Cheap wheels: 1998-2002 Lincoln Town Car Touring Sedan | Daily Drive | Consumer Guide® The Daily Drive
1998 Lincoln Town Car Touring Sedan
Note: The following story is excerpted from the February 2021 issue of Collectible cars Journal.
For decades, the American luxury car archetype was a full-size sedan that typically used a body-on-frame structure. The last Cadillac of its kind was the 1996 Fleetwood. Lincoln stuck with the formula and put out Town Cars until 2011. For a time, 1998-2002, to be exact, one of those was the Touring. The sedan has been reheated.
Lincoln styling, especially for the brand’s bread and butter sedans, has long been defined by its sharp boxy appearance. This history may have made the redesigned 1998 Town Car more visually shocking at the time than anything else has come before. The new bodywork curves are smoother and more modern, but often compared to some Jaguar sedans of the Fifties or Sixties. Such comparisons are not obvious, and many of the car’s lines are quite simple and clean. Your scribe thinks much of this Town Car’s undeniable presence is the result of its generous size and generous use of bright trim.
The refitted Lincoln is about 3 inches shorter than the previous Town Car, but it’s no small matter with a 117.7-inch wheelbase and 215.3-inch overall length. Base curb weight is 3860 pounds, down from nearly two tons before. According to the Consumer’s Guide®Interior room is “always spacious,” but editors note that the car isn’t large enough to comfortably seat six people.
We’re most interested in the sporty, powerful Touring Sedan, which comes from a $500 option package for the midsize Town Car Signature that starts at $39,480. The headliner is a 220hp 4.6-liter V8 with dual exhausts, a useful upgrade from the standard 200hp single-pipe version. Less obvious are the Touring’s other mechanical tweaks including a retuned suspension, specific damping, fatter stabilizer bar, slightly larger P235/60TR16 tires, 3.55 axle ratio : 1 and 11.25 inch torque converter. Visual differences include perforated leather seats, bird’s-eye black maple interior accents and argent grille.
Like other Town Cars, the Touring Sedan runs the entire perimeter frame, four-wheel anti-lock disc brakes and traction control. Up front there are control arms and coil springs of unequal length. At the rear there’s a live axle with four-bar suspension, Watt linkage and self-balancing air springs.
In a comparative trial in the December 1997 issue, Motorcycle Trends evaluated a ’98 Town Car Touring engineering prototype and a Cadillac DeVille Concours. Lincoln is considered quieter and smoother than the front-wheel-drive Caddy, but it is not calm on rough roads. MT thinks Lincoln’s brakes are impressive, and finds the four-speed automatic to be much smoother than previous Town Cars.
These Lincolns haven’t changed much. The 99s have side airbags. In 2001, a twin-exhaust V8 was tweaked with 240 hp. In 2002, Lincoln changed the Touring from an optional package to two separately classified models, the Signature Touring $42,875 and the Signature Premium Touring $45,005. The Premium adds a power sunroof and an Alpine-branded stereo with a six-disc CD changer.
We cannot determine specific Tour production numbers, but according to Encyclopedia of American Cars Total Town Car sales in 1998 were 110,718 units. That was a high water mark for this generation, with production falling to 67,579 units in 2002.
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Advantage:
- Spacious interior and trunk.
- The refined and quiet ride remains intact.
Defect:
- Even the most powerful 240-horsepower Tourings can’t match contemporary Northstar electric Cadillacs when it comes to muscle.
- Thick roof columns and high slats resist outside visibility.
Last drive:
Any of these Lincoln Town Cars excel in areas appreciated by fans of traditional American luxury sedans. However, the Touring Sedan’s easily overlooked upgrades improve the overall driving experience without offering an obvious balance of comfort.
Registration Collectible cars Journal
Sedan city tour bus
Sedan city tour bus
