Here's Why the Lincoln Continental Is an Underrated Luxury Sedan

This is a 2018 Lincoln Continental Black Label and it is a

luxury

sedan

in the traditional sense of the term. This isn't trying to be a

luxury

car, a family car, an SUV and a sports car all in one. Instead, this is just a traditional, old-school luxury

sedan

w

here

the main focus is luxury and comfort. Today I will show you how it works. I borrowed this

continental

black label from the south coast of Lincoln

here

in Orange County, California, its beautiful new brand. Lincoln dealership with all the latest Lincoln models, all of which are surprisingly better than you probably think.

Lincoln has reinvented itself with many great luxury cars and this is the flagship sedan of the line, specifically this trim level, the black label, this one has a sticker price of just under 75,000, but it is missing two things that it has most flagship luxury sedans. For one, there is no v8, instead this car offers a choice of three different v6s, all between 305 and 400 horsepower, this one has a 335 horsepower twin-turbo v6 if you opt for the version. At 400 horsepower, it's the most powerful Lincoln ever made, but it's still a V6. The other thing it doesn't have that you might expect in a full-size luxury sedan is rear-wheel drive, the base Continental level.

It's front-wheel drive, although luxury versions like this one have all-wheel drive, it's still not the rear-wheel drive you'd traditionally expect from a full-size American luxury sedan, and yet there's a lot about this car that's exactly what it is. You expect from a full-size American luxury sedan, luxury and presence, and a smooth and comfortable ride and interior, so today I'm going to take you on a tour of the

continental

black brand and show you all the quirks and features of the luxury sedan.

lincoln

badge then i will take it out on the road and drive it and then give it an excellent rating and for more of my thoughts on the continental black label click the link below to visit autotrader. com oversteer, where I also compiled a list of the cheapest used luxury sedans currently for sale on autotrader.

Now I'm going to start with one of my favorite features of the continent and that would be the door handles, if we take When looking at the doors you will notice that there are actually no handles anywhere on the outside like in a normal car, so how do you get in in this thing? Well, Lincoln has hidden the door handles inside the chrome trim along the windows, the door handles. These little rings that come out of it, you put your finger in here, you pull and then there's an electronic mechanism that opens the door, which is a really cool trick.

There is also another interesting element near the door handle, just above it there is a small icon that lets you know if your door is locked or unlocked look at this if it is completely red that means your door is closed if part of the door is unlocked red disappears looking like a lock that has been unlocked and that's neat and even better if the icon is unlocked and you have the key in your pocket, you walk up and touch it, that locks the doors and you can see the icon change from unlocked to locked and that's great, if you want to unlock it you just put your hand inside the ring for the door handle and then you can see when you pull the door that the icon unlocks now another interesting element right above that icon, you can see that there's a little keypad with numbers here's the theory if you're going out swimming or something you don't want to bring your key with you because you'll destroy it you can lock your key in the car lid a little code that you've set up with that keypad and then it locks The doors when you finish swimming go back to your continental type in your code and open the door so you don't have to bring your key and that's brilliant, only Fords have that in Lincoln and it's a brilliant idea. which I wish all automakers could adopt now, next we move into the continental.

Well, there are a couple of interesting elements to note, but first I want to start with the interior. This interior is absolutely beautiful and I mean Lincoln was not always a bastion of gorgeous car interiors, but this is totally different. The interior of this car is simply fantastic. For example, on the door panel, it has this beautiful wood finish. Nice stitching. Look at these speakers. This is what you would expect from a really high end luxury car, take a look at the seats, the perforated leather and how about these cushions that come off the back of the seat so they can be adjusted a million different ways and then There's the Lincoln logo embroidered on the headrest, same story. with the dash and all the controls everything is just beautiful now on the topic of interiors it's worth noting that you might think this interior is white but you see Lincoln doesn't really have interior colors on their black label models, but they have three interior themes.

What you can choose from this one is the chalet theme, I think because it's white so it's supposed to conjure up images of a ski chalet. There are also thoroughbreds that are brown and black and a kind of saddle brown that is supposed to remind you of horse racing. and then there's Rhapsody, which is blue and supposed to look like a cool jazz club or something, so you don't choose interior colors with the black labels, you choose themes, now call the interior color whatever you want, frankly, you don't really it matters. Me and like I said, there are some absolutely beautiful touches in this interior and there are some interesting luxury features that you don't find in most normal cars and even many high-end luxury cars, for example, take a look.

