The Palace of Versailles was the fabled French royal residence until the royals lost their heads over a minor political disagreement. As it is currently one of the most impressive museums in the world and a landmark of French culture, one can see why Lincoln chose this name to emblazon upon a Ford Granada body festooned with luxurious touches. If you are looking for a rare, upscale product of seventies badge engineering, then you might want to bid on this 1979 Lincoln Versailles sedan for sale on eBay in Brooksville, Florida. With a possible 21,999 miles on the odometer and in outstanding original condition, this Cadillac Seville competitor has been bid to a heady $7,200 with just five days to go. Is this the going rate for a car of such elegance and taste?
As you peruse the original eBay ad, you cannot help but admire the incredible amount of work and artistic dedication the seller put forward documenting this Lincoln in photographs. The multiple pictures from nearly every angle reveal a car that surely spent its entire life in the pampering confines of a garage. While there are not many photographs that depict the whole car or give us a glimpse into the rear of the cabin, what we are treated to shows details that few ads can boast. The backlighting is just the icing on the cake. While we are cautioned that the seller is not sure that the mileage is correct, the condition of the car leads us to believe that it is the true mileage.
As nice as this car is, a Lincoln Versailles is not a commonly seen or discussed product of the Ford Motor Company. It was a response to Cadillac’s strong selling Seville. The Seville itself was a response to the growing number of European luxury sedans that were drawing younger customers away from traditional American luxury brands. While it seems that every seventies car was based upon another, the Lincoln Versailles borrowed heavily from the Ford Granada and Mercury Monarch compact sedan platforms. The Versailles used the body panels from the Monarch, which was a near twin to the Granada. Lincoln’s most distinctive features were the grille, vinyl top, and the Continental-inspired spare tire bump in the trunk. That came with a vinyl cover as well.
Regardless of its lineage, this Versailles came well-equipped from the factory. The front bucket and rear bench seats were covered in rich dark red leather. It was also delivered with a sunroof, plush carpeting, faux wood paneling on the dash, and a half vinyl top that matched the paint. As a Lincoln, standard equipment included air conditioning, power steering, power brakes, power windows, power locks, power side view mirrors, power front seats, cruise control, and an AM/FM stereo. The seller also tells us that this Lincoln is one of just 21,007 Versailles made in 1979.
Under the hood and about ten miles of wires and hoses is Ford’s standard 302 cubic inch V-8. It is backed by an equally proven C4 three-speed transmission. The seller has also treated this car to a new set of whitewall tires and assures us that the wheels and the factory wire wheel hubcaps are all in very good condition.
While it may not have the pedigree of some of the finer products in Lincoln’s storied history, this Versailles is a pristine example of where Lincoln was in relation to its competitors at the time. Detroit was already being hammered hard by Japanese imports on the lower end, while the upper end of their product lines was under full assault by the likes of BMW and Mercedes. In answering this challenge by badge engineering lesser cars, it seems that Lincoln wasn’t aware of just how painful their indifference to the competition would be. They weren’t willing to field a direct, competent competitor in the fight against more sporty European sedans, and they would lose much of their market share throughout the eighties. As nice as this car is, it is historic in that it was a wrong turn for the brand. Hopefully, it finds a good home with someone who will display it at shows and tell its story.
Good heavens, you calls that a Lincoln? Made Lincoln afficionados cringe, truely a low point in that fabulous cars history. Not to take anything away from the Granada/Monarch, I thought they were good cars, but certainly not Lincoln worthy. Oh sure, they added some fluff here and a suspension upgrade there, but it was still a Granada. It’s obviuos here someone was Lincoln specific, no matter what they offered, kind of like AMC, but most never even considered this when looking for a luxury car. I bet the Europeans had a field day with this car. For a fancy Granada, it’s a very nice find, but don’t expect a 1967 Continental.
Magnifique Monsieur Howard 🇫🇷 🧀 🫕
And a lethargic 302 to boot.
