Top Luxury for 1970: The New Lincoln Continental vs. the (Chrysler) Imperial LeBaron

Enjoy this annotated comparison about the 1970 Continental vs. the Imperial LeBaron. Let me know your thoughts!

[ludovicoc]

Well, that settles it! It's Imperial for me--I'm making an appointment to see my Chrysler dealer tomorrow.

[ronaldstein]

I'm an old guy now, and really, really miss the Mopars we had back in the day. I'm thankful that I was able to experience them when they had that new car smell. There is nothing on the road today that comes anywhere close to that '70 Imperial.

[alexmerlin]

As a dealership sales person formerly for nearly a decade - every features could be turned both positive or negative to every specific customer depending on what they seek in car)

[sheehy]

I like that the clock on the Chrysler dash shows 4:40. Nice touch.

[rileysteve]

This one brought back a flood of memories, as usual. I have not owned one of these, but, I've driven and been a passenger in plenty of them. To those of us old-time Cadillac fan-boyz I have to say we were pretty impressed with the 1970 Lincoln Continentals. I think they were aimed at the Cadillac De Ville and series 62 customers. The Lincoln finally added cornering lights, which might not seem like much of a thing, unless you've never had them or had them and find you can't get them anymore. Great for night time driving, parking, and finding that address on a mailbox or front of a house. Also, it was less "overbuilt" than the earlier cars which certainly made power steering and windshield wipers more serviceable to say the least. Oh, and where the others ditched the cigarette smokers vent windows, the Lincoln had a system! (More than half of drivers in 1970 smoked and it was an issue (understandably) if you did not cater to them!)
One of the complaints I heard from the old-time Lincoln folks was the change away from center-opening rear doors. The fact is, women (in dresses), elderly in particular, loved them because they could step in and out of the car without flashing everyone. So I don't buy into Chrysler's hyperbole. I had a wonderful 1968 Continental that had center-opening doors and heard nothing but complements from back-seat passengers. (The convertibles 1961-1967 were the best as you could just walk right in or out!)
There were really nice fabrics and patterns available. I thought Lincoln was finally brought up to date overall.
I think Lincoln did a really good job shifting into a whole new design for them.
Most importantly, the warranty issue was an obstacle to the Lincolns sales team, but, it did not take the public too long to figure out that the new Lincolns were decidedly more DEPENDABLE than the Cadillac's or Chrysler's.
I completely agree with your assessment of the ride and handling of the Imperial. It was great in turns, yet, even the littlest bumps and uneveness in the road could be transmitted to the passenger cabin. It did not feel heavy or mushy, but, that was used against them by Lincoln and Cadillac (especially the Sixty-Special series) whose regular customers were used to a heavy sofa-on-wheels ride.
I totally disagree with Chrysler's hyperbole about ease of parking. Anybody that drove any of the old full sized Chrysler products back in the day is fully aware of the frustration in parallel parking (with a line of angry drivers piling up behind you) because the steering wheel would barely turn one and a half turns before hitting the stop. It was almost comical. The thing that really got me was by 1969, with the advent of the fuselage bodies, the dashboard and interior became VERY "plasticky". I was like getting into a Plymouth or a Rambler! Even though the Lincoln had stopped using real wood in their interiors, (as did Cadillac with the 1968 year) the plastic was at least tasteful.
The most common complaint I got about Chrysler products was from women. More and more women of the era were going out and buying their own cars without any men. There was a big difference in dealing with the sales teams at a Chrysler dealership as compared to a Lincoln/Mercury dealership (the Cadillac dealerships were a completely different experience from everybody else because they had been trained to deal with sophisticated clientele to begin with.)
I mean, if anybody walked into a Chrysler dealership back in the day they had better be a damned good horse-trader and wrangler! The women would get totally beaten-up and intimidated. I always felt like the Imperial should have had their own stand-alone dealerships from 1955 forward, whose sales teams were geared to a much more sophisticated clientele and it wouldn't have hurt Lincoln either. I believe it affected their sales adversely over the years.
Anyway, you asked for comments and I'm always good for an opinion. Thankyou for posting these vids. I don't always agree with your opinions, yet, you do a great job of presenting a part of automotive history, in some cases, long ago forgotten.

[j.sayler]

It's funny to watch these old training filmstrips: The company who made each one ALWAYS has the much better car! Thank you, Adam, for adding insights from your own ownership.

