Adam Wade of Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History (2025) recently compared the Lincoln Continental Mark III and the first-generation Cadillac Eldorado. Although the Mark III had a much simpler and more derivative design, Wade still preferred the Lincoln because of the interior’s quality and overall fit and finish.
This strikes me as a reasonable assessment that may very well have reflected the views of many luxury personal coupe buyers back in the day. As we have previously discussed, the Mark III and its successors were breakthrough cars for the Ford Motor Company because they were the first postwar Lincolns that challenged Cadillac for sales supremacy.
This underlines a fascinating paradox: Even though the exterior styling of the 1967-70 Eldorado has arguably withstood the test of time better than the Mark III, it represented the beginning of Cadillac’s descent from utterly dominating the U.S. luxury car field. And while we can criticize the Mark series for its rather crass cribbing of Rolls Royce styling cues, it arguably did do “brougham” better than either the first- or second-generation Eldorado.
Wade does a good job of walking us through the design features of a 1971 Mark III and a 1969 Eldorado. In general, he strikes me as being among the more analytically sophisticated producers of auto history videos. I could say that he is well worth following, but his YouTube channel (go here) has far more followers than Indie Auto, so perhaps it’s most appropriate to tip my hat with respect.
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RE:SOURCES
- Wade, Adam; 2025. “1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III: Green with Envy!” Rare Classic Cars & Automotive History. Posted Jan. 29.
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