This is the thigh support at the front of the seats and it moves back and forth. Many cars do that, but in this car you can choose to move the right and left forward or backward individually, so if your right leg is out on a long drive with your left leg back, you can just extend the thigh support Right, that's something you won't see in basically any other vehicle and speaking of seat controls, how about the fact that the headrest is controlled by power door operation like many others? of Mercedes-Benz cars, but unlike most cars where you can only raise or lower the headrest, in this car you can also move it forward or backward so you can move the headrest only the headrest in four different ways to meet your individual seating preferences.

Next up, another interesting interior detail on this car, it has a push button shifter, it moves the big, bulky shifter out of the center console to free up space here and moves to the buttons to the left of the infotainment screen . Now the interesting thing. About these buttons is that if you press it, for example, from park to drive, press d and you can see all the little gears that it goes through on the way light up, like an old school shifter. The same if you do sports, it turns on. all up and if you park the same way again, it turns on, drives in neutral and backs up the road before you press the park button.

Next we move on to the door now, as I mentioned the latch on the outside has an electronic unlock, it's not old. mechanical handle that you pull you just push a button and then it releases electronically and inside there is also an electronic release, you just push a button on the door panel and the door opens, but what happens if the electronics fail? What if your battery? It works well, there is also a manual release mechanism located out of sight further down on the door panel. You can pull it and then a mechanical latch opens the door like in a normal car.

Next I want to move on to the climate controls and those of you who are not fans of infotainment screens for everything will be happy to know that Lincoln has kept the traditional buttons, switches and dials for the climate controls in this car so that you do not They have to go into the infotainment screen to basically adjust the climate control, however you can, there is a redundancy, you can go to the infotainment screen or use the traditional buttons, do what you prefer. Now there are a couple of interesting things about the climate controls, one is that the center is that big and nice. silver button that feels nice to the touch and that's what adjusts the amount of air that comes out, it's kind of the bigger focal point of the climate controls and then of course you also have heated seats and cooled seats and these nice buttons for the left and right unfortunately you can't turn on both at the same time you have to choose between heating and cooling you can't heat and cool at the same time come on Lincoln, where's the luxury of that?

Now, next, we move on to the group of indicators. screen there are a couple of interesting elements first that I should note that I mentioned before this car has a d transmission gear and it also has a sport s gear if you want a sportier driving experience that's fine but there is a function on the screen from the gauge cluster called the control unit you go into driving control and you can choose to make the driving in sporty and then you can choose to make the driving in sport normal and suddenly you have made the driving more sporty than sporty and then you can go in and choose performance on sport and set it to normal as well, so now suddenly the driving has a sportier characteristic than sport depending on your selections.

I'm not sure why it allows you to choose this way, but if you think the sporty driving is too sporty and the driving is not sporty enough. you can change that here's another cool thing: this car has a remote start on the key, you press the remote start button twice and it will start remotely if you want to, for example, warm it up on a cold day outside your house before you go inside and going to work here is what's really cool, although there is a climate control setting for the remote start where you can choose to have it be automatic or last set and if it's automatic that means the car will read the outside and inside temperature and automatically turn on the climate control so it's perfect when you come inside if it's really cold it will turn on warm if it's hot it will turn on cold and that's a great idea.

Next, we move on to the infotainment screen where there are a couple of interesting features. This is Ford's latest timing system, more or less tailored for Lincoln, so I covered some of this stuff when I reviewed the new Mustang, but I discovered a couple of other interesting items - for example, there's a feature called eco-time. penalty and if you select eco-time penalty, it may send you on a longer route if you have the navigation system on just to save fuel, but that doesn't defeat the purpose if you have to go like four miles out of your way because there are a lot of hills and you can saving three miles per gallon, doesn't that negate saving three miles per gallon in the first place?

I don't really know, but you can turn it on if you want to go all out. An economical route is possible. Next we go to the sound settings. There is an element there that gives you the option to reproduce the Revel experience. Obviously I have no idea what that means, so I click for more information. It says it will play an audio experience that demonstrates the capabilities. of your vehicle's audio system, so when you click on it, it allows the car to play it and it sounds like a piece of music designed to highlight the best qualities of the Lincoln Continental sound system and this is something like the demo in case Want to hear how good your Revel sound system can be?

