2017 Continental at the LCT Show
2024-11-21
The livery industry is welcoming back a familiar face with the arrival of the 2017 Lincoln Continental Stretch limousine.
Both limo owners and decision makers were able to get up close and personal with the 2017 Lincoln Continental Stretch limousine at this week’s LCT Show in Atlantic City, NJ (November 13-15, 2016) at the Executive Coach Builder’s section of the show floor. With the end of tenure of the Town Car, Lincoln is clearly making an investment and statement that they are back in the livery game.
Executive Coach Builders became the first company to stretch the Lincoln Continental, as seen below.
Even though Lincoln has been out of the limelight for the past few years, that has not always been the case. For most of Lincoln’s storied almost 100-year history, the Continental was the pinnacle of the luxury vehicle. The genesis dates back to 1938, when Henry Ford’s son Edsel asked his best auto designers to make a convertible he could drive during a vacation in Florida’s Palm Beach. Excited by the public’s reaction, Edsel made the Continental part of Ford Motor Company’s luxury Lincoln brand.
That worked well until the 1990s, when the Ford brand struggled. Ford, desperate to make up ground, acquired other luxury one-off vehicle manufacturers like Aston Martin and Jaguar. This proved to be a stop gap as the competition from German and Japanese car companies proved to be too much, so Lincoln stopped making the Continental altogether in the early 2000s. Taking its place was the Lincoln Town Car, a staple in limousine fleets to this day. But Lincoln discontinued producing the Crown Victoria, the chassis that was used to create the Town Car—so, in 2012, the Town Car went the way of the Continental.
Fast forward to 2016: As part of a billion dollar plan, Lincoln has resurrected the Continental to compete with the Cadillac in the States and focused heavily to car costumers in China, who are nostalgic for historic American cars. Whether they succeed in the States or not is still open for discussion, Lincoln is investing both money and time on its success. Time will tell if that will work out but so far, the stretch limousine is turning heads and opening eyes in the livery industry.
