As a teen in 87,I do recall that commercial but only because of how smooth that guy's hair was that asks for his Lincoln. You know he's gonna score,too.
I do remember that ad back then and shook my head, poor GM. . There was still the Fleetwood Brougham, but I like all three Lincoln offerings for the 1987 model year.
I used to love the magazine and print ads comparing the quiet of a Ford Crown Victoria to a Rolls Royce. There was even a television ad. This was an ad that was revived from 1965 when Ford compared an LTD to a Rolls Royce in terms of quiet.
That was my favorite ad. I would always chuckle when it came on TV. IDK, but I was always able to distinguish between the GM C body cars, including the Buick 98, Oldsmobile Park Avenue. LOL
That was a great commercial; it really got the message across. Look at car commercials these days; the car is shown racing around some random street being driven by a maniac.
Loved that ad when I saw it back in the 80's!! I certainly get the issue....I was working part time for Avis back then moving cars from A to B for them....and if you didn't pay attention to the "finer details", you could easily mistake a Pontiac for an Oldsmobile or Chevrolet or Buick. LOL
The ironic thing about this video is that a 1991 Brougham (especially with the 5.7) is worth a small fortune now and a 1991 Town Car, even a mint condition one isn't. Where the Brougham was the last of it's kind ever in 1992, the Town Car was the first of its kind from 1990 until 2011 so it's still a "used" car. The 96/97 are kinda the exception so far depending on condition.
@@BoardwalkBullies That's kind of a moot point, since so few Broughams were sold compared to the Town Car, one of the few hits Ford had over GM. In 1991 Lincoln produced close to 120k Town Cars compared to close to 30k for the Brougham, which means the difference is almost a hundred thousand cars. The best year for Lincoln was in 1988 when they made over two hundred thousand Town Cars. So, I'd say they made a point there?
The Lincoln ad is one of my absolute favorite of all times. Such a great poignant message aimed directly at the aspects of auto design that mattered to the prestige minded buyers of American automobiles. I work in marketing today (not in relation to automobiles, though) and I wish we were doing thought provoking work like this, instead were way more interested in catching algorithms and driving up click through.
an astute vehicle shopper would have realized it was not a realistic comparison, they should have compared the town car to the Fleetwood or chevrolet caprice, both full frame rear drive vehicles. this ad capitalized on the viewers ignorance of the car lines, by every objective standard the Caprice was a nicer car, unless superficial things like "prestige" were important.
I worked at Champion Lincoln Mercury in Birmingham Alabama. Sold a lot of them. I loved when we traded one in close to the weekend. Before it went to the clean up shop. I would grab it for the weekend. I would be styling
Hey Adam, I remember the Lincoln ad from 87, I enjoyed it then & I enjoy it now!!! I'd love to see more vintage car ads!!! Thanks for sharing another fun video!!! 👍👍🙂
Seeing the Mark VII LSC in that advertisement brought back memories of my 1985 LSC. Probably the most beautifully designed car I will ever own (even if some people did mistake it for a Thunderbird!).
I don't think many people understand how revolutionary the Mark VII was for the US auto industry, even if the car wasn't something that got notice like the Taurus/Sable. The car was by far the overall best this country produced over almost it's entire run. The '88 was the pinnacle of these cars.
My mom had a 1988 Lincoln Town Car Signature Series. The car was phenomenal. 28mpg highway and 18 to 20 city. She leased a 1996 Town Car and gave the1988 to me. I drove the car 17 years. It was dependable and easy to service. 1997, in my opinion, marked the end of the Town Car. What followed were cheap Fords. The Town Car was "What a Luxury Car Should Be."
Agree. I never really liked the 1998 redesign of the Town Car either. That design was a little too bulbous and the interior felt cheap. The older Town Cars may be boxy but still had a classy look to it.
This was a good segment Adam. This really hit GM hard. It took time to recover from this too. The ads were quite effective. The interesting thing is the Ford panther cars went on for years and were successful too. I was so glad when GM started upsizing the cars in 1989-1990 time frame and redesigned the car by the early 1990's. Great topic. This could be entire segment by itself.
I was so disappointed when GM downsized their cars again in the mid 80s. The designs also looked cheaper and more economy-like than the previous cars, which had more elegant, luxurious designs. GM's quality was beginning to go downhill at that point too. When GM totally redesigned most of their cars in the early 90s, there were ups and downs. The Caprice and Fleetwood Brougham went from beautiful cars to hideous designs. The new Roadmaster was a hideous beast. The Bonneville, Park Ave, Deville, Seville, Riviera, Eldorado, 88, and Lesabre all looked much nicer and had better sizes. The 98 had a very "elderly" look vs the previous car. The new Aurora was much nicer than the last gen Toronado. The totally redesigned Grand Am was a beauty. I'm a big fan of most Panther cars. Crown Vics, Grand Marquis, and Town Cars were all over the place during the Panther production. Crown Vics had become more common than Caprices in the early 90s after Chevy redesigned the Caprice. And Panther cars are strong, long-lasting cars. The last generation Crown Vic will most likely become a big collector's car in the next 5-10 years.
@@michaelsimko7694 I understand how you feel. I own two of the cars you do not care for you listed: a 1992 Oldsmobile Toronado and a 1996 Oldsmobile 98. I like the look of both of them after they were upsized. I liked the 98 because it was trying to recapture the former glory of past 98's. The Toronado is a nice balance for style room and comfort. I prefer it over Aurora and I felt the Aurora should have been called "Toronado". I was not a fan of the downsized era at GM 1985-1990 either. I do not think buyers were either. The 1993-1996 Fleetwood was nice but I understand your view point about the size. They got wider and longer. I have no idea why. I was not a fan of the Roadmaster's front end design on the sedan or wagon. The issue with the wagons( Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Buick) they had too much Chevrolet Caprice in the design and it was obvious where the 1977-1990 versions were distinct by brand. I hated the headlights on them as it should have been a quad headlight design( meaning two headlights on each side of the grille) and not the one they had. The Fleetwood at least had a quad headlight design. Chevrolet did attempt to correct Caprice 1993-1996 and we got Impala SS out of that. It is true what you say.. The downsized cars( C and H and E Bodies) in the 1980's looked like the cheaper N Bodies. GM designers admitted this and they went too far with the downsizing. That hurt all the brands. GM paid for that for a long time. The panther cars were great cars too. I liked the Town Cars except the headlight design 1990-2002 and the 1998-2002 Town Car( 2003 fixed everything that was wrong), the Grand Marquis were always "grand". Nice interiors and elegant. Those panther cars are indeed durable.