I agree with Howard. I remember these as a kid and thought it was just a fancy Grenada or Monarch. Cadillac nailed it with the Seville in 76. To me if you look at a Seville and look at a Nova or Omega or Apollo they just looked different from the Cadillac. At least to me anyway. I think in later years Ford did a more formal roof line with the Versailles. Forgive me if Im wrong but was it a fiberglass cap? Im not bashing this car or its condition. Its beautifully preserved and hope it goes to a good caretaker that keeps it this nice for years to come. It would be a great car to run due to the same underpinnings as the Grenada and Monarch. At least you can find parts to keep it going.
Not sure what material was used for the cap. Likely was the same as used for my 83 and 85 Fifth Avenues. Definitely gave an upscale formal image.
The 1980 Versailles got the more formal roof treatment and the rear doors were changed to fit the more formal roofline.
Of course it was a fancy Granada. But it was a really nice fancy Granada. It just didn’t have different sheet metal or other differentiators. Most manufacturers then, and now, use common platforms to market all ranges of cars. I think the Versailles is the victim of knee-jerk negative reactions which may not be fair. (Think about other cars we see on Barn Finds which generate trite, overused, knee-jerk reactions).
This is an excellent example of someone putting real effort into marketing a car.
MERCI! So nice to acknowledge a MONARCH. The Sevilles are REVOLTING. Let them eat Dust! 👸 👑. On to VERSAILLES! 🏰 🏆
I thought it was “Servile”? No?
Anyway, the trunk looked lifted from an old British limo and the downward trim and paint at the rear was uuugggleee.
IMHO.
Probably a great machine and who looks back when you are driving forward? As an actor said in The Gumball Rally: “What’s behind me is not important.”.
Give me either car and I’ll take it.
Seville, Cordoba, Versailles, Plymouth, Malibu, Daytona…how many cars shared place names?
To LCL. To quote QUEEN VICTORIA, We are not amused! This is most provoking and vexatious AND makes Us Quite cross! 😉 LOL! 👍
This is more of a reply to LCL. I think we can spend hours reciting the names of cars named after places: besides the ones you mentioned, I can think of Aspen, Granada, Caribbean, Monaco, and today’s Telluride, Tucson, Santa Fe, Colorado, Santa Cruz…the list goes on.
Comments appearing on BF that are trite, overused, knee-jerk reactions? Really?
You bet!
Wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s half the fun of it.😁
At least Jeff didn’t write “Nicest One Left?”….
Why stop at the Granada. The Linc/Merc people could have gone all the way to a refined Pinto and badged it as a Continto. Now that wudda been something to talk about.
Hey, great idea! Add flexible doors and you could have a CONCERTINO! Seem to recall a proposal combing Valiant with Comet creating a VOMIT featuring yucky 🤮 doors! 👍
Lol Terry, why not, they did it with the Cimarron.
Looks, and reads, like he could have, then left it to anyone to prove him wrong.
MADAME, the Sevilles are REVOLTING! Damn the Sevilles, let them eat DUST! 👸 👑 On to VERSAILLES!
Had a friend at the local junkyard, he would call me when they got a Versailles in so I would go down there to get the 9” rear that was a direct bolt in to all fox body cars
Didn’t these also have rear disc brakes?
Yes
OK, let us consider the Cimmaron.
That should draw comment.
What was it cloned from?
Not sure, but thankfully it is now Cimarron Toast! 😄
I think the Cimmaron was the thing of the Chevy Cavalier. Buick Skyhawk and Oldsmobile Firenza..oh, and let’s not forget the Pontiac T1000.
The T1000 was the Pontiac version of the Chevette. Not quite the same bracket as the others.
The Chevy Cavalier. It was really obvious the first few years of production. It finally got some shapely sheet metal to set it apart from the donor car but if you knew you could see the resemblance.
