If the new Town Car is any indication of Lincoln-Mercury's intent to change minds about what a luxury car should be, then they are well on their way toward attracting a new group of buyers. Lincoln-Mercury wants to keep all of
its current customers -- they give the Town Car one of the highest loyalty and repurchase rates in the industry.
But, at the same time, the division wants to use the new Town Car to attract buyers away from other domestic and
Japanese luxury brands.
Lincoln-Mercury plans to do this with fresh styling and a greatly improved driving experience achieved through
better handling, better brakes and a more controlled ride quality.
The Lincoln Town Car is 85 percent new for 1998. While the designers, engineers and product planners have
maintained the interior space and trunk space of the previous, boxlike Town Car, they have thrown away the rectilinear
design, the square corners and some of the formality of the car. In its place is a new shape that owes something to