# Lousy 91-98 Lincoln Town Cars: How come everybody knew except me? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 10, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842 "2006-03-10T16:22:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842/21 "2006-03-14T13:29:07Z")
No just your basic Town Car not Cirtier or anything else special or fancy. Limo services just buy your basic big ass black Lincolns. As a group they buy a shit load of them. If the Town Car was such a piece of shit, why would a business that relys on car to run, buy them? ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842/22 "2006-03-14T13:31:29Z")
Here is an a feel free to sub it in for the i I typed in Cartier. :smack: ::: sigh::: ---
**Author:** ![qubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f07891/32.png) [@qubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qubed)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842/23 "2006-03-14T13:48:27Z")
My parents had a 94 Town Car that they just sold a few months ago. In fact, out of all the recent cars they’ve owned, it’s been the least troublesome. They managed to get the car to 120,000 miles just fine, and this is from a couple that can barely get a car to 80,000 without it going to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842/24 "2006-03-15T06:13:40Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > No just your basic Town Car not Cirtier or anything else special or fancy. Limo services just buy your basic big ass black Lincolns. As a group they buy a shit load of them. If the Town Car was such a piece of shit, why would a business that relys on car to run, buy them? Well, I don’t think that we’ve conclusively established that they _are_ pieces of shit. We’ve had a mixed commentary so far, with no real scientific data one way or the other. Also, the driving patterns, loads, etc. of a limo service are going to be different than for most individuals, so the wear and tear on the car’s going to be a bit different (I don’t think too many limo services are going to have to worry about Junior borrowing the car and doing donuts in the parking lot with it). Plus, until fairly recently, if you wanted a big ass American car for your limo service, you **had** to buy a Lincoln as neither Chrysler nor Cadillac had anything as big as the Town Car. Cadillacs were also primarily front wheel drive from the late 90s up until a year or two ago (I’m going by memory so I may have the time frame a bit skewed) and FWD in big cars doesn’t work that well (torque steer becomes more pronounced, for one thing), so the Caddy’s would be more likely to breakdown trannywise sooner than a RWD Lincoln would. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842/25 "2006-03-15T08:47:28Z")
I hate to over-generalize, and I don’t have the background that some of the folks here do, but Fords reputation (and in my experience) is for solid engines with frequent transmission problems. Can’t say I’ve heard of any common issues with Lincoln engines (or any other Ford brand for that matter) in my travels. My Mustang from high school is still happily plugging along on it’s third tranny and my parents have had two Taruses over 180K and 80K respectively, one with a second tranny. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842/26 "2006-03-15T12:09:21Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > No just your basic Town Car not Cirtier or anything else special or fancy. Limo services just buy your basic big ass black Lincolns. As a group they buy a shit load of them. If the Town Car was such a piece of shit, why would a business that relys on car to run, buy them? Last time I checked, the Town Car came in three trim levels: (in price order, lowest to highest) Executive, Signature and Cartier. The Executive and Cartier, the lowest and highest trim levels, both have an “L” option. That gives you the factory long wheel base and what amounts to the “basic” options for a town car. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lousy-91-98-lincoln-town-cars-how-come-everybody-knew-except-me/347842.md?page=1)