300K miles in a 2003 Towncar

Yes, you read that title right --- 300K miles on a 2003 Lincoln Towncar. And how have I managed to do that, you ask? Simple. I run a limousine company and we have a fleet of 2003 Lincoln Towncars. Our oldest one has 300K miles on it, probably a third of which I put on personally.

PROS:
1) RIDE:
My customers routinely comment that the Towncar is the only automobile they can fall asleep in. Lincoln must do something special with the suspension because although you know the bumps and holes in the road are there, they barely penetrate into the cabin.

Part of that comfortable ride probably has to do with the Towncar's size, but in my case, it may also have to do with the long wheel base version of the Towncar most limousine companies use. The front and rear wheels are 6 inches further apart on the long wheel base version. As a general rule (I think), the further apart the front and back wheels are, the smoother the ride (up to a point).

2) POWER:
The Towncar has a 235 HP V8 (I think it's 4.7L). The Towncar won't win any races, but I've never had a problem with passing or acceleration.

In fact, the engine is so powerful and the ride so smooth and quiet that I've found it freakishly easy to do 85 or 90 on the freeway without even knowing it.

3) LUXURY:
Not much to say here. The Towncar has all the standard luxury features you'd expect in a car of that class (leather seats, power everything, etc). You won't ever confuse it for a $70,000 Lexus or BMW, but I've never had a customer complain.

4) GAS MILEAGE
We go through thousands of dollars worth of gas each month so keep that in mind when I say that the Towncar gets pretty good mileage. In combined highway (2/3 of the time) and city driving, we average about 21.5 miles per gallon. Lincoln doesn't specify premium gas for the Towncar, but we'll use premium every 4 or 5 tanks or so to keep engine deposits down.

I don't believe the 2003 Towncar comes with cylinder deactivation so that 21.5 is with all 8 cylinders going at once. I think the newer Towncars do come with cylinder deactivation which probably increases gas mileage by roughly 15%.

5) PRICE:
The prevalence of 0% financing on American cars means that its not worth it to buy a Towncar new. Thankfully, its pretty easy to find a 2 or 3 year old Towncar with 30K miles or so on it in the low $30Ks. Brand new, I belive the Towncar retails somewhere in the high $40K to low $50K range.

6) DURABILITY:
American cars have gotten a lot of bad press about their quality, but I have to hand it to Lincoln. They did a remarkable job on the Towncar's quality. We're a small limo company so our Towncars are on the road all the time. With the exception of oil changes and some larger components that wore out through normal use, we haven't had to spend an unusually large sum of money on repairs. Our oldest Towncar (the one with 300K miles) still starts on the first try every time on the original engine. The interior leather and the exterior paint still look like new.

CONS:
1) HANDLING:
The only real drawback of the Towncar is the handling. I said in #1 above that the suspension makes for a great highway ride, but only if you're on flat straightaways. If you go on any sort of curvy road, the soft suspension makes the Towncar handle like a drunk whale on casters. Seriously.

The soft suspension combined with the heavy engine make understeer (have to really turn the wheel in corners) a problem. The soft suspension also means that you can feel the car lean in even the slightest turn.

Ordinarily, adding a stiffer suspension to a car will reduce the tendency to lean, but it also makes the ride harsher on straightaways. An active suspension (one that changes its stiffness) will eliminate this problem and I think Lincoln does offer one, but its not standard on the Towncar.

2) IMAGE: The Towncar is a great automobile, but with the exception of a black one with tinted windows, it's a shame that it suffers from an image as an old person's car.