A town car is the name of a type of car body.
The Lincoln town car is a 4 door sedan, which is a different type of body. A town car is a limousine that has a roof that does not cover the front seat, and has a window behind the front seat which encloses the passenger compartment. Thus the chauffer is outside while the passengers are inside.
Two Lane.
Favorite Answer
I think it's a great name. Coupe De Ville is french for Car of the Village/Town. That's were 'Town Car' came from. Why don't you rag on Cadillac for doing the same thing?
Mustang is a horse and a Corvette is a small military boat but neither of the 2 look like a horse or a boat. Your rant is void.
Delamothe
Upsucker - you are absolutely correct about the old SAE designation for the town car body. In the 70's and 80's a lot of Lincoln Town Cars were outfitted with partial vinyl roofs that would "kind of" show this split of the roof line.
A lot of body designations have been misused ever since (the 1930's) though. Look up cars of the 70's and 80's that were called broughams, berlines, and cabriolets. They just used the body designator as a name and nothing else.
But I'll tell you this; I'll take a body name any day over the ridiculous three letter alphabet soup everyone is using these days. That's even more ridiculous and damaging to a brand's longevity than anything else.
Mike
i had a lincoln town car which has 4 doors. i also had a town coupe which had 2 doors. whats the big deal people a coupe is a coupe and a sedan is a sedan. most of the town-cars-4dr. had half vinyl roof with a moon roof as a option. oh by the way lincolns were made mercury while a marquis were made by ford.
Miss Alaska
Well Upsucker, it is not a completely stupid name.
The idea in selling a big expensive car like that one, is to point out to people that it is something we would expect a rich person to buy. When the buyer is inside it he looks like he is rich.
As long as the name is associated with something rich, its gets it job done.
When I think of "town car", I remember it is something my rich grandmother used to say. Her car was a Buick Electra that was the car at her house, and her house was in town (I would'nt call it a town house though) well sometimes she called her buick a town car.
The idea was when she was growing up, a rich family had a summer house out in the country. Back then when there was nothing like an Interstate highway, you would have to spend all day on 2 lane roads or even dirt roads to get out there, so they would take the train, and they would have another car waiting for them out there. This car was often a station wagon (as in train station). So when refering to the other car, that was they town car.
I suppose a man who lived in Manhattan on 5th ave. would drive his town car to the theatre, then he would take the L.I.R.R. out to the Hamptons and use his Lincoln Navigator.
George the rotund hippo
In Britain "town car" has become a synonym for "city car". i.e. a very very small car that can fit into the smallest of parking spaces. So giving such a name to a very large car is ever so stupid.