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Final Parking Space: 1980 Lincoln Continental Mark VI Sedan Luxury Group
Lee Iacocca brought back the Lincoln Mark name in order to provide Lincoln-Mercury dealers with a genuine competitor for the Cadillac Eldorado, and sure enough, the Thunderbird-related 1969 Continental Mark III was a sales hit. Then came the ever-more-rococo Mark IV and Mark V… and for 1980, radical change arrived with the new Mark VI. Here’s one of those cars, found in a Colorado boneyard a while back.

This was the first Mark of post-Iacocca Ford (he had departed in 1978 to save Chrysler from near-certain doom), and it had moved to the new and much more modern Panther platform.

This car was more than a foot shorter and nearly a half-ton lighter than its Mark V predecessor, and it could be had with four doors instead of just two (which was somewhat blasphemous for the post-1960 Mark series, just as creating a wagon version of the Mercury Cougar had been a few years earlier).

Being a Panther, the Mark VI handled much more nimbly than the Marks III-V did with their early-1960s-style chassis designs.

On the minus side, it wasn’t nearly as outrageous-looking as its forerunners. Fortunately for Lincoln-Mercury, the Age of Disco was coming to a close (even the Village People went Full New Wave for the 1980s) and personal luxury machines no longer had to look like they had gloveboxes packed with disco wafers and extremely flammable suit jackets in the trunk.

The Malaise Era still had three more years to go when 1980 dawned, so the Mark VIs weren’t particularly powerful. This one has the optional two-barrel 351 Windsor under its hood, rated at 140 horsepower and 265 pound-feet.

The base engine for the Mark VI was a 302 Windsor (aka 5.0), with the same 140 horses but 34 fewer pound-feet. The 351W was available in the Mark VI for just the 1980 model year and cost an additional $160 ($649 in today’s money).

Our resident Malaise Era Ford expert tells me that this car has the Luxury Group Option Package, which includes these Barcalounger-grade leather seats. The price tag: $1044, on top of the $16,467 list price for the Mark VI sedan (after inflation, that’s $4235 and $66,800).

The Keyless Entry System (which debuted for the 1980 model year and was renamed SecuriCode later on), added $253 (now $1189) to the cost.

The optional padded landau roof ($240, or $974 in 2025 money) has suffered under the Colorado sun. I could find many more costly options on this car, but you get the idea.

An AM/FM stereo radio was standard equipment, but this car got the $95 ($385 today) AM/FM/cassette Premium Sound System. 1980 was a great year for popular music you could listen to on your Lincoln’s radio, as I’ll prove below.
This was the #1 song of 1980, which is a lot punkier than the common perception of the Malaise Era nowadays.
This song never made it into the pop charts, but some Mark VI owners must have cranked it up in 1980.
Also 1980.
From the very beginning, Continental Mark has been one of the highest forms of automotive expression.

































I remember those Ford AM/FM/Cassette stereos. back in the day they did sound good.
I wish I could take that radio today to use to replace the stupid infotainment screen in my daily ride.
As a bit of a cultural reference yea I get it but a bit of a stretch. You weren’t going to see any of these cars pulling up in front of CBGBs. They were intentionally abandoned on the lower east side to collect the insurance money instead. With the Premium Sound System a mixed cassette to stay period correct. The Runaways doing ‘Cherry Bomb’ followed by Bobby Short singing ‘ I’m in Love Again’ seems about right for a start.
I’m surprised that Sajeev isn’t chasing this one down.
I kinda was, behind the scenes with Murilee.
I had the BIG BROTHER 78.There was nothing on the road more comfortable. Mine was triple White.
The body still looks restorable (maybe why Sajeev was collaborating!) and oh, to be able to choose white over white over dark red for dash and carpets… *sigh*
Drove a four-door one of these as a taxi back in 1985 – what a beaut – room for luggage and four aircrew from the airport into town and they all tipped separately, so yes, I loaded and unloaded luggage and opened doors… 🙂
Picked up an ‘82 Mark VI in ‘95.
A young guy driving the opposite direction from me on a west Phoenix surface street was in it while I was in my ‘78 Suburban, he pulled a U turn and pulled up along side at a red light.
Started asking if I could sell or trade for his Lincoln.
He gave me the Lincoln and $1,000.00 bucks.(I paid $950.00 for the Sub a couple years earlier) lol
Little did I know though at the time…
That early FoMoCo TBI on the 302 was a mess!
That car cost me an average of $300.00 bucks a month till I finally dumped it on another poor guy for $500.00
Lesson learned
I did like the ride and comfort on road trips though, when it ran right!
lol
My current cruiser is an ’83, a little lower optioned than this one, and in red/red. The second owner bought it about the time I started ‘turning wrenches’ professionally, and he babied it to no end. So even though I’ve only owned it a handful of years, there isn’t much service work that I haven’t done.
It’s a fun cruiser, providing you aren’t in any kind of hurry.
The picture of the engine shows a variable venturi carb, not a 2 barrel
About ’84, I bought a first year Mark Vl for $10 K. White on red leather, the 302 with some kind of “throttle body injection”, 2DR. I loved it! Personal side issue: I make many trips from and Jose CA to Los Angelses and back every month or two. The 302 would heat at anything over 80MPH – yeah, I was a bad boy. Shudda installed the heavy-duty radiator. (From Seja’s report, the big boy motor was not available.) Burned a valve. Got a used head from a wrecking yard, lapped the valves, new gaskets – and it ran fine. I’m a pretty good remove-and-replace guy. DO NOT DO ELECTRONICS!) As many of you know, there was a snake nest of vacuum lines and plastic valves around the intake manifold. I used acrylic art paint and very small brushes to color code as I disassembled and reassembled. It worked? Loved that car – but was unwilling to re-upholster in leather.
BLONDIE.. You got me!