I guess it ultimately didn't make sense to Ford either.

 

You got me. What the hell is the LS about anyway?

 

LS is our 1st real US sports sedan.

It was enough to get Cadillac to import the Catera till they could get the CTS going.

The V8 with sports suspension a really good, quick, very well handling car. It's just a crying shame Ford jacked up the price to 40 grand+ (a few years ago it was about $5,000 less), and isn't creating a Ford version.

 

I've always liked the LS....it's really a nice car to drive. But on the Ford hierarchy, it has always lived in the shadow of the Jaguar S-Type. Couldn't be quite as fast. Couldn't look quite as pretty. Had to be cheaper than S-Type...but couldn't be a raging bargain, compared to it.

Before the LS was introduced, I was invited by Ford, along with a bunch of other car enthusiasts, to drive the LS and compare it to some competitors.
I was paired up with a DEW98 chassis engineer most of the day....and he had absolutely no qualms with me driving these cars REALLY, REALLY, hard all day.

I left feeling very impressed with the LS and DEW98. I was sure that Ford had a smash hit on it's hands. Don't exactly know how LS started this downward sales spiral.....it's almost as if Ford has let it die of neglect.

What a pity.

 

It's really funny how anyone who has ever driven these cars say the same thing. Yet, anyone who has never spent wheel time behind one tends to forget they exist or that these are slow sluggish cars (me included).

I had a chance to rent the V8 sports model almost 2 years ago at a huge discount while the Camaro was layed up (yet again) and drove it to Phoenix from San Diego for the Labor Day weekend. Don't know if it was because I didn't expect it, but the car was surprising.

It had plenty of power in reserve, excellent feed back & road holding (anyone who has driven on Interstate 8 in east San Diego-Imperial county will appriciate this), and ran like the dickens till it's speed governer kicked in

It's not a Z28 or Corvette, but it is easily the quickest, best handling thing with 4 doors I've actually driven (The 300C was a short test drive and freeway burst).

Though he may be known for wrecking the rest of the company, this is one thing former Ford CEO Jac Nasser got absolutly right. I hope Ford doesn't lose this chassis, throwing the baby out with the bath water.

 

Does anyone on this forum own an LS? If not, why not? Especially people who have driven them and like them.

As far as price, you can get $10000 off on the V8s and nearly that much on the V6s. That means a loaded V8 model for $37000 and a well-equipped V6 for $23000 to $24000 (Lincoln is showing its inept marketing by giving an extra rebate to owners of Cadillacs and full size Buicks, as if any of those people would be interested in a sporty, rear wheel drive sedan).

If I were buying a four door sedan, I still don't think I'd go for the Lincoln, though I would consider it. My limit would be around $30K, which leaves out the V8, and the V6 is not quick enough for me. Now if the LS V6 were a 3-valve VCT variant of the 4.0 SOHC in the Mustang, things would be different.

 

I was talking more in terms of priceing not in terms of speed. an ashoton martin can range between 80k-140k, now the most expensive lineup GM has is hummer an H1 could go for 100k if turbo disiel, off road package, chrome light bars, rims etc. Snorkle. Now the H2's are more civi marked with soccer moms gettign something that will make a whole in a wall, but not cost that much 50-60k is the usual going price.

I LOVE the Lincoln LS v8 it looks nice, my next car will be a luxury car and the lincoln ls has looks, styleing and is rwd. Its either that or an STS but i like the looks of the LS more. I see alot of them around here i thought they were doing good? The last one i saw was today driven by a bombshell milf and she had her 2 daughters in it heading towards the mall. THe car has become very popular with the younger crowd as well. If the LS had about 50 more hp i think it would sell pretty nice.

 

Yes, but then it would be faster than Jaguar. Once the new 3.5l V6 is available, I would think that it would be put in the LS, assuming that the LS is not discontinued or about to be discontinued by then. The V8 could go up to 4.4l, as it is in the Land Rover. That would give it 300hp and more bottom end grunt. But I'm not too hopeful of that.