But all those cars that GM produced still sold incredibly well. It's easy to say this now, but back then, people didn't want a big dated looking sedan. Besides, Caddy still offered the Fleetwood, which Lincoln fails to mention, but again, its sales slowed because everyone wanted the new smaller Sedan deVille. Regardless, it took 59 years for Lincoln to finally outsell Cadillac in 1998, but hasn't happened again, since. I really don't think Cadillac is concerned what Lincoln does anymore. In fact, I don't think any brand is worried about the Lincoln brand.
@@fp5495 I think the newest Lincolns aren't chasing the Euros like Cadillac; but are doing much better with traditional 'American Luxury". Those new Lincoln SUV's interiors make a mockery of the Cadillac XT's interiors in my opinion; and I've configured both !!
I recall when the 1980 Town Car/Continental debuted there was some criticism of its styling...look there's the new Lincoln and the box is came in. As the years progressed, even though the platform was old tech...it did get some refinements with port fuel injection and over drive transmissions which would help it get close to the mid 20s on the highway. I recall chuckling at this ad and I grew up with a bunch of GM products, including the front drive A body Pontiac 6000, a Pontiac Grand Am and the H Body Bonneville. If you saw the new Taurus and Sable for the first time...all of GM products look dated....much like when the GM 77 cars debuted...Ford and Chrysler full size cars looked dated. In 1987, who would have thought that the basic underpinnings of that Town Car would be in production until 2011!
I really think it would be interesting to see your take on how the Cadillac actually started to transition back to it's more traditional roots as the 1980's came to a close. They certainly made a concerted effort to ditch their cookie cutter image. The 1989 FWD Fleetwood actually went back to fender skirts, when no other mass production vehicle still featured them. Cadillac actually held on to that part of history, all the way to the 1999 model year with the Fleetwood Limited, as well as the 1994 to 1996 DeVille Concours. These were the last years of the true tailfins as well, and most models actually sold relatively well. I can't remember you ever giving your take on this era, you always present with a high level of class.
Lincoln successfully ingrained into the mind of buyers that they were the biggest car made even though the Fleetwood/Brougham was bigger then any model Lincoln.
The big and boxy rear-drive Cadillac Brougham (with its name changed from Fleetwood Brougham in 1987) was redesigned more aerodynamically for 1993, not 1992. The 1993 redesign also reclaimed the Fleetwood name, with Fleetwood Brougham denoting an upscale trim level of the base Fleetwood.
Excellent vid. I find vintage ads/archival footage very interesting as they serve as a barometer of what was going on in the industry at that time as well as consumer trends.
I enjoyed this ad back in the day, as I bought a new Grand Marquis the year before. What we didn't know was that this as actually prophesized the end of the five tier marketing strategy that had served GM so long. This strategy begun by Alfred Sloan in the 1920s made GM #1, but now in a changing world it was losing its effectiveness.
I've viewed this ad 10+ times.😅 Brilliant, and totally proof against retribution! No word or image could be attacked as anything beyond stating truth. It should have won awards.
I sometimes watch old episodes of The Price is Right, and they have those Dane Cimarrons on there alot. It's absolutely DISGUSTING how much more they cost than a Cavalier did.
@@johneckert1365 $14,100 at the end of the golden road 🤣🤣🤣 Check out the waviness in the bumper below the grille 🤣🤣🤣 ruclips.net/video/LgcPGef78yo/видео.html
@@pdennis93 Can you imagine being that contestant, finding out you're playing The Golden Road, hoping for a big motorhome or a Corvette, but instead it's a god damn Cimarron 😱😱😱😱 Just let me play the Dice Game for a $6,000 Chevette or an Escort lol There are no numbers higher than six, and there are no zeros in the price of the car. Now roll those dice! 🎲
The cloning of GM cars was the legacy of Roger Smith. GM was once the largest and most successful corporation in the world. Roger is the one that started GM on the path to bankruptcy. When you have nothing better to do, read the book Irreconcilable Differences: Ross Perot Versus General Motors.
Hey Adam, this is Marcel, in Yuma, Az, . My mother had one of these at the time of her death, and I came about it. It was a beautiful '86, with a 5.0/ 2 , into 1 exhaust.... When I got it, still under 100K, back in '05 I drove it down from mom's house to mine, with a trailer and some old stuff that I've gained . The car was quite something, as I later realized. At that time, I owned a 1996 Chevy Caprice Classic Sheriffs car that had a 263cu in. V-8, that wasn't that powerful, but :WOW, great hwy gas mileage. My moms Lincoln,,,,, not so much!
I really missed "real cars" since I spent about a year working at a quick lube shop was the market was transitioning from rear wheel drive, roomy front engine bay to front wheel drive, crowded engine bay. 4 or 5 times each day, I'd get my arms or hands burned by some freakishly-hot engine component in something like a Nissan Maxima, just trying to remove the oil filter. I quit & got a good job at AT&T, so it came out alright in the end.
I remember that ad clearly, partly because I owned an ‘85 Cadillac FWD Fleetwood, but mostly because I’m old! I know I’m probably in the minority, but I hated the Taurus/Sable jellybean styling-and still do-which desecrated even the Thunderbird and the Lincoln Mark VII and Mark VIII. But they got that Town Car right. It still turns my head and starts me salivating whenever I see a relatively decent example. Thanks, Adam! Have a happy Thanksgiving!
I had driven my parents' Mercury Marquis, and I grew up on their Buick Electra Estate station wagons so when I graduated college in 1990, my very first, brand-new, special ordered car, was a gunmetal grey, 1990 Buick Electra/Park Avenue Ultra. In the MANY intervening years, I've owned more Buicks, Cadillacs, and finally, Lincoln Town Cars, 4 of them, before my present Lincoln, a 2019 MKZ...actually, a Zephyr, but I won't mince words. Out of ALL the American luxury cars I have owned....that 1990 Buick P/A was probably the BEST, most reliable car I ever owned; I often wish I still had it, but I digress. My last 2 Buick P/A were garbage, total LEMONS, so....I was talked into "stepping up" to a Cadillac. What a F--KING BIGGER lemon than those last 2 Buicks; I GAVE AWAY my LAST Buick, the 1997 P/A....blown engine and total electrical system FAILURE...by the time it hit 55,000 miles! That car left me STRANDED on a dark and lonely highway, and I was done, so enter the new, 2007 Cadillac DTS....NOWHERE NEAR ANY BETTER OF A CAR. I finally jumped to Lincoln, then two more after that first one. I currently own a 2019 Lincoln MKZ, like I said earlier, and while it will never be anywhere near those Lincoln Town Cars I had just before it, I have GOT to admit it, this MKZ does indeed remind me of that 1990 Buick, and I LOVE THIS CAR.
