Introduction

If the new Town Car is any indication of Lincoln-Mercury's intent to change minds about what a luxury car should be, then they are well on their way toward attracting a new group of buyers. Lincoln-Mercury wants to keep all of its current customers -- they give the Town Car one of the highest loyalty and repurchase rates in the industry. But, at the same time, the division wants to use the new Town Car to attract buyers away from other domestic and Japanese luxury brands. Lincoln-Mercury plans to do this with fresh styling and a greatly improved driving experience achieved through better handling, better brakes and a more controlled ride quality. The Lincoln Town Car is 85 percent new for 1998. While the designers, engineers and product planners have maintained the interior space and trunk space of the previous, boxlike Town Car, they have thrown away the rectilinear design, the square corners and some of the formality of the car. In its place is a new shape that owes something to the Jaguar, something to the Bentley, and quite a bit to Ford's New Edge design philosophy. The car was designed at Ford's California facility and it shows. It's round, but it's not a jellybean; it's formal without being frumpy; it's trim, yet still substantial. It's the first all-new Town Car in eight years. And it's about time. As always, Cadillac's deVille is the arch rival for the Town Car, but nowadays there are a number of smaller European and Japanese cars in the $40,000 luxury sedan bracket: Acura 3.5 RL, BMW 528, and Mercedes-Benz E-class.

Walkaround

There are four versions of Town Car to choose from: the $38,500 Executive series sold primarily as a fleet car, the $40,150 Signature Series and the creme de la creme $42,500 Cartier series. When adjusted for equipment, these prices average $975 less than the price of the 1997 Town Car. While each of the three basic series is progressively more loaded, the car is essentially an American-idiom luxury car with all that that implies: rear-wheel drive, V8 engine, smooth, quiet ride, seating for six, trunk room for four sets of golf clubs, and lots of comfort and power amenities. From its jewel-like headlamps and traditional grille back to its chrome license plate surround and massive corner-mounted taillamps, the Town Car has been carefully rethought for the trip into the 21st Century, but it's only fractionally smaller than the old barge. It's 3.7 inches shorter, and more than two inches of that is taken from the front overhang. The most exciting news is the Signature Touring Sedan, which we drove. The Touring package comes with the more powerful 220-horsepower V8 engine with dual exhaust, larger 235/60R-16 tires on unique 16-inch alloy wheels, a special torque converter, a 3.55:1 rear-axle ratio for quicker acceleration, and revised springs, shock absorbers and stabilizer bars designed for a more sporting ride and handling feel. With more than 20 special parts designed to improve performance, the Touring package is worth every cent of its $500 cost. The Signature Touring Sedan comes in seven unique colors. Inside are perforated leather seating surfaces and a special black birdseye woodgrain finish on the instrument panel and doors.

Interior Features

Just about everything inside the car is new and improved, from the door panels to the instrument panels to the radio face to the switches and controls. The electronic instrument cluster of old has been eliminated. In its place is a new, smaller cluster featuring a centered speedometer flanked by fuel and temperature gauges. Two small electronic windows on either side of the speedometer serve as the message center and compass. The system includes a redundant speedometer display, but no tachometer. The old radio face has been replaced with larger and easier to use buttons and controls. Below is the control center for the climate control system. Nothing is difficult to reach or understand, and the controls are not crowded together. Front and rear passenger compartments are huge. A new rear pillar design makes the rear seat cozier than the old car without being smaller. The big, thick seats are comfortable and the power front bucket seats offer lumbar support and two-position memory. For safety and convenience, the steering wheel contains buttons for cruise control and the sound system. We noticed a marked improvement in interior noise over the previous model. The windshield has been moved forward four inches and gooseneck mirrors have been designed to generate less wind noise. The glass is thicker, there are triple seals on the doors, and the pillars have been designed to cancel noise. This is as quiet as Marcel Marceau.