As Sophia Petrillo would say, Picture it: September 8, 2012. About twenty months after I’d been downsized from my job at the bank, and about two months since I’d returned to Illinois Casualty Company, where I’d worked 1995-2004. On the way home from my folks’ house after a fine dinner. I decided to drive through the local Chevy dealership to see if there was anything interesting. There were no truly interesting older trade ins (those were getting few and far between even then. Though we hadn’t hit Peak Crossover yet, things were deteriorating).
I liked these dew-covered Town Car Continental Editions, so parked the Ovlov wagon and snapped the pictures you see here, with my old digital camera. This was years before my DumbPhone self-destructed and I had to finally, grudgingly get a smart phone. I particularly liked the ice-blue one.
Yes, that’s right: these were Continental Editions. In the last two years of production, 2010 and 2011, the top-trim version was a Town Car Continental. As I recall, they sported standard chrome alloys and an upgraded interior, as well as Continental Edition badges on the sail panels. Perhaps a foreshadowing of the new Continental that would appear in 2017? Who knows?
And so it was that the last 2011 Town Car was available with a Continental package. Fun fact: the very first “Town Car” was a luxury interior option available on the 1969 Continental. The Town Car did not become a freestanding model until 1981; prior to that, it was a fancy trim/interior package on Continentals, all the way to 1980. Total role reversal! The circle closes, and all that!
My guess is that the 2011 Town Car was also the last American (er…Canadian. North American, then?) car with a stand-up hood ornament. What’s left in 2020? I think the Mercedes S-Class is the last man standing hood ornament-wise. Pun intended.
At the time I was driving my third Volvo, a V50 station wagon, and the idea of actually owning one of these end-stage land yachts was not even floating about in my head.
Of course, that’s all changed. My 2000 Cartier is rapidly approaching 170,000 miles, and Big Rhonda, my 2004 Town Car Ultimate, will hit 60,000 miles before Monday. You never know what surprises life has in store. And neither did Lincoln. In 2012, they weren’t doing too hot. Today, with the new Navigator, Aviator and brand-new Corsair, they are in a fine position indeed!