I have owned a 76 Mark IV, a 77 Continental, a 86 TC, a 89 TC, and a 98 TC. I now have a 2013 MKS and have fallen in love with the tech and comfort. It's still a large car.
I love these, had the opportunity to buy my first three last year unmolested survivors all with under 100k, a 88, and two 89 Signatures, I am keeping on of the 89's and letting the other two go to new care takers. Took one of the 89 to car shows over the summer and boy do they command attention!
I remember seeing that ad back then. I always wished Lincoln would have offered the 5-speed transmission from the Mustang GT in the Mark VII for a true “hot rod” Lincoln.
Some takeaways for me - which many may not agree with, but here goes: - 76 to 79 Seville wheelbase always looked off-kilter to me with such small front overhang. I personally feel it would be have been way more attractive with the wheelbase set back several inches. I realize the look it had was the point. - 86 Seville I really like 🤷🏻♂️ and it’s my favorite of all the Sevilles since the 67-68 models. - The Lincoln Town Car was an incredibly nice and luxurious, reliable car. In a perfect world, I would shave about 8” off that ridiculously high dashboard for a fully open view of the road. People watch the road - not the dashboard - when driving and to have 1/3 of it blocked is a huge design flaw! 😂
I love Lincon Town Cars! I have a 93 Jack Nicklaus Edition and have owned a 95 Mark VIII as well. I preferred the Town Car to the Mark VIII, but the Mark had more power and better handling.
Great video and commentary! A couple notes though... Cadillac debuted with its Fleetwood "Bubbillac" for the 1993 model year; the 1992 Cadillac Brougham still had the 1980 body style.
Great comment on the right TV spot at the right moment as well as the evolution of the sheer look. The funny thing is - Ford used the only "sheer look ripoff" vehicle, the Town Car, that they had left in the Lincoln lineup to do such an effective beat down on General Motors. This was when the long slow slide to GM's bankruptcy really began to gain momentum. Lookalike cars on several vehicle platforms seriously eroded divisional identity and was a gaping slash in their sales and marketing causing GM's eventual bankruptcy by a thousand such bad decision cuts.
GM was real stupid killing off its performance brand Pontiac at a time when that end of the market was really exploding. Killed her off little by little before finally holding a funeral. What does GM has only one affordable car for the youth market now, competitive only against the Ford Mustang. Nothing to answer the Japanese or German market leaders. GM still acts like they've got one main competitor and that's in Dearborn, period.
I remember the ad well and saw it when holidaying in the US. I thought it was excellent. The main issue was all those C bodies looked the same rather than just employing the Seville’s more squared off lines - as the Town Car also did too but in a much larger and more distinctive way. Those C bodies reminded me more of Volvos at the time. Like a 740 or 760.
The criticism wasn’t merely about the upright backlight or “sheer look.” It was more specifically that platform sharing had metastasized so whole bodies were the same across makes, differences reduced to fascia treatments and rear glass surround. Aero fixation and cost reduction metastasized until the mid80s large front-drivers were identical from a side approach.
Adam, although new, you should do a video on the 79-11 Panther Platform. I would love to know your thoughts on Chrysler doing away with the 300 and Dodge Challenger/Charger. Again another great video. Anthony
I LOVED this video. The irony is that my parents drove an 87 Town Car for two years (replaced by a Mercedes), which I sometimes drove when visiting them and I thought it handled as if the front wheels were jacked up from the road, whereas I had a Delta 88 company car that wasn't particularly nice looking but handled great!
I live in England, and since I was 7 (1976) I always wanted to own one of the big American beasts from tv and film in the 70s. A saloon or town car, four doors, by age 10, I'd settled on the idea of a 1971 my III Continental, preferably in black. Then, a year later, a man moved into a house round the corner from my folks house, and he owned a County Squire. This thing thing was a land yacht! And I've never seen a car have such trouble negotiating the roads of our estate! Right then I knew I needed a plan B! Ain't thought of one yet... and I'm 53!!!
To be fair, while this Lincoln ad was very impactful in laying the smack down... the Fortune magazine took aim at those A-cars and they were really damn successful. Also one of the main guys in that Lincoln ad was in a few episodes of the Golden Girls.
Though I was about four when that ad came out, and thus could potentially have seen and remember it, I dont. Before today, I never saw that ad before. It's great; very funny, witty, clever. Brilliantly done, perfectly executed, completely memorable. I should have remembered it, but I don't think I've ever seen it before, despite its overt familiarity. Incidentally, I had a 1985 Continental sedan, which was pretty much just like Lincoln's answer to the bustle-backed Cadillac Seville of 1980-1985 (with some front end flourishes borrowed from the Buick Riviera), in 2012.
Worked at a Lincoln Mercury Dealer in 1992 and they were still using- What a Luxury Car should be as their catch phrase. Pushing the Towncar as one of the last Full frame cars along with the Grand Marquis and I believe they were full frame until the end of their production. Always wondered why Lincoln never bult a flagship and named it Towncar as that name plate was very successful.
I remember when Cadillac went to the 110 inch wheelbase front wheel drives. There was no back seat room. People in droves went and bought Chevy Suburbans, thus a whole new breed of luxury trucks quickly followed
In 1986 the thunderbird and Mark VII looked quite different although the same body. In 1987, Thunderbird changed its look and did look very close to a Mark VII
Boy, how I remember that commercial. Even the owners couldn't tell their cars apart. ("That's my Buick!" "No, that's my Oldsmobile!" etc., etc. Poor souls.
i apologize if this has been mentioned already, but wasn't there a response by Cadillac to this ad (brougham vs town car) and there also might have been a magazine article comparison.
For the love of God...do I have to sing "I'd love to teach the world to sing"...But on a serious note. Very effective target marketing! Thanks for posting this. That was funny. Happy Thanksgiving Adam ✨🍁
Ford was just callin it what it truly was!! I was in Advertising for a bit and that Ford Ad was EXACTLY my style and so well executed. In the 80s the Catch Phrase "Less is More" became super popular among the Rich and those aspiring to be rich. I feel like GM's Catch Phrase could have been "Ugly is Beautiful" but it just never caught on like the former!
The sheer look made alot of General Motor's cars look very elegant and not everyone loved the "bubble cars; Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable". Maybe it's true the design was copied for a very long time but i honestly think it worked wonders for the company despite the negative publicity made by the auto critics.