[charlesb]

The center fuel filler was NOT a negative. Much easier to gas up and no spillage down the paint.

[timferguson]

My mom had an uncle( I guess he was my uncle too from Hammond Louisiana.) He had a 1960 Imperial. All I really remember(he died when I was 5 in 1964). It was black big and even at 5, i thought it was the most beautiful car I had ever seen!

[joehumenansky]

My father had a '73 2 door LeBaron and a '72 New Yorker Brougham 4 door hardtop. BIG highway cruisers! These were very comfortable traveling cars that got fair mileage on interstate trips. Still recall all the space and effortless driving. I'd go for the Imperial.

[WydGlydJim]

First I would like to compliment Jeffery on being able to attract all those young hipster honeys at 42!
🤣
Anyway both of these models in the two door coupe are arguably two of my favorite designs of the fuselage era. They both have acres and acres of fuselage and deck lid beyond the doors, which just gives this massive expanse of car out back! I love it!
😍

[KoldingDenmark]

I love the Lincoln and always have, especially in the 1970's.

[BrokebackBob]

Great job Adam! This format is fun especially with your commentary! Worth doing another one!

[CLMT]

Drove one of these 4 door Imperials in high school, big boat, I loved it!!

[RichardinNC]

I was always a Mopar/Imperial fan. I did get a ride in a 70 or 71 Lincoln Continental when young. It was a WV state car on the way to a Capitol tour. Our neighbor was on the governor security team at the time and took us on the tour. Nice attractive quiet car, but would still pick the Imperial.

[muckraker]

I have owned both a 1970 imperial LeBaron, and a 1971 (basically same car) Lincoln towne car. I always felt that the Lincoln had a more "I have arrived" presence than Imperial. The imperial had more interior aspects that I liked, such as the time delay illuminated ignition switch, and the factory transmission tunnel mounted cassette player. My 1969 Imperial coupe actually had couple bean-counter resistant interior novelties, such as a nighttime illuminated drivers door power window switch panel. The Lincoln had a more resounding essence of quality *kuh-CHUNK* when one would close the door. Living in the midwest, one has got to love the driver side fuel fill on those cold winter morning fill-ups. When I was a kid I would ride my bicycle around to all the car dealers... Back then, they almost always leave the cars The luxury cars were what I always enjoyed looking at. I was a gadget kid, and loved all the interior "toys". My favorite be-gadgeted car, being my 1966 Town Landau. Now THERE'S a car to do a story on. 😉

[SedanChevy]

I'm going to go with I'd take both. Lincoln might have a better ride, but that's the only real edge I can give either. Both were 10/10 styled cars imo, inside and out. I really like what Lincoln did, as they stepped away from the extremely clean 60s continental design. Imperials fuselage styling was the best from Chrysler co, and really stands out. I also feel the need to throw a line out to Cadillac, which is the one I would've bought, as I like the mix of ride/handling, quadrajet carb, and superb styling (albeit with lower build quality than the others).

The key to me is that you couldn't pick a bad American luxury or near luxury car in 1970. Everything from a Caprice or LTD, to the Mercs and Buicks, and of course these top dogs- they were all stand out cars that truly represented a high point of engineering and styling that wouldn't survive the coming onslaught of emissions and safety regulations, a gas crunch, and an era of financial hardships that saw Imperial disappear, Cadillac on the back foot with bad engineering mistakes in the 80s, and Lincoln...somehow making it out okay.

[eddiestanley]

How nice of "Jeffrey" to include his "daughters" in the ad.😁😆

[christopherkraft]

Great video Adam, I really enjoy these comparison videos!!! 👍👍🙂

[JackF]

Only on this channel can one get an authentic marketing slide show challenged with contemporary first hand experience. Bravo! Growing up in the '60s and '70s my dad apparently had some bad experiences with Mopars in the late '50s in terms of reliability. So it was either Ford's or GM's for him when I was a kid. Finally in 1971 he was talked into getting a Town & Country station wagon and on our first trip to the Midwest from California the gear lube leaked out of the diff and it howled all the way home. Definitely the last Mopar he ever bought. He passed last year.

[billbernhard]

What a terrific year for ALL American automobiles ! MOPAR always looked for 'a better way' to make a car !