Needing a smaller, more fuel-efficient luxury car to compete with the Cadillac Seville, Lincoln rolled out the Versailles in 1977. But the Versailles’ roots as a rebadged Ford Granada backfired, and sales never reached the level of the Seville’s. By 1981, the Versailles was gone, and Lincoln went back to selling just big fancy cars. The seller offers a well-used “mechanics special,” a 1979 Versailles that doesn’t run and will require a tow. Located in a possible storage yard in New Windsor, New York, this well-heeled project is available here on craigslist for $1,700.
The Versailles wasn’t the only luxury car that Detroit offered as a repackaged grocery getter. Cadillac tried selling a fancy version of the Chevrolet Cavalier compact in the 1980s and also found buyer resistance. The roots of both vehicles weren’t hard to detect, as they looked like the vehicles they were based on. When it came to sales numbers, the Versailles came in at (perhaps) an acceptable 15,400 units in 1977, dropped by nearly half in 1978, but got a boost to 21,000 copies in 1979 (when the seller’s car was built). With less than 5,000 Versailles 4-door sedans sold in 1980, the fate of the automobile was sealed.
There was nothing special mechanically about the ’79 Versailles. It was powered by the same 302 cubic inch V8 found in a host of Ford and Mercury automobiles. At 81,000 miles, the seller’s car seems well-used, and the overall condition is stated as “fair” by the seller. The fuel pump is bad, so the car will only run briefly from an external source (such as a shot of ether). It may need more work, but that could be enough to run the occasional errand.
We’re told the undercarriage and body are solid, so you shouldn’t be buying a rust bucket if you brought this set of cheap wheels home with you. The whole car will need detailing, though the leather upholstery will still be weathered and cracked. And we wonder if the wire wheels on the car are the real deal. Since this machine is just a bit more than a Granada under the skin, parts should not be scarce. Thanks for this cheap wheels tip, Tony Primo!
Beautiful back-end on the Versailles
That’s what he said. Seriously for $1700 how could you go wrong? My only question is does it ride like a Lincoln? Only a rest drive would tell.
This has the factory Quadraphonic 8-Track. Remember those?
That side profile shows the wire basket wheel with (front) and without the basket (rear). I remember these on a neighbor’s ’74 Caprice Convertible that was a dark red. He used to say, “Go from Shorty to Sporty in just a few turns!”
It wasn’t the Citation Cadillac tried to sell a gussied-up version of, it was the Cavalier as the Cimarron. The tagline was: “Best of all, it’s a Cadillac.”
This was Ford’s response to the 1975 Cadillac Seville, which was actually a very tarted up Chevy Nova sedan. GM did a way better job distinguishing it though. This was clearly a Granada/Monarch right down to the same dashboard lol! It did have some cool stuff underneath, like the Ford 9-inch rear end and 4 wheel disc brakes. Average luxury car buyers of the day did not appreciate those touches, though, and these did not sell very well, unsurprisingly.
The Seville was a Nova…why does Ford get so trashed for rebadging a Granada.
I’m a lifelong car guy and have only heard a couple times that the Seville is a Nova underneath. I forget everytime because i can’t tell by looking at it. One look at the Lincoln and it screams Granada, thats probably why Ford gets grief about it.
Not just underneath but it used some of the same body panels too. But the fact that GM was able to distinguish it like they did meant very few people picked up on that. Whereas this car was blatantly a Ford Granada, which in turn was basically a 1960 Falcon (though also a 1965-73 Mustang if you want to be more charitable!)
yeah I didn’t know until now that the Seville was a Nova.
Never knew I was inside a nova when in a Saville however, I knew I was in a Granada went in a Versailles
Because the Nova was reworked to a high degree. The Versailles was not! The Seville actually did give Mercedes a run for its money. People wanted a Seville. Did, but it was too expensive. The Versailles was not special.
That’s what he said. Seriously for $1700 how could you go wrong? You can be ironic driving this and who nowadays even knows what a Granada was? Besides people on this site. My only question is does it ride like a Lincoln? Only a test drive would tell.
Ford doesn’t catch grief for using the Granada as the basis for the Versailles, they catch grief for not going far enough to disguise it. The irony is that Cadillac would make the same mistake with the Cimarron. Cadillac had the last laugh, though. The Cimarron never became the BMW fighter Cadillac wanted it to be, but it was very profitable.
This Versailles stands a good chance of being sacrificed so its disc-brake 9″ rear end can live on under a Mustang. I confess, I did the same, but my Versailles was a $400 derelict.
Love the Harrison/GM AC compressor! Ford got tired of replacing their own units under warranty over and over again!
How on earth does someone screw up a York compressor???
I’ve got 1 in my crew cab IH 4700 that I just T’d the lines & added a 2nd evaporator under the rear seat all being fed by same factory compressor, gets so cold in that thing you can see your breath! You’d think the old 2-cyl York wouldn’t have near enough volume to feed 2 evaps but holy cow, does just fine & with 134A to boot.
I’m not sure why FoMoCo went with the A6 other than a more tidy install & admittedly greater efficiency. Yes the A6 has a good reputation for longevity but no swash-plate design is gonna outlast a crank & rod design for toughness. Perhaps modern TVX valves are much better than the old tubular expansion valves?
As narrow as the rear axle appears to me from the photos, I wonder if the rear disc brake axle wasn’t already pirated and a regular axle thrown back under it.
The Versailles has a 9″ rear with factory disc brakes. They bolt right up to the early mustang. I’m not able to afford it, but if I were, I’d part it out. $1,000 plus alone just for the rear end.
The only booby trap I can think of with these cars was some had a prototype of an early abs system that never worked right they usually just disconnected
factory disc-brake 9″. Nothing more needs to be said.
Other than that, I’d get the car running good, make a Cars & Coffee showing & pimp it around for a while. It’s comfortable & something you don’t see very often. When it breaks or I don’t feel like fooling around with it anymore, still got that 9″ waiting to go into my ’49 Hudson.
I better stop trying to talk myself into buying this thing!