I think it's odd that having a sloping rear window isn't redundant, or copying, while the very functional vertical rear window is. I loved the vertical rear window for many reasons. The window stayed cleaner and was less prone to glare, it gave a roomier feel and more headroom, the extended roof threw shade on rear passengers and kept the car a little cooler. GM should have explained all the advantages of an extended roof while varying the design of the C pillars profile from model to model.
The ad was impactful, but it didn't last. According to the Encyclopedia of American Cars, total 4 door sedan production (rounded off) for Cadillac excluding Seville in 1987, 88, and 89 was 227,000; 215,000; and 217,000 respectively. Sales for the 3 years for Lincoln 4 door full size were 94,000; 242,000 and 186,000. Old body architecture did indeed catch up with Ford.
Funny though that Ford would stick it's finger in GM's eye when they've always had platform sharing using basically the exact same methods. If Gm had run an ad in modern times comparing vehicles of the same color like the Ford fusion, Mercury Melan, Lincoln MKZ -it could've had the exact same effect. A commercial like that would probably never get made now -almost a shame really🙂
My Mon's Lincoln, rode WAY: Better than my '96 Chevy Caprice Classic, and I did enough improvements to make it get : 24Mpg Hwy, and 16 mpg City, as long as you didn't keep your foot into it! It was a great car, rode so good, so quiet.....but, because of the room I have , where I live, I don't regret selling it, had I MORE ROOM, I'd "NOT" ever sold it!
GM was rightly hammered for its “weren’t not even pretending to not be badge engineering” badge engineering. It is fairly debatable that they fully learned that lesson and rectified that problem.
Not only did GM have a look alike problem, they also had a FWD problem. Full-frame rear wheel drive was still a Lincoln selling point...much more pleasant to drive than the heavily-front-end-laden Caddies or Buicks.
@@billolsen4360 All the more reason for Lincoln to release that frankly really stinging zinger of an ad. It's clever in that it's not actually "mean" as such, at all. You could say it was in a passive-aggressive way, but Lincoln never got their hands dirty here. They let the genuine GM look-alike problem do all the dirty work for them.
I just noticed that the hood on the 75-70 Seville is too long! The distance between the back of the wheel arch and the bottom of the windshield is out of proportion, in an otherwise very nicely proportioned car.The Seville needed a cab-forward design!
The Seville was based off the Chevy Nova platform. The Nova and it's cousins all had a long lower body panel between the front door and the front wheel opening on the lower fender.
I remember back in the 80s their was a national survey of Americans of what their dream luxury car would be if they could buy one and the top two were the Mercedes S Class and....the Lincoln Town Car.🙄
Cadillac managed to sell just 19,098 Seville sedans for all of 1986, with that total dropping even more, down to only 18,578 units moved in 1987. Such dismal sales precipitated an early refresh for 1988, which saw sales slightly improve. I would say that Lincoln was quite effective at torpedoing Cadillac sales. After years of subpar sales, I'm truly shocked that Cadillac somehow was able to remain in business.
I had never bought new cars but being a vehicle/aircraft mechanic I worked on new cars in a dealership. I actually like the GM cars from that era as they all used the same under hood parts and they were actually simple and easy to work on. The Fords of that era were like working non dinosaurs and since I worked on vehicles I worked on them but the thing was they started with some of the worst problematic engines and transmissions
I've owned both of the platforms discussed, an 81 Lincoln Mark VI and an 85 Impala. The Impala was a better handling car, but the Lincoln rode like a cloud.
Stiffer springs and better shocks make Ford's panther platform perform quite well. They actually not very different from GM's full-size platform of the same era
The mark VI though sold like a dud as the Eldorado/Rivieria/Toronado destroyed it in sales. Then GM got greedy and downsized those cars, Ford came out with a very stylish Mark VII and reversed the tide.
@@tenfourproductionsllc GM could've kept those 3 cars in thier line up for several more years. Why the hell would they change such a good thing, especially with thier high sales numbers?!?!
That was a great ad. The Lincoln of that day is still a beautiful car that I would like to own someday.
Don't look for any wherever they salt roads.
As a teen in 87,I do recall that commercial but only because of how smooth that guy's hair was that asks for his Lincoln.
You know he's gonna score,too.
Your right the guy who owns the Lincoln is suave & handsome. The GM guy's are old geezers
I do remember that ad back then and shook my head, poor GM. . There was still the Fleetwood Brougham, but I like all three Lincoln offerings for the 1987 model year.
I used to love the magazine and print ads comparing the quiet of a Ford Crown Victoria to a Rolls Royce. There was even a television ad. This was an ad that was revived from 1965 when Ford compared an LTD to a Rolls Royce in terms of quiet.
That was my favorite ad. I would always chuckle when it came on TV. IDK, but I was always able to distinguish between the GM C body cars, including the Buick 98, Oldsmobile Park Avenue. LOL
That was a great commercial; it really got the message across. Look at car commercials these days; the car is shown racing around some random street being driven by a maniac.
Loved that ad when I saw it back in the 80's!! I certainly get the issue....I was working part time for Avis back then moving cars from A to B for them....and if you didn't pay attention to the "finer details", you could easily mistake a Pontiac for an Oldsmobile or Chevrolet or Buick. LOL
And what was even worse, as I saw it, was that you could hardly tell a "full-size" from a "mid-size" of any of the GM brands!
It sure seems like the more Ford, Mercury and Lincoln vehicles Adam drives the more he sees why so many of us love them.
I hope he did not drink too often from those 'special' GM water coolers 😉
@@rightlanehog3151 surely not! 😂
The ironic thing about this video is that a 1991 Brougham (especially with the 5.7) is worth a small fortune now and a 1991 Town Car, even a mint condition one isn't. Where the Brougham was the last of it's kind ever in 1992, the Town Car was the first of its kind from 1990 until 2011 so it's still a "used" car. The 96/97 are kinda the exception so far depending on condition.
@@BoardwalkBullies I don't like any Town Car after 1989. 2003-2011 were just ok at best for me.
@@BoardwalkBullies That's kind of a moot point, since so few Broughams were sold compared to the Town Car, one of the few hits Ford had over GM. In 1991 Lincoln produced close to 120k Town Cars compared to close to 30k for the Brougham, which means the difference is almost a hundred thousand cars. The best year for Lincoln was in 1988 when they made over two hundred thousand Town Cars. So, I'd say they made a point there?
The Lincoln ad is one of my absolute favorite of all times. Such a great poignant message aimed directly at the aspects of auto design that mattered to the prestige minded buyers of American automobiles. I work in marketing today (not in relation to automobiles, though) and I wish we were doing thought provoking work like this, instead were way more interested in catching algorithms and driving up click through.
an astute vehicle shopper would have realized it was not a realistic comparison, they should have compared the town car to the Fleetwood or chevrolet caprice, both full frame rear drive vehicles. this ad capitalized on the viewers ignorance of the car lines, by every objective standard the Caprice was a nicer car, unless superficial things like "prestige" were important.
