When it was new, Lincoln dealers struggled to sell the company’s LS models, with some cars remaining on the lot for two years or more. Today’s Nice Price or No Dice LS V8 was one of the lucky ones to make its way into the hands of an owner. Let’s see if there’s still some life left in it, and at what cost that should come.
Horses, it is commonly thought, arrived in the Americas on two occasions. The first was millions of years ago, when horses evolved as native species. Today, those are classified as Equus scotti, their fossil record petering out around 10,000 years ago. The second time was when modern horses arrived with European settlers in the early 16th Century. Those were quickly adopted by the Indigenous peoples of North America, spreading widely along trade routes.
Beginning in the 1960s, the Ford Motor Company made a third attempt at introducing horses to households. In April of 1964, Ford debuted the Mustang. In short order, that was followed by the Bronco, Maverick, and Pinto, filling out Ford’s corral. Today, only the Mustang, Maverick, and Bronco remain. The 1977 Ford Pinto Cruising Wagon we considered yesterday was once one of Ford’s biggest sellers. But despite its nice condition, most of you felt that no Pinto could, or should, be worth the $19,000 that was asked for our car. In the end, it had to be put down in an 87% ‘No Dice’ loss.
No, not that LS
Today, we’re going to look at another Ford product, albeit one sold through the company’s upscale Lincoln brand and sharing a lot of its DNA with the Jaguar S-Type, as Ford owned the British car builder at the time. This 2003 Lincoln LS V8 has a Jag 3.9-liter quad-cam V8 under its aluminum hood. That’s not the only un-Lincoln aspect of the car. There’s also the suspension, which is tauter than any other Lincoln of the time, and bodywork that’s free of vestigial spare tire humps or excess chrome. Additionally, targeting the car’s weight in an un-Lincoln-like fashion, the fort fenders and trunk lid are, like the hood, made out of aluminum.
This was all built on a new platform dubbed DEW98, which also saw duty under the Ford Thunderbird rehash and the mid-sized Jag. Befitting a new car with a new direction, Ford eschewed a traditional name for its car. No Continental or Mark anything for the new sports-oriented four-door. Instead, the company opted for LS6 and LS8, denoting cylinder count. This upset Toyota, as it already had a model named LS on the market. Grumblings about copycat-ism led to threats of lawsuits and recriminations of Toyota’s T150 pickup name being suspiciously close to that of Ford’s F-150. In the end, Ford chose to simply call the Lincoln LS, with the engine being noted separately as either V6 or V8.
Award winner
When it was introduced, Lincoln’s LS won Motor Trend’s advertiser of the year… oops, I mean, Car of the Year award. It also took top honors as the North American Car of the Year award and garnered generally positive reviews from the automotive press. Naturally, such great kudos would result in the LS being a raging success, right? Sadly, no. The LS did okay its first full year on the market in 2000, but the siren song of the Lincoln Navigator and later Aviator on the same dealer lots drove the LS sedan to seeming irrelevance in the following model years.
Not only does this car seem relevant, but it appears to have been well-loved by whoever has been rocking it the past 22 years. According to the ad, this clean-title car has 158,000 miles on the clock. Those don’t show in the bodywork or interior, however. Aside from a couple of very minor chips in the front bumper paint, the bodywork and trim all look to be in excellent condition. Perhaps most remarkably, the plastic covers on the headlamps are free of any clouding or crazing. The car rolls on 17-inch factory alloys, which have been fitted with newish-looking Nexen all-season radials. Out back is the car’s single nod to gaudiness, which is an excessively large and chrome-plated license plate frame that also houses the reversing lamps and the Lincoln crest.
Coming into its own
There’s a lot more to like in the cabin. The car’s generous 114-inch wheelbase means there’s reasonable room in both the front and rear rows of seats. All have leather upholstery, which is perforated in the center. And, while this is an arguably older car, it’s still decked out with a lot of bells and whistles, including a power moonroof, heated and cooled front buckets, and a navigation system in the infotainment stack.
These are pretty spritely for their size, too. The premium fuel-drinking Jag AJ engine makes a reasonable 280 horsepower and 286 pound-feet of torque. Paired with Ford’s 5R55S five-speed automatic, that can push the LS to sixty in just over seven seconds.
Per the ad, the car has current tags, a clean bill of health from the smog tester, and absolutely no issues. The seller also speaks Spanish in case prospective buyers want to bone up on their bilingualism.
A lot for the money?
Regardless of the language in which the sale takes place, the asking price for this LS is $4,500 in good old American money. Due to the model’s initial lack of popularity, this presents a fairly rare opportunity for something off the beaten path. These are also, arguably, pretty nice cars to drive, and 158K isn’t crazy for a car of this age.
But is it something anyone would want? We’re still all crossover crazy after all. What do you think? Is this LS V8 desirable? And more importantly, does that $4,500 asking price make it all the more so? Or, is it only worth a stifled yawn and a move on?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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