Lincoln Continental Presidential: a Great Leap Forward in Luxury

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

China’s thirst for American executive sedans knows no bounds, so Lincoln is rubbing its palms together and giving the red-hot luxury market exactly what it wants: piles and piles of prestige.

The Continental nameplate is already soaked in presidential history, but for the Chinese market, the company’s flagship model needed something a little more…obvious. These images from China’s Autohome (via Carscoops) reveals Lincoln’s elegant solution — the addition of a “Presidential” badge to the sedan’s rear.

The Continental will get its Chinese debut at the Beijing Motor Show on April 25, and Lincoln clearly wants to put its best foot forward. While the base model comes with front-wheel drive and a naturally-aspired V6, no one would expect that of a Continental with Presidential written all over it.

When you’re president, there shouldn’t be anyone above you, and this rule is especially true in Communist China — hell, there shouldn’t even be competition! Expect to see Lincoln’s 400 horsepower twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 under that hood.

The only other obvious change to the China-bound model is the clear turn signal lenses. Also, expect there to be no new car smell once you hop inside.

The Continental premiered in the U.S. at the North American International Auto Show in January, and will roll onto dealer lots later this year. Base price for a front-wheel drive, 3.7-liter model has been pegged at $45,485, including destination and delivery.



Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on Apr 20, 2016

    The booties on the tires are nice - Howard Hughes would like that. Also, how long before those Presidential badges show up for sale on eBay? And before they start showing up on US Continentals, shod with bling wheels from Rent-A-Tire?

  • Hank Hank on Apr 25, 2016

    "no new car smell" The irony that this is the country that sends us the olfactory scud missile known as Harbor Freight...

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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