I worked at Champion Lincoln Mercury in Birmingham Alabama. Sold a lot of them. I loved when we traded one in close to the weekend. Before it went to the clean up shop. I would grab it for the weekend. I would be styling
Hey Adam, I remember the Lincoln ad from 87, I enjoyed it then & I enjoy it now!!! I'd love to see more vintage car ads!!! Thanks for sharing another fun video!!! 👍👍🙂
Seeing the Mark VII LSC in that advertisement brought back memories of my 1985 LSC. Probably the most beautifully designed car I will ever own (even if some people did mistake it for a Thunderbird!).
I don't think many people understand how revolutionary the Mark VII was for the US auto industry, even if the car wasn't something that got notice like the Taurus/Sable. The car was by far the overall best this country produced over almost it's entire run. The '88 was the pinnacle of these cars.
I had one of those aero Thunderbirds. Sadly, no one ever mistook it for a Mark VII.
What a great video. YES PLEASE more old ads.
Thanks
The greatest car platform in history .... Panther :)
Agree 100%. I own two 2001 Town Cars at the moment. One of them I've had for over 14 years.
I love the vintage ads and enjoy it when you include them in reviews. Great channel Adam!
My mom had a 1988 Lincoln Town Car Signature Series. The car was phenomenal. 28mpg highway and 18 to 20 city. She leased a 1996 Town Car and gave the1988 to me. I drove the car 17 years. It was dependable and easy to service.
1997, in my opinion, marked the end of the Town Car. What followed were cheap Fords.
The Town Car was "What a Luxury Car Should Be."
Yes, the 1998 Town Car had a grille from the 1940s Batmobile.
Had a Cabernet red 88 Town Car for 23 years. Best car I ever owned.
Agree. I never really liked the 1998 redesign of the Town Car either. That design was a little too bulbous and the interior felt cheap. The older Town Cars may be boxy but still had a classy look to it.
This was a good segment Adam. This really hit GM hard. It took time to recover from this too. The ads were quite effective. The interesting thing is the Ford panther cars went on for years and were successful too. I was so glad when GM started upsizing the cars in 1989-1990 time frame and redesigned the car by the early 1990's. Great topic. This could be entire segment by itself.
I was so disappointed when GM downsized their cars again in the mid 80s. The designs also looked cheaper and more economy-like than the previous cars, which had more elegant, luxurious designs. GM's quality was beginning to go downhill at that point too. When GM totally redesigned most of their cars in the early 90s, there were ups and downs. The Caprice and Fleetwood Brougham went from beautiful cars to hideous designs. The new Roadmaster was a hideous beast. The Bonneville, Park Ave, Deville, Seville, Riviera, Eldorado, 88, and Lesabre all looked much nicer and had better sizes. The 98 had a very "elderly" look vs the previous car. The new Aurora was much nicer than the last gen Toronado. The totally redesigned Grand Am was a beauty.
I'm a big fan of most Panther cars. Crown Vics, Grand Marquis, and Town Cars were all over the place during the Panther production. Crown Vics had become more common than Caprices in the early 90s after Chevy redesigned the Caprice. And Panther cars are strong, long-lasting cars. The last generation Crown Vic will most likely become a big collector's car in the next 5-10 years.
@@michaelsimko7694 I understand how you feel. I own two of the cars you do not care for you listed: a 1992 Oldsmobile Toronado and a 1996 Oldsmobile 98. I like the look of both of them after they were upsized. I liked the 98 because it was trying to recapture the former glory of past 98's. The Toronado is a nice balance for style room and comfort. I prefer it over Aurora and I felt the Aurora should have been called "Toronado". I was not a fan of the downsized era at GM 1985-1990 either. I do not think buyers were either. The 1993-1996 Fleetwood was nice but I understand your view point about the size. They got wider and longer. I have no idea why. I was not a fan of the Roadmaster's front end design on the sedan or wagon. The issue with the wagons( Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Buick) they had too much Chevrolet Caprice in the design and it was obvious where the 1977-1990 versions were distinct by brand. I hated the headlights on them as it should have been a quad headlight design( meaning two headlights on each side of the grille) and not the one they had. The Fleetwood at least had a quad headlight design. Chevrolet did attempt to correct Caprice 1993-1996 and we got Impala SS out of that. It is true what you say.. The downsized cars( C and H and E Bodies) in the 1980's looked like the cheaper N Bodies. GM designers admitted this and they went too far with the downsizing. That hurt all the brands. GM paid for that for a long time. The panther cars were great cars too. I liked the Town Cars except the headlight design 1990-2002 and the 1998-2002 Town Car( 2003 fixed everything that was wrong), the Grand Marquis were always "grand". Nice interiors and elegant. Those panther cars are indeed durable.
But all those cars that GM produced still sold incredibly well. It's easy to say this now, but back then, people didn't want a big dated looking sedan. Besides, Caddy still offered the Fleetwood, which Lincoln fails to mention, but again, its sales slowed because everyone wanted the new smaller Sedan deVille. Regardless, it took 59 years for Lincoln to finally outsell Cadillac in 1998, but hasn't happened again, since. I really don't think Cadillac is concerned what Lincoln does anymore. In fact, I don't think any brand is worried about the Lincoln brand.
@@fp5495 Cadillac did counter with an add during this time with the Brougham. Here is the link: ruclips.net/video/qd1ryfW7thg/видео.html
@@fp5495 I think the newest Lincolns aren't chasing the Euros like Cadillac; but are doing much better with traditional 'American Luxury". Those new Lincoln SUV's interiors make a mockery of the Cadillac XT's interiors in my opinion; and I've configured both !!
I recall when the 1980 Town Car/Continental debuted there was some criticism of its styling...look there's the new Lincoln and the box is came in. As the years progressed, even though the platform was old tech...it did get some refinements with port fuel injection and over drive transmissions which would help it get close to the mid 20s on the highway.
I recall chuckling at this ad and I grew up with a bunch of GM products, including the front drive A body Pontiac 6000, a Pontiac Grand Am and the H Body Bonneville. If you saw the new Taurus and Sable for the first time...all of GM products look dated....much like when the GM 77 cars debuted...Ford and Chrysler full size cars looked dated.
In 1987, who would have thought that the basic underpinnings of that Town Car would be in production until 2011!
The Panther platform debuted in 1979 and went to 2011.