I wonder if anyone has ever pushed that outside of a test drive? Oh no, Jim, you have to listen to my Revel sound system here. I'm going to play this and you're going to hear it. and you will want one of these trust me and next we move on to the display settings and here there is an option for the screen brightness, but when I go to adjust the screen brightness, you can see that nothing happens on the screen, you can really see something. It happens a little bit, but with my eyes you can't see anything happening even though there's a long slider here for adjustments, so I hope you like the screen brightness as it is.

Next on the infotainment screen there is an item there for multi-contour seats, if you click on them you have several more seat options than the many options you already have in the seat controls on the dashboard. door. This is a little strange because as you touch these things, these seats instantly change to do whatever you want. you're touching, it's very strange to touch something on a screen and then feel that yourrear moves because the seat is changing. You don't see this in many cars but it's a nice touch, these seats can be moved in like endless ways and below there is an app called sirius xm travel link you click on it and it gives you a bunch of different options like movie times , it also gives you the ski conditions, you click on that mid-summer and you can see that the local ski resort is 84 degrees, it's closed, it has zero inches of snow, it has zero inches average base, zero inches depth, there are no open lifts and this is my favorite, no recent fixes, sorry skiers, you will have to get the full ski experience.

The comfort of the interior of your chalet Another interesting technological feature The head-up display constantly projects the speed limit on the windshield right next to the speed you are traveling at so you can always check if you are speeding, that's a good idea below We We move under the hood and there's something particularly interesting up here, it's just a twin-turbo V6 like you see on a lot of cars. One thing I like is the fact that you can see that there are still little plastic stickers over the Lincoln badges on the engine cover. I really want to remove it, but I will resist because this is a new car and I want that joy be saved for the next owner.

I want to talk about the headlights now, if you look closely here you can see the headlights have like five vertical bulbs and they look very futuristic and nothing like a boring old traditional headlight, but that's not the most interesting part to me. , if you look down at the bottom of the bumper you can see the fog. The lights also have these vertical bulbs and look even cooler. Most automakers don't put the time, energy or money into making their fog lights look great, but that's exactly what Lincoln has done with cotton nettle and I think it contributes to an attractive front-end look on this one. car, next we move on to the mirrors which on most cars generally aren't particularly noticeable, but on this car they are for a couple of reasons, one being this attractive chrome trim that runs along the bottom of the mirrors.

Mirrors. It has a very nice and unique look, but even more unique than that is this brushed aluminum finish on the base of the mirror, where the mirror connects to the door. Usually this is just cheap, shoddy plastic, even in nice luxury cars, but on this thing though you'll never see it or even notice it. It's much better than that. It looks really good. This is the kind of little touch you expect from a high-end luxury car. Next, it continues with the quirks and features of the rear of the Continental. This is one of those cars where if you have the key in your pocket and put your foot under the bumper, the trunk opens.

I always make fun of these systems because they never seem to work, but on the metallic cotton I found. which works every time I try it I stick my foot in there it opens I stick my foot in there it closes it's like they've finally refined this to the point where you can actually use it and it works fine now once you're in the trunk you'll discover something surprising: it's absolutely huge. The Continental isn't as big as the old-school city cars with their giant trunks, but the trunk appears to be so big that you could fit anything back here.

It's surprisingly big. for a car this size and we finally move on to the back of the Continental and there's something particularly interesting or quirky back here, but I will say that I'm really impressed with the fact that the rear seats are just as luxurious as the front ones. The same beautiful perforated leather, the same Lincoln badge embroidered on the tiny hand-stitched headrests, you have the same beautiful door panels, the wood trim, the speakers, everything is absolutely beautiful in the back seat, there is also plenty of space for the legs. The front seat is where I am.

I would sit down and obviously I have no problem sitting here. It is a very nice place to spend time. It's also worth noting that even the rear seats have electronic door opening, like in the front, you press the little button and then the doors fly open. Interestingly, there is no manual release for the rear seats, so if the battery dies and you're sitting in the back, I guess you have to get in the front and then pull the manual release to get out because you won't be able to get out of the back seats that use the electronic door lock, so those are the peculiarities and characteristics of the Lincoln Continental Black Label.

