1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

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Solid
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1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by Solid »

I'll admit to limited awareness in the post 60's Continentals but I saw this today and thought it might be an interesting oddball to flag for the peanut gallery.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/35390/do- ... one-anyway
Last edited by Solid on Wed Aug 05, 2020 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 1980 Diesel Continental

Post by action »

That is not a 1980 model with a diesel.

The BMW inline six diesel (2.5l or 150 CID) was offered in two model years and in two models
1984 & 1985 Lincoln Continental and Continental Mark VII
Came with a ZF 4 speed automatic transmission.

I drove a brand new '84 Mark LSC for about 6 to 9 months as a company car.
To say I didn't like it was an understatement.
No one else liked them either based on the very low sales volume.
The total vehicles sold in all years with the oil burner was less than 4000 units
Compared to the 5.0l the diesel had less ponies and less torque.
But it was kinda fun to mash the gas pedal and hear the turbo wind up. Not much happened after that.

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Last edited by action on Thu Aug 06, 2020 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by Solid »

I fixed the typo’d year.
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by ContiFan »

Ford (Lincoln) got into the diesel game late compared to GM which had been offering "home grown" diesels since 1978. Ford planned to import 3,000 to 4,000 BMW turbodiesel engines for the Continental and Mark VII in 1984 starting mid model year with hopes for (it didn't work out) 3 to 4 times that for full year 1985.
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by TonyC »

Yes, I remember reading about that. Diesel versions of cars were one of the numerous crazy concepts the auto industry resorted to in the aftermath of the two oil embargos, especially the second one that happened just five years prior. The idea was that, because diesel fuel burns slower than gasoline does, cars fitted with such engines would have greater overall range and thus need to fuel up less frequently. But the cons outnumbered the pros where cars were concerned. Diesel engines are mostly designed for load-carrying, not speed; thus, the very sluggish performance. Diesel engines give off more exhaust by-products than gasoline engines because they don't burn as cleanly. And then, when problems arise, trying to work on a diesel engine takes a lot more effort and a lot of specific knowledge than a comparative gasoline engine would. Then, on top of all that, by the time Lincoln offered the diesel option, it was starting to become evident that the Middle East's attempts to subvert Western economies by starving them of their fuel supplies were starting to backfire; they had all this oil on hand and nobody to sell it to, so they were beginning to drown in their own oil. By 1986, the average price for 87-octane gasoline was about 65¢ a gallon. So all of the conservation tactics that had been thought up suddenly became irrelevant.

The source I read on the BMW-supplied diesel option said that it wasn't necessarily a bad plant in and of itself (as opposed to Oldsmobile's diesel conversion of its 350-cid gasoline engine, for instance), but because it had such a poor power output it just never kicked off the way they hoped. Besides, with the aforementioned "oil crisis" reversing itself by that time, that added to the fatal blow.

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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by Linmk56 »

We had a Diesel Continental in our stock for almost two years. Finally a customer came in that showed some interest in the vehicle. We worked a deal that made him very happy. However, for our dealership, we lost almost $10,000 just to get rid of the thing. We wanted it off our floorplan.
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by action »

Linmk56 wrote: However, for our dealership, we lost almost $10,000 just to get rid of the thing. We wanted it off our floorplan.
A lot of LM Dealers wanted those off the floor plan.
They were dogs in more ways than one.

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2006 Lincoln Navigator Limited 5.4l 3V
1996 Lincoln Mark VIII 2DR Coupe Diamond Anniversary 4.6l DOHC, 4R70W, 3.07
1970 Continental Mark III Triple Black 460 4v, C6, 2.80 (Used for Woodward Dream Cruise or just generally stored in Michigan)
1966 Lincoln Continental 4DR Convertible 462 4v, C6, 3.00
1966 Mercury Park Lane 4DR Breezeway 410 4v, C6, 2.80
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by ContiFan »

A few newspaper ads for diesel Continentals from 1984 and 1985.

July 1985 – Ford "factory executive" auction vehicles
July85.jpg

January 1985 – new, also including a Mark VII
Jan85.jpg

October 1984 – Ford "factory executive" auction vehicle
Oct84-2.jpg

October 1984 – new dealer demonstrator
Oct84.jpg

July 1984 – new, incorrectly has image of Mark VII
July84.jpg

May 1984 – new
May84.jpg
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by ContiFan »

Two more diesel Lincolns currently for sale:

1984 Continental Givenchy - https://albany.craigslist.org/cto/d/for ... 00936.html
1984 Mark VII with almost 200,000 miles - https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ank/ ... 59407.html
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by ContiFan »

A rare 1984 Mark VII Bill Blass Turbodiesel is currently up for bid on BaT.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1984- ... -mark-vii/
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Re: 1984 Diesel Continental (edited)

Post by ContiFan »

The above Turbodiesel Mark VII brought $6,101 ($6,406 with buyer's fee) at the BaT auction.
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