I really think it would be interesting to see your take on how the Cadillac actually started to transition back to it's more traditional roots as the 1980's came to a close. They certainly made a concerted effort to ditch their cookie cutter image. The 1989 FWD Fleetwood actually went back to fender skirts, when no other mass production vehicle still featured them. Cadillac actually held on to that part of history, all the way to the 1999 model year with the Fleetwood Limited, as well as the 1994 to 1996 DeVille Concours. These were the last years of the true tailfins as well, and most models actually sold relatively well. I can't remember you ever giving your take on this era, you always present with a high level of class.
Lincoln successfully ingrained into the mind of buyers that they were the biggest car made even though the Fleetwood/Brougham was bigger then any model Lincoln.
@@robertriley1569 yes, that's an often overlooked point.
The big and boxy rear-drive Cadillac Brougham (with its name changed from Fleetwood Brougham in 1987) was redesigned more aerodynamically for 1993, not 1992. The 1993 redesign also reclaimed the Fleetwood name, with Fleetwood Brougham denoting an upscale trim level of the base Fleetwood.
Excellent vid. I find vintage ads/archival footage very interesting as they serve as a barometer of what was going on in the industry at that time as well as consumer trends.
I enjoyed this ad back in the day, as I bought a new Grand Marquis the year before. What we didn't know was that this as actually prophesized the end of the five tier marketing strategy that had served GM so long. This strategy begun by Alfred Sloan in the 1920s made GM #1, but now in a changing world it was losing its effectiveness.
Another excellent video as always Adam. Keep them coming.
I remember this ad. It was pure genius!
I still stick with the Town Car. Panthers are super reliable and tough.
You forgot beautiful
That commercial bring back memories. Forgot all about it. Thanks for posting this.
I remember when this ad aired. It was what they younger people might call a “sick burn”. It was brutally honest.
I almost liked it before watching it because you had a picture of a Lincoln Towncar in the thumbnail!
I've viewed this ad 10+ times.😅 Brilliant, and totally proof against retribution! No word or image could be attacked as anything beyond stating truth. It should have won awards.
Lincoln should have used a Cavalier in that ad too "Is this my Cimarron?" "No, I think it's a Cavalier" 🤣🤣🤣
BAHAHAHA YES!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I sometimes watch old episodes of The Price is Right, and they have those Dane Cimarrons on there alot. It's absolutely DISGUSTING how much more they cost than a Cavalier did.
@@johneckert1365 $14,100 at the end of the golden road 🤣🤣🤣
Check out the waviness in the bumper below the grille 🤣🤣🤣
ruclips.net/video/LgcPGef78yo/видео.html
@@pdennis93 Can you imagine being that contestant, finding out you're playing The Golden Road, hoping for a big motorhome or a Corvette, but instead it's a god damn Cimarron 😱😱😱😱
Just let me play the Dice Game for a $6,000 Chevette or an Escort lol
There are no numbers higher than six, and there are no zeros in the price of the car. Now roll those dice! 🎲
@@johneckert1365 it's like a Zonk on let's make a deal 🤣🤣🤣
I remember seeiing that ad at the time. Thought it was great. It still is. Thank you.
It's funny that in that Lincoln ad, the Town Car looks as upright as the GM cars.
Yeah ironicaly that Town Car was a literal dinosaur in so many ways sitting next to those GM C bodies. But I get where Ford was going with this.
The cloning of GM cars was the legacy of Roger Smith. GM was once the largest and most successful corporation in the world. Roger is the one that started GM on the path to bankruptcy. When you have nothing better to do, read the book Irreconcilable Differences: Ross Perot Versus General Motors.
I 100 percent agree with you. Roger Smith was the beginning of the end of GM.
Great reminder of that ad. Ford was advancing in modern and global production, which helped them get new designs on the market quickly.
Hey Adam, this is Marcel, in Yuma, Az, . My mother had one of these at the time of her death, and I came about it. It was a beautiful '86, with a 5.0/ 2 , into 1 exhaust.... When I got it, still under 100K, back in '05 I drove it down from mom's house to mine, with a trailer and some old stuff that I've gained . The car was quite something, as I later realized. At that time, I owned a 1996 Chevy Caprice Classic Sheriffs car that had a 263cu in. V-8, that wasn't that powerful, but :WOW, great hwy gas mileage. My moms Lincoln,,,,, not so much!
I remember this ad. A definite base-clearing home run for Lincoln-Mercury.
IIRC, GM asked Ford to stop running this ad.
I love the town car, grand marquis and crown Victoria. I miss real cars.
I really missed "real cars" since I spent about a year working at a quick lube shop was the market was transitioning from rear wheel drive, roomy front engine bay to front wheel drive, crowded engine bay. 4 or 5 times each day, I'd get my arms or hands burned by some freakishly-hot engine component in something like a Nissan Maxima, just trying to remove the oil filter. I quit & got a good job at AT&T, so it came out alright in the end.
I remember that ad clearly, partly because I owned an ‘85 Cadillac FWD Fleetwood, but mostly because I’m old! I know I’m probably in the minority, but I hated the Taurus/Sable jellybean styling-and still do-which desecrated even the Thunderbird and the Lincoln Mark VII and Mark VIII. But they got that Town Car right. It still turns my head and starts me salivating whenever I see a relatively decent example. Thanks, Adam! Have a happy Thanksgiving!
I saw an Aurora a couple of weeks ago at a gas station. I haven't seen one of those in years and it was in really good shape too
Thank goodness the Lincolns kept their girth throughout the Eighties!
I had driven my parents' Mercury Marquis, and I grew up on their Buick Electra Estate station wagons so when I graduated college in 1990, my very first, brand-new, special ordered car, was a gunmetal grey, 1990 Buick Electra/Park Avenue Ultra. In the MANY intervening years, I've owned more Buicks, Cadillacs, and finally, Lincoln Town Cars, 4 of them, before my present Lincoln, a 2019 MKZ...actually, a Zephyr, but I won't mince words.
Out of ALL the American luxury cars I have owned....that 1990 Buick P/A was probably the BEST, most reliable car I ever owned; I often wish I still had it, but I digress.
My last 2 Buick P/A were garbage, total LEMONS, so....I was talked into "stepping up" to a Cadillac. What a F--KING BIGGER lemon than those last 2 Buicks; I GAVE AWAY my LAST Buick, the 1997 P/A....blown engine and total electrical system FAILURE...by the time it hit 55,000 miles! That car left me STRANDED on a dark and lonely highway, and I was done, so enter the new, 2007 Cadillac DTS....NOWHERE NEAR ANY BETTER OF A CAR. I finally jumped to Lincoln, then two more after that first one. I currently own a 2019 Lincoln MKZ, like I said earlier, and while it will never be anywhere near those Lincoln Town Cars I had just before it, I have GOT to admit it, this MKZ does indeed remind me of that 1990 Buick, and I LOVE THIS CAR.
