Why I Bought A Lincoln Continental As My New Daily Driver

Oscar Wilde once said that “With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.” With my 40th birthday barreling toward me like a speeding garbage truck, I think about this statement often. My brain is a malfunctioning kaleidoscope of car-related detritus, especially when I’m getting ready to purchase a new one. Many of my cars were purchased impulsively, or with “car guy math” rationalizations as sound as 20 year old BMW timing chain guides.

I don’t think wisdom comes with age, as we are constantly bombarded with contrary examples. Maybe wisdom comes with experience? I’ve had a lot of experience with many different cars. Did this wisdom help me in my recent daily driver purchase? Will this new car help me as I drive over the proverbial “hill”? Let’s find out.

[Ed Note: It’s been a while, so it’s worth welcoming back Steve Balistreri, our resident NVH engineer-contributor! -DT]. 

I’ve followed some guiding rules when selecting my cars. The first is to always drive something interesting. I may have bent that rule slightly at times. Is a Chevy Volt interesting, or was it just cheap and reliable at a time when I needed both? I think there is an argument to be made that it is interesting, but certainly not to everyone.

The second rule is to always have at least one reliable car. This has led to some interesting vehicle combinations. Pairing my MkV GTI with a 69 MG Midget makes sense. When I had a non-running 1957 Lincoln Premiere I needed a 2014 Mustang GT to get around. When my E39 528it wagon kept breaking down I convinced myself a $25k high mileage NSX would be reliable because hey, its a Honda, and I was mostly right [Ed Note: Wait, you had an NSX?! -DT]. I had a 300k mile, $500 E30 who’s rear footwells would become ice rinks in the winter, paired with a 200k mile E28 M5 back when you could buy those for around $10k and both of those cars were surprisingly reliable. This rule is why my 2001 Audi S8 got paired with a 94 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI with the venerable 3800 V6, which has been a peach to own. The Audi not so much.

Time For a New Car

This S8 was doing old German car things so I started my car hunt last fall. I replaced the accessory belt and some idler pulleys that started screaming with old age. A plastic fitting on the coolant overflow line broke, necessitating a parking lot bodge job fix until a new piece arrived. The heated seats didn’t work from the previous owner’s incomplete interior swap. The car started running out of gas at half a tank due to some decaying component in the Rube Goldberg contraption of tubes and siphons in the gas tank.

I started the dreaded timing belt/water pump service because it was overdue, which requires surgically removing the face of the car. My kit came with a wrong idler pulley, causing a several-week delay. Then it started snowing and life happened as it usually does. The car is still sitting faceless in my garage like some Teutonic corpse. The front bumper lies in my driveway, a shelter to decaying fall leaves and a shameful monument to my ADHD-addled brain’s inability to get things done.

So I needed a new ride, fast. The Bonneville was working fine, except for the radio, which just played static. It’s also a rare, rust free example with just over 80k miles, so it would’ve been a sin against the car gods to expose its tender underbelly to the salty ravages of a Michigan winter. My bagged C10 is more of a summer cruiser as well. I wrote an article explaining my requirements, and polled the brilliant Autopian commentariat on what my next daily driver should be. There were a lot of great suggestions. Here’s a quick list of the cars I test drove, and my impressions.

Steveo’s Carro Comparo

Mazda 6: It’s really like a Miata sedan in the way it handles. Seats were surprisingly comfortable with a nice interior. My sunny impression changed when I got on the highway and the car’s suspension acted like a record player needle transmitting every nook and crevice in the road to my right foot and butt. If I lived somewhere with smooth, curvy roads this would be a clear winner. But here in Detroit the constant battering would drive me crazy. Sadly had to pass.

Cadillac CTS V-Sport: This is a true sports car, which is reflected in all the accolades it got in the automotive press. The one I drove had like 5 different materials on the dash which somehow all worked together harmoniously. I test drove the Cadillac at a dealer by my office, partially for the convenience, and partially to try it on a terrible section of road nearby. Overloaded semi-trucks sunk divots into the asphalt, and a railroad crossing is so broken up everyone slows to a crawl and swerves off the main driving lane to dodge the craters. Needless to say, the Cadillac V rode quite rough around the area roads. This car would be a blast, but its a little too hardcore for a daily, and my insurance company thought so, too.

