At $10,000, Is This 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC A Sweet Deal?

With its low miles and unicorn status, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Mark VIII will stand out in any crowd. Let’s see if its price is something that would “take a village” to get over

When I was a kid, I read a book about a group of older kids who pooled their money together to buy a build-it-yourself track car and then took that car racing. I recall that the car was a Panhard, and there was a lot of drama over costs and competitiveness, but in the end, teamwork prevailed. I wish I could remember more about the book, or even its title, because seventh-grade me really enjoyed it.

Of course, an alternative to building a race car is to buy a turn-key car that has already been outfitted for track tomfoolery, just like the 2001 Porsche Boxster S we looked at last Friday. That car had been stripped to its bare bones and then armed with a 3.6-liter mill from a 911 Carrera for added oomph. A $28,900 price tag and the added promise of free shipping to a new home, wherever that may be, seemed to appeal to many of you. That manifested in the comments, and the 53% Nice Price win garnered by the Boxster.

We should all quickly pop over to the Lincoln website for a moment and look at the lineup. What do we have here? Small SUV. Slightly larger SUV. Mid-sized SUV. Whoa, a large SUV? Who saw that coming? They all seem to be very nice, and Lincoln has done a good job of creating a unified brand image across its range. The problem, though, with maintaining such a cohesive family appearance is that it’s damn-near impossible to tell one model from another aside from their size. And worse, it’s hard to care.

That wasn’t always the case at Lincoln. At one time the company built cars and trucks that stood out. Remember the Blackwood luxury pickup? Sure, that was a crazy-stupid misstep, and it probably caused parent Ford to question what was going on over at its luxury brand. But, boy, did it take guts to bring that stupid truck to market.

Lincoln also once built impressive and aspirational coupes and sedans. It wasn’t Lincoln that gave up on those; it was the market that did. This 1998 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC is one of the last of those grand gestures to a dying market, and it represents the final two-door anything Lincoln has built to date.

The Mark VIII debuted in 1993 and carried through the 1998 model year before metaphorically being taken behind the shed. The big coupe shared much of its underpinnings with the contemporary Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar. Befitting a Lincoln, however, it offered features non-existent in either of those cars, such as air suspension and an available quad-cam edition of the modular V8. The Lincoln also offered more voluptuous body lines than either of the lower-tier cars, as well as more standard kit.

This one, from the model’s final year of production, is claimed to be in excellent condition, having been in the same family since its inception and boasting a mere 47,978 miles on the odometer. It features independent suspension all around, ABS disc brakes on all four corners, and fantastic coupe styling that — unlike the Lincolns of today — will stand out in that hypothetical crowd.

That coupe body almost went racing too. Following Ford’s announcement of the Thunderbird’s discontinuation in 1997, NASCAR Team 37 owner Michael Kranefuss decided to shift the team to the similarly shaped Lincoln. A car was built and tested, but Ford scrapped the entire project, as executives there didn’t want Lincoln to be associated with racing. Instead, Ford persuaded NASCAR to approve a two-door Ford Taurus body skin, although no such car was ever offered to the public, thereby negating the entire “stock car” image.

For the street, however, this Lincoln has the goods. Being an LSC (Luxury Sport Coupe) imbues it with dual exhaust for its 4.6-liter four-cam V8. That bumps the output to 290 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. A 4R70W four-speed automatic sits behind that, and feeds a limited-slip rear end re-geared for acceleration.

Other changes include de-chroming the grille, taillight surround, and side trim, while the interior features perforated leather seating. That all appears to be in great condition on this Mark VIII, with no evident wear and tear on the outside or signs of excessive use in the cabin. The only downside of it being a coupe is the trade-off required for rear seat access. Despite the long doors, the back bench is still a bit of a struggle to reach, and for front-seat passengers, the doors’ length means tight parking spaces can be a challenge. Getting past that one demerit, there’s a lot to like with this big coupe.

Naturally, we’ll have to judge whether or not there’s anything to like about the car’s asking price. That’s $10,000, which will get a new owner a clean title along with a very clean car. Yes, it is a different type of Lincoln from a different time when such things were everyday, but how does it play in the present day and age? Lincoln, after all, and the market as a whole, gave up on cars like this decades ago.

What do you think? Is this Mark VIII an almost-new classic, and hence worth its $10,000 asking price? Or do you think its days are long in the past and its price needs to reflect that?

You decide!

Boston, Massachusetts, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

H/T to Whatsupdohc for the hookup!

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