I have owned a 76 Mark IV, a 77 Continental, a 86 TC, a 89 TC, and a 98 TC. I now have a 2013 MKS and have fallen in love with the tech and comfort. It's still a large car.
At 0:31 the second GM car from the bottom REALLY stood out, it has a bit of chrome on the B-Pillar - - - "Very daring." Thanks for posting.........
I love these, had the opportunity to buy my first three last year unmolested survivors all with under 100k, a 88, and two 89 Signatures, I am keeping on of the 89's and letting the other two go to new care takers. Took one of the 89 to car shows over the summer and boy do they command attention!
I remember seeing that ad back then. I always wished Lincoln would have offered the 5-speed transmission from the Mustang GT in the Mark VII for a true “hot rod” Lincoln.
Totally love your channel!
I owned four T.C.'s. Not a single issue with any of them. Gorgeous, quiet, plush, smooth and wonderful. I had the 88, 89, 96, 06. My fave was the 89.
I really liked the looks of that 96 body style. They even look kinda sporty with some aftermarket wheels and a little higher springs in the back 👍
Some takeaways for me - which many may not agree with, but here goes:
- 76 to 79 Seville wheelbase always looked off-kilter to me with such small front overhang. I personally feel it would be have been way more attractive with the wheelbase set back several inches. I realize the look it had was the point.
- 86 Seville I really like 🤷🏻♂️ and it’s my favorite of all the Sevilles since the 67-68 models.
- The Lincoln Town Car was an incredibly nice and luxurious, reliable car. In a perfect world, I would shave about 8” off that ridiculously high dashboard for a fully open view of the road.
People watch the road - not the dashboard - when driving and to have 1/3 of it blocked is a huge design flaw! 😂
I love Lincon Town Cars! I have a 93 Jack Nicklaus Edition and have owned a 95 Mark VIII as well. I preferred the Town Car to the Mark VIII, but the Mark had more power and better handling.
Great video and commentary! A couple notes though... Cadillac debuted with its Fleetwood "Bubbillac" for the 1993 model year; the 1992 Cadillac Brougham still had the 1980 body style.
Great comment on the right TV spot at the right moment as well as the evolution of the sheer look. The funny thing is - Ford used the only "sheer look ripoff" vehicle, the Town Car, that they had left in the Lincoln lineup to do such an effective beat down on General Motors. This was when the long slow slide to GM's bankruptcy really began to gain momentum. Lookalike cars on several vehicle platforms seriously eroded divisional identity and was a gaping slash in their sales and marketing causing GM's eventual bankruptcy by a thousand such bad decision cuts.
GM was real stupid killing off its performance brand Pontiac at a time when that end of the market was really exploding. Killed her off little by little before finally holding a funeral. What does GM has only one affordable car for the youth market now, competitive only against the Ford Mustang. Nothing to answer the Japanese or German market leaders. GM still acts like they've got one main competitor and that's in Dearborn, period.
I owned and liked my 77 Caprice and my 77 Regency 98. Excellent cars.
I remember the ad well and saw it when holidaying in the US. I thought it was excellent. The main issue was all those C bodies looked the same rather than just employing the Seville’s more squared off lines - as the Town Car also did too but in a much larger and more distinctive way. Those C bodies reminded me more of Volvos at the time. Like a 740 or 760.
The criticism wasn’t merely about the upright backlight or “sheer look.”
It was more specifically that platform sharing had metastasized so whole bodies were the same across makes, differences reduced to fascia treatments and rear glass surround. Aero fixation and cost reduction metastasized until the mid80s large front-drivers were identical from a side approach.
GM started to lose its way when they introduced all those front wheel drive X-body cars. Junk!
That was a fun comparison.
Stunning I've been driving lincolns town cars since 1979 still driving lincoln Town Car Carter today Makes the drivers chest puff up 👆
I have a blue 1988 Lincoln Town Car with 94,000 miles on it
Adam, although new, you should do a video on the 79-11 Panther Platform.
I would love to know your thoughts on Chrysler doing away with the 300 and Dodge Challenger/Charger. Again another great video. Anthony
I LOVED this video. The irony is that my parents drove an 87 Town Car for two years (replaced by a Mercedes), which I sometimes drove when visiting them and I thought it handled as if the front wheels were jacked up from the road, whereas I had a Delta 88 company car that wasn't particularly nice looking but handled great!
I live in England, and since I was 7 (1976) I always wanted to own one of the big American beasts from tv and film in the 70s. A saloon or town car, four doors, by age 10, I'd settled on the idea of a 1971 my III Continental, preferably in black. Then, a year later, a man moved into a house round the corner from my folks house, and he owned a County Squire. This thing thing was a land yacht! And I've never seen a car have such trouble negotiating the roads of our estate! Right then I knew I needed a plan B! Ain't thought of one yet... and I'm 53!!!
More marketing videos like this one Adam! 🎬📺
To be fair, while this Lincoln ad was very impactful in laying the smack down... the Fortune magazine took aim at those A-cars and they were really damn successful. Also one of the main guys in that Lincoln ad was in a few episodes of the Golden Girls.
Though I was about four when that ad came out, and thus could potentially have seen and remember it, I dont. Before today, I never saw that ad before. It's great; very funny, witty, clever. Brilliantly done, perfectly executed, completely memorable. I should have remembered it, but I don't think I've ever seen it before, despite its overt familiarity. Incidentally, I had a 1985 Continental sedan, which was pretty much just like Lincoln's answer to the bustle-backed Cadillac Seville of 1980-1985 (with some front end flourishes borrowed from the Buick Riviera), in 2012.
Always loved these town cars
Thanks for the great video!
Worked at a Lincoln Mercury Dealer in 1992 and they were still using- What a Luxury Car should be as their catch phrase. Pushing the Towncar as one of the last Full frame cars along with the Grand Marquis and I believe they were full frame until the end of their production. Always wondered why Lincoln never bult a flagship and named it Towncar as that name plate was very successful.
I remember when Cadillac went to the 110 inch wheelbase front wheel drives. There was no back seat room. People in droves went and bought Chevy Suburbans, thus a whole new breed of luxury trucks quickly followed
I remember the ad vividly. That said, the Mark VII and Thunderbird of the time we’re essentially doing the same dance.
But you could tell them apart from a longer distance.