Cadillac CT6: Nice car with a chassis that strikes a perfect balance between competent handling and a comfortable ride. The interior on this black on black example felt nice but was dark and somewhat anonymous. I got insurance quotes on selling most of my cars and adding one of these candidates. The Cadillacs were the only cars where my insurance would actually increase. With the CT6 it was over $100 a month extra. This and the fact that there weren’t a ton of examples in my ~$20k price range made me pass.

Buick Regal TourX: This was up high on my list and suggested by many of you. Unfortunately ones in my price range were tough to find. Whenever one popped up on Marketplace it would be quickly sold, so no luck getting to drive one of these.

Chrysler 300: I always liked this car. I got to drive a 300 SRT on Michigan International Raceway for the SRT experience many years ago and came away impressed. With my budget I’d be stuck with a V6 model, which I tested. It was a nice cruiser, but it had several negatives. The seats were surprisingly hard, a lot of functions such as heated seats require several taps on the touch screen, which is a big minus. Interior materials weren’t the best which I’m usually not too picky about. Its not a bad car, but for the same price, the car I chose did everything significantly better.

So What Did I Buy?

This beautiful 2017 Lincoln Continental Reserve! Its got an aluminum 3.0L twin turbo V6 with 400 horsepower, 400 ft-lbs of torque, torque vectoring AWD, tons of room, a huge trunk, a premium stereo, a stylish interior. Whats not to like? Well, a couple things that we will get to in a minute.

First let’s go through the basics. This is a large four door sedan with ample leg room and a commodious trunk. I feel the four door sedan is the pinnacle everyday driver for those who don’t need to off road. You get the handling benefits of a car over an SUV, yet there is still plenty of room for people and cargo.

We recently drove my family and my mother-in-law to an Indian wedding in Dayton, Ohio. If you’ve been to one of these weddings you know there are multiple events and a different outfit is needed for each one. The car swallowed two extra large suitcases, several smaller ones, as well as miscellaneous bags of snacks and other stuff that you need when traveling with a toddler. My MIL in the backseat had more legroom than she could ever use and the car cruised in quiet comfort getting 29 MPGs on the freeway.

400 Horseys

Let talk about the powerplant. The 3.0L V6 has two turbos bolted to the sides making a more than respectable 400 horsepower. When you get on it the all wheel drive system digs in and propels you forward in a wave of torque. The Continental came with a naturally aspirated 3.7L V6, a 2.7L twin turbo six, and the big 3.0L TT. This engine is also found in the Lincoln Mk1, Aviator, and the F0rd Explorer ST. There are mods available to gain even more power but I think the car has plenty under the hood at the moment.

The engine even sounds decent, with an enhancement system filling in some of the gaps when you get on it. Some take offense to this type of thing but I don’t mind it. It sounds better when its on than off.

The only drawback is that the transmission is a six speed auto. Compared to many of my previous cars, six is a lot. However it is down a few gears compared to the competition, and it’s probably leaving a few MPGs on the table.

Does It Handle Like A Boat?

I’ve owned many “great handling” cars — the NSX, Fiesta ST, VW GTI, various BMWs. For most people, great handling is something that is accurate and engaging when the road gets twisty. But what happens when your roads have no twists? What do you do when your road surface resembles the moon more than Laguna Seca? You spend a lot of time and energy scanning the street in front of you for holes and frost heaves, feeling every sickening thud as your tire slams into a broken piece of pavement. Your back and your soul are as bruised as your wheels, bushings, and suspension arms.

While I lost some street cred buying a car that would be out of place on a track day, I’ve gained peace of mind and a lot less guilt. The Continental’s ride is quite good, comfort mode makes a decent attempt at replicating the Lincolns of yore. While it might not filter out all the smaller imperfections its body on frame ancestors would’ve glided over, larger undulations come with a single slow, satisfying bounce that would be familiar to anyone who inherited their grandpas car.

