Lincoln Town Car Review

The Lincoln Town Car is certainly a dinosaur of sort. It has been for a long time, and has now ceased production. It is, however, a very plush, comfortable, and good looking dinosaur.

The Town Car's rear end.

I tested the Town Car on a trip in Washington State. My first impression when my father drove it off the rental car lot was that it's huge. There is plenty of space to stretch out on the big, soft leather seats. Not only that, but the ride was so incredibly smooth. It soaked up parking lot speed bumps like a sponge would soak up water. 


Once you're on the highway, the interior noise level never gets high. It's all hushed. When it comes to passing though, that's when things get a little worse. The 4.6 liter eight cylinder engine, though just as smooth as the ride, is not powerful. Part of the reason is that the engine is really old, and Ford has neglected to update it. I mean, it still has two valves per cylinder! The other part is the four speed automatic transmission, which pales in comparison with the eight speed automatics of today.

The Town Car on the ferry. I love the long hood and tail.

One thing I noticed was that the engine hated going over 3000 rpm. If you press the gas pedal from a stop light, the tachometer swings to about 3000 and hits a wall. Unless you really floor the thing, that's about how much work the motor wants to do.


The good news is that once you do get over the theoretical wall, the car pulls forward more authoritatively. The exhaust note also makes a sudden switch from a muted growl to a louder growl. 

Traffic is horrible in Seattle!

Not helping the unwilling acceleration's case is that gas mileage is rated at an EPA estimated 15/23 miles per gallon. My father got about 21-22 miles per gallon on average with mixed highway/mountain road driving. 


Handling is not a strong point of this car either. Like the interior, the exterior is giant as well, being nearly as long as a Suburban. It rolled through Mount Rainier, and you don't need to be the driver to feel how nonathletic this boat of a car is.

The satin trim along the fake wood is extremely cheap.

Another low point that I thought could use some improving was the interior quality. Sure, the leather looked nice and there was wood trim around the door panels, but the wood is fake, the plastics are mostly hard, and the silver trim makes itself obvious that it is plastic. You can see the plastic graining if you look close enough, which I think is unacceptable for a car at this price range. The radio system was fairly antique as well. There's AM/FM, a CD player, and that's it. There is no Bluetooth streaming, USB input, or even an auxiliary jack. 

The mute button is nice when you have a phone call.

Overall, I was still impressed with the dinosaur in the house. While it is certainly past it's prime, the Town Car has a lot to offer. Reliability is great, too, having been on the market for a while unchanged. It doesn't offer prodigious amounts of power, or decent handling, but the Town Car shows a different era of automobiles with a lot of mass, quiet operation, and a buttery ride.