In 1986 the thunderbird and Mark VII looked quite different although the same body. In 1987, Thunderbird changed its look and did look very close to a Mark VII
I like this generation Town Car especially 88-89 versions.
Boy, how I remember that commercial. Even the owners couldn't tell their cars apart. ("That's my Buick!" "No, that's my Oldsmobile!" etc., etc. Poor souls.
Yeah, bring on the vintage ads.👌🏿👍🏿
I love that Fleetwood at the end
Best car I've ever owned was my 89 Towncar. Wish I would have held on to it 🥺
Have a friend in Tulsa who's still using her 89 Town Car as her daily driver. Never disappoints.
i apologize if this has been mentioned already, but wasn't there a response by Cadillac to this ad (brougham vs town car) and there also might have been a magazine article comparison.
Loved that add
For the love of God...do I have to sing "I'd love to teach the world to sing"...But on a serious note. Very effective target marketing! Thanks for posting this. That was funny. Happy Thanksgiving Adam ✨🍁
Ford was just callin it what it truly was!! I was in Advertising for a bit and that Ford Ad was EXACTLY my style and so well executed. In the 80s the Catch Phrase "Less is More" became super popular among the Rich and those aspiring to be rich. I feel like GM's Catch Phrase could have been "Ugly is Beautiful" but it just never caught on like the former!
The sheer look made alot of General Motor's cars look very elegant and not everyone loved the "bubble cars; Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable". Maybe it's true the design was copied for a very long time but i honestly think it worked wonders for the company despite the negative publicity made by the auto critics.
I think it's odd that having a sloping rear window isn't redundant, or copying, while the very functional vertical rear window is. I loved the vertical rear window for many reasons. The window stayed cleaner and was less prone to glare, it gave a roomier feel and more headroom, the extended roof threw shade on rear passengers and kept the car a little cooler.
GM should have explained all the advantages of an extended roof while varying the design of the C pillars profile from model to model.
That would have been a hard sell after the Taurus came out!
The ad was impactful, but it didn't last. According to the Encyclopedia of American Cars, total 4 door sedan production (rounded off) for Cadillac excluding Seville in 1987, 88, and 89 was 227,000; 215,000; and 217,000 respectively. Sales for the 3 years for Lincoln 4 door full size were 94,000; 242,000 and 186,000. Old body architecture did indeed catch up with Ford.
I’m still driving my 92 Lincoln Town Car to this day. Wouldn’t trade it for any newer car
Funny though that Ford would stick it's finger in GM's eye when they've always had platform sharing using basically the exact same methods. If Gm had run an ad in modern times comparing vehicles of the same color like the Ford fusion, Mercury Melan, Lincoln MKZ -it could've had the exact same effect. A commercial like that would probably never get made now -almost a shame really🙂
I remember those ads, and they were WELL DESERVED, TOO.
My Mon's Lincoln, rode WAY: Better than my '96 Chevy Caprice Classic, and I did enough improvements to make it get : 24Mpg Hwy, and 16 mpg City, as long as you didn't keep your foot into it! It was a great car, rode so good, so quiet.....but, because of the room I have , where I live, I don't regret selling it, had I MORE ROOM, I'd "NOT" ever sold it!
GM was rightly hammered for its “weren’t not even pretending to not be badge engineering” badge engineering. It is fairly debatable that they fully learned that lesson and rectified that problem.
The 1976-1979 Seville and the Aurora are two of my very favorite GM designs, but alas, the true genius is found in the Chrysler LH cars.
I remember seeing that add, was pretty good. Hit hard for GM.
Great video
I like the commercial with that “glass of wine” not spilling during a ride. Maybe that was Lincoln?
I remember that Lincoln ad from the time, and found it to be shocking, embarrassing, amusing, and in a way horrifying, all simultaneously.
Not only did GM have a look alike problem, they also had a FWD problem. Full-frame rear wheel drive was still a Lincoln selling point...much more pleasant to drive than the heavily-front-end-laden Caddies or Buicks.
@@billolsen4360 All the more reason for Lincoln to release that frankly really stinging zinger of an ad. It's clever in that it's not actually "mean" as such, at all. You could say it was in a passive-aggressive way, but Lincoln never got their hands dirty here. They let the genuine GM look-alike problem do all the dirty work for them.
I just noticed that the hood on the 75-70 Seville is too long! The distance between the back of the wheel arch and the bottom of the windshield is out of proportion, in an otherwise very nicely proportioned car.The Seville needed a cab-forward design!
The Seville was based off the Chevy Nova platform. The Nova and it's cousins all had a long lower body panel between the front door and the front wheel opening on the lower fender.
I remember back in the 80s their was a national survey of Americans of what their dream luxury car would be if they could buy one and the top two were the Mercedes S Class and....the Lincoln Town Car.🙄
Cadillac managed to sell just 19,098 Seville sedans for all of 1986, with that total dropping even more, down to only 18,578 units moved in 1987. Such dismal sales precipitated an early refresh for 1988, which saw sales slightly improve. I would say that Lincoln was quite effective at torpedoing Cadillac sales. After years of subpar sales, I'm truly shocked that Cadillac somehow was able to remain in business.
5:42 "Cadillac Brougham "Mines bigger commercial " is cool too :D
(the big body Cadillacs went to 1992 model year)
I remember that commercial.
I remember when I was a kid thinking these cares were fancy because of power seats and windows lol
I had never bought new cars but being a vehicle/aircraft mechanic I worked on new cars in a dealership. I actually like the GM cars from that era as they all used the same under hood parts and they were actually simple and easy to work on. The Fords of that era were like working non dinosaurs and since I worked on vehicles I worked on them but the thing was they started with some of the worst problematic engines and transmissions
I remember laughing at this ad at the time, and I was only 12. Also always liked that generation Town car.
Did Adam do the last model of the Lincoln Town Car?
I've owned both of the platforms discussed, an 81 Lincoln Mark VI and an 85 Impala. The Impala was a better handling car, but the Lincoln rode like a cloud.
Stiffer springs and better shocks make Ford's panther platform perform quite well. They actually not very different from GM's full-size platform of the same era
The mark VI though sold like a dud as the Eldorado/Rivieria/Toronado destroyed it in sales. Then GM got greedy and downsized those cars, Ford came out with a very stylish Mark VII and reversed the tide.
@@tenfourproductionsllc mine wasn't winning any races either with a TBI 302. The Mark VII was a lot sportier especially the LSC.
@@tenfourproductionsllc GM could've kept those 3 cars in thier line up for several more years. Why the hell would they change such a good thing, especially with thier high sales numbers?!?!