Faults:

Distributor froze stuck, couldn't adjust the timing. Ended up replacing the distributor. There was a vibration in the driveshaft, and had to have it custom fixed at a tractor trailor drive shaft shop. Turns out that particular driveshaft is somewhat rare, but it got fixed. The car tends to wander on the highway, and you would swear the front end alignment is off, but this is normal for that model car, so don't dive down into the passenger floor digging for that spare change for the tolls. You may end up in a ditch. That's all. Very reliable car.

General Comments:

This is my second 79 Town Car, and I just love it! I bought it from a guy who bought 3 of them in 79 for his funeral business. A custom silver with blue leather interior and blue tannoau half top. This is a beautiful large car, classy and comfortable. Lots of creature comforts, like lighted mirrors in both sun visors. (Wife loves that!) It's huge, like riding in your living room, assuming you have leather furnishings. You can spread out and relax, and just glide down the road in old school style. I get a lot of compliments on the car, and personally there is nothing I would rather drive. The engine is underpowered for such a heavy car, but since the 400M is a truck engine, and there's lots of performance upgrades for that engine, I was more than happy to yank the motor out and beef it up. Power isn't a problem anymore, and even got the MPG up to 13. Not bad for a beast like that! The C6 tranny is time proven and reliable. The brakes running off the power steering pump makes for some nice braking, and the power steering itself needs little effort. I stear with a finger most of the time.

This is not a performance car. It is a luxury car. I wouldn't take it into sharp turns doing 80, and parking can be a challenge, but if you want to just cruise and relax, this is the car for you, and you may not have a stiff back at the end of a road trip.

Faults:

After I purchased this beautiful car, I did a VERY THOROUGH inspection- and found that the bolts which secure the steering column under the dashboard had worked themselves loose through the years. An easy fix- just tighten the 4 bolts. But for such a smooth-riding car, it surprised me that something like this would happen.

Other than that, no strange or out of the ordinary issues, just minor things like replace 1 headlight trim ring (broken), full tune-up, replace missing dash bulbs, etc.

2-barrel carburetor hesitates a bit upon acceleration, otherwise runs very smooth. No mechanical problems otherwise; everything works great.

The 8 track radio works, although volume is broken (stuck on low setting). I sent the unit out for service, and am still waiting for it (2 months). I have since found the 'perfect parts car' at a salvage yard with am/fm radio. I installed this radio, and... it has a very bad "hum" in the background: (

General Comments:

I purchased this '79 Town Coupe as a hobby- an addition to my '66 Pontiac GTO and '66 Pontiac Tempest.

It is undoubtedly the most comfortable car ever built- an excellent representative of an era when American luxury cars were at truly their greatest.

There were no compromises then. Although it's neither lightweight, great on gas, nor does it fit right into the average parking space, it does however perform exactly as it was designed to perform- to provide all of it's passengers with the highest quality of comfort during any type of travel, and with a most prestigious bodystyle.

It seemed very typical for these cars to either:

1. Fall into complete disrepair through the years due to owner neglect.

2. (just the opposite) many they'd be elderly owned since new and treated fairly well and preserved for many years.

This was the last year for the big Lincolns; it's really too bad that most people see these cars only as "HUGE" and not much else past that.. this really was the height of American luxury, at it's finest.