As I have posted in the past, I got to drive one of these from S.L.C. Ut. to northern Calif. when it was brand new. One of the smoothest and most comfortable cars I have driven. Then and now. A lot of people knock this car but to me, It’s still a Lincoln. It may not be the best looking Lincoln. I will admit that and I would take a Seville any day over it but I still have nothing bad to say about it. Super nice example. Persomally I would rather have velour interior only because you don’t stick to it and no matter how good your air conditioning is, if you spend enough time in the seat, you will stick to it. Just my opinion
LCL. The Cimmaron was a glorified Chevy Citation although I worked for a Cadillac dealership when the Cimmaron came out and if you got the fuel injected version then it was actually a pretty nice car. Not sure if it was worth the money but I know for a fact if it wasn’t F.I. then it was just a gutless Citation with power windows and more padding in the seats. That’s something I would never say about the Lincoln Versailles.
Cavalier
Funny you should mention F.I.; the Versailles’ fuel system was just as much a deal-killer as its looks. Maybe, if it had been fitted with a TBFI unit earlier than it had been, it may have had a slightly better history to it…but no-o-o. It had the infamous VV carburetor thru ’79, only getting TBFI in 1980 when it was too late to salvage its tarnished image.
To LCL. To quote QUEEN VICTORIA, We are not amused! This is most provoking and vexatious AND makes Us Quite cross! 😉 LOL! 👍
Too bad they didn’t offer the 351 in this car, I think the Seville still came with the fuel injected Olds 350 in 79. I like these cars, I hope it finds a good home.
They did offer the 351W in it, but only for the first year.
They did, I had it in mine. Along with a floor shifter and front bucket seats.
Wow, haters galore. I do not think you can like the Seville and not like the Versailles. One was a glorified Nova and the other a glorified Granada. The front end is Lincoln, the back end is too much Granada. I always appreciated the hump on the trunk.
I staunchly agree. In fact, I suspect that Caddy relegated the first-gen Seville design to Oldsmobile when they went with the flat-back model in 1980; the Cutlasses of the early-’80s looked suspiciously similar to the ’70s Sevilles.
If my memory serves me right, wasn’t this exact car listed here not very long ago? I remember seeing it and instantly fell in love with it; unfortunately the car corral is full! Would love to have this.
My Dad had a Versailles, don’t remember what year, but we fit five adults in it! All of us were over six feet tall so it was NOT a pleasant ride. Great, reliable car though and surprisingly powerful considering the times. It always rode smooth and cornered well but carried the stigma of it’s lineage.
23000? Must be true cuz they got purple lights
The Izod Shirt and boat shoe crowd, that drove Mercedes and BMW’s, were never the customers for Lincoln.
A lot of these were sacrificed for their 9″ rear ends with disc brakes. I should know. One of these rear ends is under my ’68 Mustang.
Yes, I learned that was a very popular junkyard (or chop-shop) quest, to cannibalize the rear axles of these cars to refit to Mustangs.
I’m also guilty for putting one under my 68 GTCS, while doing that I also grabbed the pedal pad. My neighbor was racing a granada round track so I offered him the hood so he could put the extra weight where it would work best. The hoods are aluminum.
To its credit, the Versailles did have a couple of historical firsts to boast about: It was the first American car to be fitted with halogen headlights and clear-coating as standard-issue equipment. Also, the fact that its brakes were all-disc (not a first in auto history, but valuable for Ford fanatics–Mustang freaks looking to customize their ponies would snatch the rear axles off these cars when they went to the auto graveyards) added a bit of advertising flare where the overall look fell short.
But the Versailles’ woes extended beyond looks, unfortunately. As a response to the growing energy crisis that was falsely publicized as mankind’s fault for depleting natural resources of Planet-Earth (yes, it *was* false, but in the ’70s popular propaganda), Ford had developed the worst fuel system they ever employed, and installed it in this car: A variable-venturi carburetor. That thing was tricky on a good day and a stranding ordeal on any other day. To further compound the problem, Ford did not address it for three years, meaning this ’79 example is likely to suffer frustrating stall-outs unless a prior owner did something about it (hopefully!). People did notice this, and it had a lot to do with the Versailles’ sales numbers never going all that high; Ford finally did something about it in 1980–notably, replacing the VV with TBFI (throttle-body fuel injection)–but it was already too late by then to salvage the Versailles’ tarnished image. Inexplicably, Ford went back to the VV carburetor in 1982 with the first of the Versailles’ replacement, the humpback Continental!! They then undid that mistake by reinstating TBFI units to those cars starting in ’83.
