This 1979 Lincoln is for sale by a non-profit organization. It has a clear title and is located in Lonsdale, Minnesota. Listed here on eBay, 31 bids have pushed the price up to $2,025 in this no reserve auction.
Now that’s dust. It is probably more than I would have expected for a car that has been in storage for 4 years. This car has some question marks over it. It’s a case of “everything worked when it was parked.” In the intervening 4 years the battery has gone flat and the seller hasn’t replaced it to check what works and what doesn’t. You can be pretty sure that the tires are less than healthy. Apparently one of them is flat and cracked.
The interior doesn’t look too bad. For a 40 year old car the wear looks quite acceptable. There is an aftermarket CD/mp3 player that was installed by a professional. Once again we have no idea whether any of the accessories function as intended. The seller states that the air con doesn’t function, but that all the parts are in the trunk. It has always interested me that luxury cars in the US from this period almost always had their gear shift on the column. In Australia they were almost exclusively a T-Bar shifter located on a center console, much like European cars.
Under the hood is the 400ci V8. Once again we simply can’t be sure of the condition. One thing that has always fascinated me is how manufacturers could extract so little power from so many cubic inches. The 400 was rated at 166hp when new. Today a Focus RS has more power than that. Simply astounding.
I don’t know quite what to make of this car. There are so many question marks over what does and doesn’t function that I believe that the price has probably exceeded its true value. If everything works this could be somebody’s dream car. If it doesn’t then it could be a nightmare. Given that there are 31 bids so far and it is a no reserve auction, then obviously there are people willing to take that risk. It could also be a case of people with a social conscience supporting a non-profit organization.
Correct me if I am wrong guys, but that doesn’t look like original interior material to me.
It’s the standard cloth interior
Nice car, I hope it finds a good home. I’ve always wanted one, but I’d want the 460 engine.
I like this … it’s an eye catching design.
I had a 1977 Mark V with the 460 V8. It was a beautiful, luxurious car that simply floated down the highway and it got 17mpg on the interstate with the cruise on 70 the whole way to Little Torch Key Florida from my home in the Mid-Atlantic region. No fatigue at all, it was like sitting on your living room leather sofa floating down the road.. on the trip back I had a brake issue (right front caliper broke) but got it fixed enough to get home… had to drive straight through as well since it happened on a holiday weekend and there were no rooms at any interstate hotel. Ahh, memories…. if the pic posts, the Caddy belonged to my Mom, she always had Cadillacs, ’79 Deville with the 425. She kept this one until she passed in 2012. My Father finally sold it a couple yrs later to a gentleman in NY. I believe it had 74k original miles on it.
Adam – the low horsepower is due to the ways they had to meet emission standards back in the mid-to-late ’70s. The methods were all mechanical at that time and they retarded the ignition something awful! It would be a few years before full electronic engine management came along and they would soon be able to achieve peak efficiency with minimum emissions and maximum performance. I hated these cars in the day, but they sure look good now!
Yeah Allen, I know about that. Here in Australia we weren’t immune either. At its height our Ford Falcon GT was producing a conservatively estimated 300hp (although these were Ford’s official figures. Most believe that power was significantly higher) from its 351 Cleveland. The last Falcon to carry the 351 couldn’t produce 200hp.
I have a convertible 1979 lincoln mark 5 and people on the road love it it’s like driving a museum car truly awesome wonderful experience every time i take it out for a drive