Detroit is basically a large grid. The only curves are on ramps and the occasional roundabout. Instead of piloting a stiff car where 1% of my commute is thrilling and the other 99% is tiring, pretty much my whole drive is great. There is also sport mode. I tried it out on some twisty Ohio back roads. While it didn’t turn the Continental into a BMW M car, it removed the Lincoln bounce, and firmed up the pedal, steering, and suspension. It’s not a sports car but it was competent, even enjoyable. Maybe we should redefine “great handling” to mean that the  car matches its environment and intended purpose.

Speaking of modes, there is Normal, Sport, and Comfort. You choose sport from a button on the dash. There is a submenu in the instrument cluster for picking the handling and performance in Drive and Sport. In the past I thought the dizzying array of customization options in some cars was a little silly, but it would be nice to fine tune things a little more. Suspension, steering, and pedal calibrations are all lumped into “handling”, while the engine and transmission are under “performance.” I would like to keep the performance steering and pedal feel with he softer suspension.

The AWD system does things. It’s there, you can watch it do its work on one of the configurable speedometer screens. All I know is that in the snow it drove very predictably, not getting stuck or sliding around. The Audi S8 seemed unstoppable in the snow and ice, and I haven’t put the Lincoln through similar torture tests, but it would probably do well enough as long as I don’t do anything dumb.

Rich Corinthian Leather

Speaking of speedometers, we have to mention the interior. Before the Continental came out, Lincoln knew it had to do more than slapping fake wood grain and nicer leather in a Ford interior and call it a day. While competitors went a more anonymous, tech-luxury route, Lincoln looked to their art-deco heyday. The result is an interior that looks special. Matte, open pore fake wood is outlined by thin chrome trim. Silver speaker grills with tiny holes drilled in a swirly pattern successfully ape Mercedes of 10 years ago. It is a nice place to be.

There is a screen obviously with CarPlay and all the modern conveniences of 2017, but a big selling point is you don’t have to blindly peck away at the  touchscreen if you don’t want to. All the buttons you’d ever want to press for the radio and climate control are attractively laid out in a four by six rectangle, heated and cooled seats included. The buttons and dials feel nice and have distinctive sizes and textures. You can do pretty much anything without having to take your eyes off the road and tap through menus with zero tactile feedback. It’s a joy to operate compared to most of the new cars I’ve driven lately.

Also aping older Mercedes is the seat controls on the doors. This is necessary as the Continental has the magical 27 way perfect position seats. They heat and cool your bottom, and massage it if you so desire. There are multiple air bladders that expand and contract, each leg has its own extendable platform. Since I’m getting to the age where my back always hurts I leave the seat heaters on pretty much all the time. The massage functions would be nice if they worked, but more on that later.

The Exterior

Continuing with the aesthetics lets move to the exterior, which combines angles which are bold and handsome with others that are somewhat underwhelming. Some of this is the stretched Ford CD4 front wheel drive platform it is based on. If it had the long hood, RWD proportions of the Cadillacs it would be a better looking car. But it has broad shoulders over the rear tires, a handsome upright grille with unique headlights. The door handles are integrated into a sturdy chrome bar that runs underneath the windows. The rear lighting treatment is a continuous light bar that looks distinctive. Overall, I think it looks quite nice even if its slightly anonymous. It fits in with the Continentals history of large, four door sleds.

Not wanting to be mistaken for a cab, I searched for a Continental with an actual color and found one in this deep metallic red. It’s humorously called Burgundy Velvet. Maybe Lincoln is pulling a Dodge and mining through its 70’s brochures for its color names. If you ignore the swirl marks and small bits of bubbling paint that I’ll discuss in a second its a beautiful color.

Do I Still Gotta Wrench on it?

