What A Luxury Car Used To Be: 1970 Lincoln Continental vs 2010 Lincoln MKZ

Good morning! If you’re a regular reader, you might recall that a few weeks back, we looked at a pair of Cadillacs several decades apart, mainly because I found a really cool old Fleetwood for sale and couldn’t find anything else worthy of it. Well, today I’ve found an equally cool old Lincoln, so we’re going to give FoMoCo’s luxury division the same treatment.

But before we get to those, let’s look at yesterday’s Chicago-style beaters. (Chicago-style could be either the thick kind with the sauce on top, or the really thin and crispy kind cut into squares, by the way.) This was a case of damage you can see versus damage that might be hidden, and I honestly didn’t know which way it was going to go. In the end, you gave the win to the Prelude, which has its share of issues but seems more open and honest about them than the Lexus.

I have to agree. I’ve bought plenty of cheap old cars in my day, and I’ve consistently had better luck with private sellers and cars that look a little janky than with overly-polished turds from a dealership. I think that Prelude would make a fine beater for a while.

Ford’s luxury division, Lincoln, hasn’t been at it as long as Cadillac has. Lincoln opened its doors in 1917 and was purchased by Ford in 1922. The division has built a lot of legendary machines, often with names like Continental and Zephyr, but it has also peddled a lot of badge-engineered Fords, with names like … Continental. And Zephyr. Today, we’re going to look at one of Lincoln’s last great big luxury sedans, and a more modern example that’s got the comfort and features but is maybe a little lacking in panache.

1970 Lincoln Continental – $2,900

Engine/drivetrain: 460 cubic inch overhead valve V8, three-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Lakemoor, IL

Odometer reading: 68,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives, but transmission leaks

“Continental,” for the longest time, was a near-mythical nameplate for Lincoln. Originally appearing on a V12-powered, hand-made car in 1939, then becoming a whole separate division for a while in the 1950s, the Lincoln Continental was something special. Later Continentals were mass-produced instead of being hand-made, but with their massive slab-sided styling and rear “suicide doors,” you couldn’t say they weren’t special. But to be honest, before I spotted this car for sale, I couldn’t have told you what a 1970 Continental looked like; the magic sort of fizzled after the suicide doors left. This car kinda looks like an overgrown Mercury.

It’s still special under the hood, however. In 1970, you couldn’t get Ford’s massive 460 cubic inch V8 in anything other than a Lincoln. With 365 horsepower and enough torque to pull a freight train, this big V8 shoves the big boxy Continental down the road with relentless authority, with the aid of Ford’s simple and tough C6 automatic transmission. This car runs well and is drivable, but it has a serious-sounding leak in the transmission, so that will need some attention. C6s are dirt-common, so repair or even replacement if necessary should be straightforward.

Inside, it’s all leather and carpet and power accessories, just as it should be. I don’t imagine the woodgrain on the dash is real; it’s an American car from the ’70s, after all, but that’s part of the charm. It’s in good shape, with a little bit of wear and cracking on the leather, but otherwise it looks good. And surprisingly, the seller says it has never been smoked in, which as anyone who has owned cars of this age knows is rare.

It doesn’t have the effortless cool of the suicide-door Continentals, or even the contemporary fuselage-bodied Chryslers, but it does look pretty impressive. The paint is nice and shiny, the vinyl top is in good condition, and I don’t see any signs of rust. It has been in the same family for two decades, and it looks like they took good care of it. And by the way, it comes with the service records from their ownership, as well as a Haynes manual – always a welcome sign.

2010 Lincoln MKZ – $4,800

Engine/drivetrain: 3.5-liter dual overhead cam V6, six-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Rutherford, NJ

Odometer reading: 132,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives great

After the 1970s, the Continental got less and less special. First on the Fox platform, then switching to front-wheel-drive in 1988 on the Taurus platform, the Continental became the entry-level Lincoln during the 1980s instead of the flagship, until 2006 when Lincoln decided to dredge up another name from its past and slap it on a Ford – the Zephyr. The Zephyr name had already been sullied, of course, for Mercury’s version of the Ford Fairmont in the late ’70s, so there was precedent. And maybe it was the memory of that Zephyr, rather than the 1936 model it was meant to invoke, that caused Lincoln to drop the name in 2007, and rename it the MKZ.

The MKZ is based on the same platform as the Ford Fusion and the Mazda 6, with a transverse 3.5 liter Duratec V6 powering the front wheels through a six-speed automatic. This one runs and drives great, the seller says, and it has a new battery and just had the brakes done.

Lincoln did a nice job of differentiating this car from the Fusion on the inside, with lots of leather and wood (real wood this time), and a clean, classy look. It looks like it’s in good shape inside, and if it has been as well maintained as the seller claims, I imagine everything still works. The passenger seat looks like it could use some cleaning, though; I think someone spilled something over there.

Outside, it’s in decent condition, but damn, does it look like a Fusion from this angle. The Lincoln-specific front and rear fascias help, but if you see one in side profile, it doesn’t look like much. It does have a little wrinkle in the rocker panel just below the passenger’s door; not sure what happened there. And it might be a trick of the light, but the front bumper doesn’t quite seem to match.

It’s easy, and kind of a cheap shot, to look at these two cars side-by-side and say, “Look how the mighty have fallen,” but it’s more accurate to say, “look how the mighty have adapted and survived.” The ’70 Continental is a damn nice car, but it’s very much of its time, back when cars could spread out and take up more space than they needed to, and sail down highways while giving the middle finger to efficiency. The MKZ is old now as well, but it’s from a time that might come to be seen as the peak for ICE-powered cars. It’s powerful, reasonably efficient, and has all the niceties you could want without a bunch of tech for tech’s sake like today’s cars. So they’re both throwbacks – the question is, do you want one from 54 years ago, or 14?

(Image credits: sellers)