Start with what the Lincoln Continental Mark VII is: a 2-door coupe with 4942 cc Windsor V8, built from 1983 to 1992, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer. The shape is credited to Jeff Teague.
How it came about
The Continental Mark VII, later changed to Lincoln Mark VII, is a rear wheel drive luxury coupe that was produced by Lincoln. Introduced in August 1983 for the 1984 model year, the Continental Mark VII shared the Ford Fox platform with the Ford Thunderbird, Mercury Cougar, and Lincoln Continental, the platform having been introduced for the 1978 Ford Fairmont and Mercury Zephyr and used for the 1982–1987 Lincoln Continental sedan and Mark VII four-door. Like its predecessor the Continental Mark VI, the Mark VII was manufactured at the Wixom Assembly Plant in Wixom, Michigan through 1992.
It was replaced by the Lincoln Mark VIII in 1993. The Mark VII featured standard equipment including an onboard trip computer / message center and digital instruments (on all except the LSC models after 1985), and four wheel air suspension. The 1985 LSC was the first American vehicle with electronic 4-channel anti-lock brakes.
The hardware
The engine is 4942 cc Windsor V8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 3748 lb. Drive goes through a 4-speed AOD automatic / 4-speed ZF automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 108.5 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Lincoln line-up the Lincoln Continental Mark VII has a clear place: it replaced the Continental Mark VI; it handed the line to the Lincoln Mark VIII; the factory was Wixom, Michigan (Wixom Assembly), United States. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Fiat Uno, the Toyota 4Runner, the Peugeot 205. Its Lincoln stablemates include the Lincoln First Call and the Lincoln Funeral Car.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the Lincoln Continental Mark VII — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.