1997 Lincoln Town Car

Sedan

4.6 liter-V8-16 valve

Automatic

1LNLM83W8VY602827

Clear

Gasoline

1997 Lincoln Town Car – Cartier Series I purchased this Town Car, Cartier Series, about one year ago (September 23, 2015) from a little old lady (seriously, very little and quite old) in Wickenberg, Arizona, for $2,900. The only repair I had to make was to fix a leak in the gas tank, $160.00 by my local mechanic. My total cost in the car is $3,060.00. During the year, I have driven the Lincoln just over 30,000 miles, 33,190 to be more precise, using 1,562.93 gallons of gas (21.24 mpg average). My average cost per gallon of gas was $2.09, so my total fuel bill for the year was $3,244.95 which is just pretty close to $ .10 per mile fuel cost, about mid point for all cars, much better when considering the quality of the ride, the size of the trunk and the room in both the front and back seats. The maintenance and service has been very reasonable, to be expected, for thisparticular Town Car, almost twenty years old: During the first month getting all of the little things done cost $178.12, most of which was simply getting a second key, and upgrading the headlights. December 2015 I had my mechanic do a high end brake job (slotted and drilled rotors, ceramic “yellow stuff” pads) which cost $497.47. Well worth it. For a heavy road car, having good brakes seems like a good idea. Tires have cost me about $350 for the year. However, after all is said and done, the tires on this Town Car ended up being a mixed bag; Left Front – 10/32 black wall – Michelin Symmetry Right Front – 8/32 white wall – Goodyear Assurance Left Rear – 8/32 white wall – Michelin Symmetry Right Rear – 8/32 black wall – Prime Well PS830 How in the world did this mess happen – simple, I exchanged the tires on the Town Car I just bought with the ones that were on this Town Car. My bad. Okay, a new set of correct white wall Continental tires at Discount Tire, $650.00 complete with the certificates. But why? The tires are actually almost new. Why buyers are always concerned about the tires is a true mystery to me. Back in June, 2016, I was in Marietta, Georgia (Atlanta) when I started having some problems with power under load. Pep Boys, $1,186.79 problem solved. It was a three stage tune up and replaced the fuel pump (which is in the gas tank). After the $1,200.00, Pep Boys gave this old Lincoln a clean bill of health, good to go. Obviously there is a very detailed log of every dime spent on this Lincoln. Should you be interested in having a copy, simply get me your email address and I will email it to you. There is a wealth of information in this log. You can see for yourself exactly how this Lincoln has preformed and what has been done to it during the past year, which accounts for the last 22% of the 152,000 total miles driven. Appreciating that this is a used Lincoln that is 19 years old with over 152,000 miles there are bound to be some issues. Fortunately, all of the issues are cosmetic, involving the exterior, and have nothing to do with any mechanical or operational issues. Even the cosmetic issues are slight, hardly even noticeable 20 feet from the car. Headlights – Typical of this era of a car, the plastic headlight covers are sun faded. In the past I have replaced faded headlight covers with new units, typical cost is $100 per headlight assembly. Now, they can be refreshed, just takes some time and experience to make them “good-as-new” as the advertisements say. Windshield Trim – July 3, 2016, we were caught in a major wind and rain event while driving through Kansas. Basically it blew the rubber trim off the car across the top of the windshield. My quick fix was to simply take the rubber trim off. I have no idea what it will take to replace the trim. (Just an odd note; the 1997 Lincoln Town Car I just bought with 87,000 miles has issues with the windshield rubber trim too, needs to be replaced.) Driver's Side Rear View Mirror – June 28, 2016, driving across Ohio at about 11:00 pm something hit the mirror and knocked the glass out of the socket and twisted the mirror. My quick fix was some clear tape. No, the mirror is not held onto the car with tape, but the glass is being held in place with tape. Driver’s Side Rear Door – there is a small ding in the door, below and to the right of the handle. It was there when I purchased the car, looks like it has been there for years. The paint is not cracked so the damage has not spread. Paint is not scratched. It looks like a golf ball strike. Rear Bumper – there was a gas tank leak when I bought the Lincoln. I figured it out within 1,000 miles and had it fixed. The gasket had dried out and was leaking when the tank was over about 2/3 filled (above the gasket). Unfortunately, the seeping gas vaporized in the air under the car and blew up onto the back bumper. The result was to eat away the clear coat paint on the back bumper. Rust – the Lincoln is NOT an Arizona or Nevada car. Whatever damage that the surface rust has done, has been either fixed or has not caused an issue. There is a small trailer hitch that has significant surface rust, nothing structural. I really don’t think the rust is much of a problem now. Tires – the miss matched white wall / black wall nonsense drives me nuts. There is a very simple solution. There are two good 8/32 white wall tires, one a Michelin, the other a Goodyear already on the car. Just buy two new Continental white wall tires for the back, put the others on the front and the miss matched problem is really solved. Yes, the white wall is exactly the same for all three brands. Cost of the fix at Discount Tire will be just a little over $300.00. Driver’s Window and Seat Switch Panel – It was broken when I purchased the car. My quick fix was a single zip tie, probably should have used gorilla glue instead. The fix works, looks a little silly, easily repaired the correct way. I must have told myself hundreds of times I would fix that stupid switch. It worked just fine, never got around to fixing it. My bad. The really big question. Why in the world am I selling this Lincoln? A couple of reasons; I just purchased another Lincoln Town Car, the next one is a 1997 Signature Series with the very rare Touring Edition package. I live in a high rise apartment complex in Las Vegas, they only allow for each resident to have one car. The Lincoln I am selling has the coil spring conversion, replacing the air bags. This conversion completely eliminates the high cost (typically $750 to $900) of replacing the air bag system about every 60,000 to 75,000 miles. Many people really like the coil spring ride, they say it is very much like a Cadillac. If I wanted the ride of a Cadillac, I think I would buy a Cadillac. I just don’t like the ride as much as I do the air bags. It is a personal preference; most people actually prefer the coil spring ride. It is a toss up whether the mechanical or interior is the stronger attribute. Where this is an excellent running Lincoln with high performance brakes and great gas mileage, the interior is extremely clean, no smoke, no pets, no kids, just a very nice attractive interior that is quite comfortable, especially for long cross country trips. The leather seats are in great condition, absolutely no discoloring, tears, worn spots, scuff marks. There is even a “car phone”, no service provider, but there is the phone. All of the window regulators work, pretty rare for these cars. Dash is perfect. Everything works as it should (with the exception of the driver’s side rear view mirror, which is an exterior issue). It has been a good car, a really good car. If you are looking for a great performing economical cross country road car withplenty of room this Lincoln sure fits that bill. Okay, lets get the legal mumbo jumbo out of the way. The car you are considering is a used 19-year-old Lincoln Town Car with over 150,000 miles, it is being sold “as is” with no warranty of any kind. The winning bidder will need to trigger the sale by paying $500 through Pay Pal within one day, the balance we can work out later. More than likely the typical finish paying for the car within 72 hours. I reserve the right to remove this Lincoln from the auction for any reason. If you would like to talk about it, give me a call, I will answer any questions you might have. Lonnie at (702) 334-9500