Reliability is a criteria I gave a lot more thought to than in the past. I’ve owned a lot of German cars — VWs, BMWs of all stripes, the Audi S8, a very green 1976 Mercedes. In my younger days I thought nothing of laying on a cold garage floor, hammering away at a pickle fork to refresh bushings large BMWs are so fond of eating, or rebuilding Vanos units in the driveway. I thought of it as a way to learn about and get closer to my car, while pumping up my wrenching bona-fides. Now it feels like annoying bullshit I don’t have the time or money to spend on. I still enjoy wrenching in theory, but I really don’t have time right now. This is why I excluded any of the normal German marques in my search.

Continentals are getting into the high 200k, low 300k mile range in the Facebook groups. I have some maintenance to catch up on now that I hit 90k miles. Transmission fluid is said to be “lifetime” although most people recommend replacing it around 80k miles, along with the PTU and Axle fluid. I have spark plugs and a fuel filter in a box in the trunk that will be installed at some point. The brakes will probably have to be refreshed soon as well.

Beyond that normal maintenance are a couple small issues I have to deal with. There is a TSB for the perfect position seats across all Ford products. The wiring harnesses weren’t long enough which can cause them to malfunction. My front passenger seat doesn’t adjust at all because of this. Most of the adjustments work on the drivers seat except the massage function sadly. You can buy harness extensions from the dealer that come with the connector to give it the strain relief it needs. This is on my long to-do list.

After filling the car with gas it would idle weirdly for a few minutes which required replacing some evap valve, a five minute procedure that I also had to do on my Fiesta ST. On 2017 model years, the electronic door popper buttons would occasionally crap out. I can tell by the unpainted plastic on my rear passenger handle that this was fixed at least once in the car’s past. Knock on wood, I haven’t had any issues. 

Some of the exterior cameras get cloudy which is also a known issue. Even though the  cameras were replaced at least twice according to the Car Fax, certain angles in the top down view of the  car are still cloudy looking. Thankfully I have friends who work for the camera supplier who said they could solder in some better cameras, a benefit of working in the industry.

The paint is also bubbling in some spots — odd because they are aluminum panels. Apparently this is a problem at several automakers. If the car were still under warranty the dealer would repaint it but unfortunately I just have to live with it.

Besides that the car has started up and run fine, every time I’ve turned the key. That’s something you really appreciate after being in the wrenching trenches for so long.

Conveniences I’ve Been Missing

Other things I appreciate; remote start is a godsend. When you’re trying to wrangle a toddler and drive him to day care in the early morning, the last thing you need is to have to chip the car out of an ice cocoon so you can open the doors. Heated steering wheel; also amazing. I forgot how often I had to press my frozen hands against the vents, waiting for the air to warm up and get some feeling in my fingers. Soft close doors are kind of nice too, especially when dealing with a sleeping kid.

It has CarPlay and an awesome Revel sound system with 19 speakers which is great for long drives. I don’t miss having to deal with an FM transmitter to listen to music. Also helpful for long drives is the radar cruise control. It has cross-traffic alert when you are reversing which is super handy in low visibility situations. Front collision alert can be a little sensitive but it doesn’t go off enough to  be an annoyance.

After driving so many 15-20 year old cars I feel like I’m caught up to the modern age.

The Continental Isn’t Just For Old Folks

I’ve been joking about being old, even though I don’t feel old. My automotive tastes have sort of been stuck in the past. When I was a kid I’d pour through every car magazine and memorize their stats. These days there aren’t a ton of new cars I get excited about these days, at least ones I can afford.

Maybe this is why the Continental appeals to me. They had to keep it somewhat old school for the geriatric traditional Continental buyer. It’s not beeping at you all the time, you don’t have to use the touchscreen if you don’t want to, two golf bags and jumbo box of Depends fit in the trunk, the boat can float like a cloud.

But its also got 400 hp, a twin turbo V6, and torque vectoring AWD. The floaty suspension can reel itself in when needed and this Lincoln can be a fun partner on a back road when asked to. It has a significantly higher power to weight ratio than the S4’s and Skylines I lusted after as a kid. All in a comfortable, classy interior that can blast my tunes through a killer stereo system. The Continental can do it all. Maybe I have gotten wiser with age.