Now it's time to take it out on the road and drive it well, driving Continental's flagship luxury sedan. The first impression is as it says. It would be very soft, very relaxed, very comfortable. This car is by no means very nervous even though you use a twin-turbo engine, so you think that now you can drive it very comfortably if you want which you realize at first when you get it. in this car is that everything is very comfortable and everything is very nice the interior is surprisingly high-end, considering that when I think of something luxurious full size, I think of a seven series or an s class, uh, that's what you get .

I know giant interiors and it costs a hundred thousand dollars. It's one or two steps down, but everything is still very nice in this car. There's more plastic than you'd find in an S-Class or Seven Series, but it's also a lot cheaper. It's still very nice, there's a lot of stitching, a lot of good materials, a lot of nice colors, the acceleration is good, I just stepped on it there, like in the mid-range, um, it's okay, it doesn't feel like you're going to fly down the road. Like you're in a sports car, it gives you enough flexible power, but not enough to make you think that's not the point of this vehicle.

I will say the fit around the climate controls and infotainment screen. There's more plastic in there than you could ever want, some of that is good, I mean there's plastic mixed in like chrome aluminum, you know, gauges and switches, and they look good, but there's a little more plastic in there that I would like to this price. the driving position is good, the visibility is good, the mirrors are unusually small, which surprises me in a car like this because, you know, a luxury sedan and a big car with a big trunk, you would think it would have mirrors large to complement it. but they're actually unusually small, but you can see pretty well and obviously there's all this modern detection stuff, you've got blind spot and monitoring, you've got lane keep assist and stuff, so the days when you need giant mirrors They are not that important.

As they were before, I really like the steering wheel on this car, there is no shitty plastic anywhere and the buttons are plastic, but other than that everything is very nice, it's all leather and chrome and it's well stitched even on the center, and that is an important component for me. I like a lot of luxury cars that have very nice steering wheels and the center is still plastic and their argument is that you don't touch it, yes, but you see it, but in this car it's like stitched leather, it's very nice. even the brake light almost feels like the engine isn't even on, just no, you don't hear much, it's very very quiet, the cooled seat works unusually well, that's good, yes, the steering is good, the steering It's actually good. more precise than you would expect, feels a little more connected and less vague than you would think, certainly less vague than the lexus es and those types of cars, in terms of handling the car is big, it definitely has a bit of A little more body feel, it certainly doesn't feel like a boat like the 80's versions of these cars, but it's not like you know this car isn't meant to be a sports car, they're not trying to do that and Se Note that when you start turning into a corner the steering is more precise than I expected, but the body still moves and all that, it's better when driving smoothly, which is the intention, and that's the black label of Lincoln Continental. it is not an e63 amg in the sense that it is a luxury car that is also a sports car it is not a volvo v90 in the sense that it is not a luxury car it is also a family van this is not a mercedes g-wagon in the sense that it is a luxury car, it is also an off-roader, instead this is simply a luxury car and it is very good at that and now it is time to give it an excellent score, starting with the end of year categories. week and the style of the continental is nice, but a little bland. a 6 out of 10. acceleration is good at 5.5 seconds 0-60 and that gives it a five out of ten the handling is good the steering is light and plush it's not a sports car and it gets a four out of ten the fun factor It's low, fast enough and handles well, but it's not designed for fun and gets a four out of ten.

The cool factor is the same. This is Lincoln's new flagship sedan, but buyers prefer SUVs these days, so it gets a 4 out of 10 for an overall weekend score of 23 out of 50. The next step for the everyday category is to start with characteristics. The Continental is loaded with a lot of equipment, but doesn't advance the game with any new innovations and scores an 8 out of 10. comfort. It is excellent, especially at this price, and gets an 8 out of 10. The quality is good, the interior is great, with only a few drawbacks and it gets an 8 out of 10. The practicality is typical of cars in this segment and it gets a 5. out of 10. finally value I think the mid range continental models are a better value than the black label for the 75k this one costs.

It's hard not to want a V8 in a rear-drive platform. I'm also worried about resale, as there has already been talk of canceling the Continental in favor of more SUVs for Lincoln. It gets a 6 out of 10 for a total daily score of 35 out of 50. Adding to Doug's score is 58 out of 100, which puts him right behind here. the cadillac ct6 and the genesis g90 the continental is a great sedan and is definitely

underrated

but it is a bit pricey and sedans seem to be going out of style quickly keep it on your shopping list but negotiate for a big discount