From the pictures I’ve seen of this example, it looks almost museum-condition, and a very nice survivor despite its history. I hope the new owner will be spared of the mechanical woes it likely gave when new.
Wow the energy crisis was false? Tell that to all the people who stood in line at the pumps. Speaking of propaganda, the petrochemical companies are worse than Big Tobacco. Follow the money, those are the ones most benefitting from the status quo.
Yep. “Big Oil” is only the reason why the United States became the worlds #1 economy. The worlds #1 super power, and the reason why you aren’t burning cow dung, or wood, for heat. How terrible!
If the Versailles came out BEFORE the Granada/Monarch it would have been better treated by time. after all the 1978-81 notchback GM “A” body sedans were clearly aping the 1975-79 (RWD Nova based)Seville, but did little to harm the Seville image. Overall it’s not a bad looking 70s era “baby” Lincoln.
More than $2000 for a dressed up Granada?
NFW.
All they had to do to was to build a “ 2-door version “ of the Lincoln Versailles, and “clean up “ the rear end a bit to mimic, (slightly), the Lincoln MK V. Their sales would have been much higher. NONE of the “Big Three “ offered a “personal luxury coupe “ the size of a 2-door version of the Lincoln Versailles. This car is beautiful in its own right. This example is probably one of the best examples left. Not many to go around to begin with. Hopefully someone appreciates it for what it is and ENJOYS it. Good luck to everyone! Nice article too.
Dad had the same year Grenada, same engine. A very mature, well put together car. Comfortable, reliable, nice looking. My brother took it out on a date one night and totaled it; lucky for him, the other guy was plainly drunk as it seems my brother was distracted somewhat by his date. So Dad got the insurance money from the other guy, then went out and bought a 69 Camaro convertible. Interesting trade.
Badge Engineering. Well said! Brings back memories of my old 77 Granada Ghia.
Meh.
Hmm, what I do find interesting upon reading all the comments here is the only ones who bash this poor car never owned one.
The ones that speak highly of the car are the ones who actually owned one. Who do you think im gonna believe? You are the type of clickers and clackers who say $1,000,000 is not a lot of money, but yet, you’ll never ever see that in your lifetime. Good article, Jeff!
You are right, Ken. I never did own a 1979 Lincoln Versailles. But, I did own a Granada (well kept with 52k on it from neighbor). And all I got to say is, you can put lipstick on it but it’s still a Granada.
Lol. I hear ya. It was a bit more than a a smear of lipstick. Just a small example is, for the Lincoln, way more sound deading material was added. ( 10s and 10s) pounds worth, and a little something that I’d love to do with my 77 Granada Ghia which i thought was extremely effective, is adding thick, heavy rubber bushings to the top of the shock towers where the shocks bolt into
This provided a ride that was quite Lincolnesque.
Some of the earlier models also had a Cartier clock in the dash, a floor shifter, and bucket seats, along with the 351W engine. Mine had all those options, along with leather interior. The Versailles were also built on a separate assembly line and had their own testing ground. I, too, had a 76 Granada (actually at the same time I had my Versailles), and they really were quite different cars.
That’s usually the way it goes. The peanut gallery is always strong on BF.
LOL! Have heard of Jackson Hole and numerous other holes. But do you have a hole in your gas tank 🤔? Holey Mackarel 🐟! And I am not trying to be an ASS Hole! 😄 😁 🤣
Like PACKARD, Ask the man who owns one.👍.
Factory pimped. Yuk.
Ended at $12,600, Reserve Not Met.
That’s crazy money for a Versailles. I have rarely seen one for sale for over $5k. I sold mine, which was a first year model so had some unusual options (351 W engine, front bucket seats, floor shifter, Cartier clock, etc) just a few years back for $3,500.