyone knows that Cadillac means something, but how many people really know what Denali means? Or care enough to read the badge? Probably more than used to, but as a percentage of the population, probably not much.
The people who buy them know exactly what it means.
Oh, the buyers certainly do, but the casual, non-truck owning onlooker is much more likely to look at it, see GMC, and assume it’s a work truck, not realizing what Denali means. It may be easier to tell a Denali apart from a non-Denali, but the public has to understand that Denali means something before that’s an issue for your stealth luxury, and I think that’s a badge that is still much less known for luxury than Cadillac
Although I have no desire to own a full-size pickup, I am delighted by the number of trims/models available for any given truck. A quick glance at configurators shows eight models of F-150 (excluding Lightening variants), 10 models of RAM 1500, and 10 Models of Tundras. Given this many trim levels, it gives a lot of buyers lots of granularity in determining how stealth they want or need to be.
Meanwhile, my wife drives an 11-year-old RX350, and it’s a prime example of stealth cheap.
And yet, GM somehow is successful offering a Tahoe, Yukon and Escalade. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t work when it comes to trucks.
As I said elsewhere, the Tahoe, Yukon and Escalade all exist… why doesn’t that logic hold true there?
Cadillac does, it’s just called a GMC Denali. I know a lot of truck people don’t want to be seen as having the fancy stuff, which is why for years the Escalade and Yukon have directly competed against each other, yet are rarely cross shopped. If you want to show off, you get the Caddy, if you want the luxury without being so flashy, you get the Denali. I don’t know that even now there are enough people wanting to be flashy and wanting a truck.
You think the Denali isn’t flashy? Yeah, friggen, right.
I like the Blackwood more than I should
That sounds like a awesomely optioned Corvette.
that luxury interior is… underwhelming.
That was pretty typical for a luxury interior for 2002; especially an American brand.
Yeah, I saw the interior of a top trim Excursion and truly thought it was covered in that material used as seat covers in taxis.