This Lincoln One-Ups Bentley For Sedan Style And Grace

In December 2018, Lincoln revealed the coolest thing it had done in almost sixty years. It pulled the curtain off of the Coach Door Continental. An 80th anniversary gift to the Continental brand that brought back the most iconic feature of the most iconic Continental. The rear-hinged back doors that the fourth-generation Continental wore from 1961-1969 were coming back.

Getting one at the time was nearly impossible. Getting one today might be even tougher. But one has just popped up for auction in Florida, and it can give you that 1960s elegance for what is (at least as we type this) a surprisingly reasonable price.

The First Continental With Coach Doors In 50 Years

Lincoln brought the Coach Door Continental to the Detroit Auto Show just a few weeks after it was first revealed. The company confirmed that it would build the special version of the car, complete with those 90-degree opening rear doors, but there would be three catches.

The first: Lincoln was only going to build 80 copies of this epic bit of design. The second: the price was going to start at well over $100,000. The third, and possibly most important? They were all already sold, unfortunately.

This was an era when Ford was really trying to jumpstart the Lincoln brand. Yes, that’s something Ford tries to do quite often, but this was arguably the most successful. It was certainly the most interesting, featuring this car as well as a Lincoln Navigator concept, where the entire side opened as one massive door.

Related

Cadillac Wanted Rear-Hinged Coach Doors For Escalade

Nothing says luxury quite like coach doors.

Lincoln did have some good news for anyone other than those 80 buyers. It was planning to build more. It would build another 150 for model year 2020, though they wouldn’t get the anniversary badge.

The Coach Door Conti was more than just a new set of door hinges. Lincoln had to stretch the wheelbase of the Continental by six inches. That also gave rear seat passengers more legroom than almost anything. The cars were also part of the Lincoln Black Label service, which provided things like free detailing and access to high-end restaurants.

This $3,000 Option Was A Factory Steal

For its second year, Lincoln added some more paint colors. It also lowered the price, as this car, for sale on Bring a Trailer, came with a window sticker total of $79,465. That includes $75,470 for the car itself, $3,000 for the “rear seat package” and $995 for freight.

Yes, you read that right. Getting an extra six inches of Continental, a rear center console, and doors that opened in the opposite direction only added $3,000 to the price of the standard Black Label Continental.

Today, getting a Coach Door Conti is going to add a whole lot more to the price. Take a look at this 2020, for sale in Florida. It’s finished in Infinite Black instead of the blue associated with the show car, with an Alpine Venetian interior. Like the whole run, it has a 3.0-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 making 400 horsepower.

Related

The 1960s American Sedan That Weighs More Than The New BMW M5

Thinking of buying a car as old as your grandpa? Keep the maintenance and fuel expenses in mind before you put in your bid.

This car has barely had its coach doors broken in. It has about 13,000 miles on the odometer, which might be as low as you can find outside of maybe a Ford museum. Its vehicle history report says the car was originally sold in Oklahoma City. The first owner kept it for under a year before the report says it was repossessed. At that time, it had covered almost 11,000 miles. The owners since then have barely driven this soon-to-be classic. With just over a day to go, the bidding is up to $70,000 on the dot, with a little less than three hours to go…

Source: Bring A Trailer