Learn more about the Mark III and Mark IV as well as what makes them different. Video with Mark on the Thunderbird and Mark III: • All About the "Glamour...
My dad had a Mark V. it was white with a white leather interior. I loved it, but found the dimensions daunting. The front hood was so long, it was like driving an International Harvester tractor, and the two doors were so huge and heavy, my mother was once trapped because she had parked uphill and couldn't keep the driver's door from slamming shut on her because of gravity. I once drove it to a party my girlfriend had gotten an invitation to. It turned out to be on a tractor trail through the woods, and the party consisted of a gathering of the Hell's Angels. They stared as this huge white car came bouncing across the field. Needless to say, we did not fit in with the torn jeans, tattoos, and huge Harleys. But they were very nice to us and thought I had a lot of guts to barge into their party driving that huge fancy car. When we left, I thought I would never be the same again!
Even when I was driving early 1970s Cadillacs, the Mark IV, Mark V and Thunderbird looked clumsy by comparison, with so much of the length in the hood. I worked with a woman who had just bough one and the first thing she noticed was how hard it was to get a view for a left turn without getting too close to the path of oncoming traffic.
I worked in a small town with a biker guy back in the late 80's that was known around as someone not to be messed with, even by all the other 'tough' guys. In and out of jail constantly. Got off on self defense when he killed his brother. He drove a clapped out black on black 69' Lincoln Mark III and it seemed to fit his personality perfectly...lol
Mom had the identical Mk IV, down to the colour. She found navigating it in steep driveways to be downright dangerous due to lack of visibility over that hood. That car had the shortest tenure in our family by far as she hated it so much. It was certainly pretty to look at though. And as a bonus, I built my first model car (a Revell snap together '57 Chevy) in the back seat while waiting for my older sister to finish her shopping. Good times...
I'm with you, Adam. I too, have a preference for the Mark III. I think the Mark IV is OK, but I do appreciate the luxury trim groups, the Silver Luxury Group and the Blue Diamond Fire Luxury Group in particular. Having owned one for a number of years, i loved driving my Mark III. One thing you failed to mention is the way the Mark III would push you back against the seat under hard acceleration. Such wonderful torque!
Adam, the only thing I wish your Mark III had, was real wood dash instead of plastic. I would get a '70 or 71 cause I really love the organic feel of natural wood 😮
Beautiful comparison, the burgundy Mark III is fabulous! Mark III is worth 10 of the Mark IV! Unbelievable how they cheapened it in just 3 years. Great trivia on the pintuck on the seat cushion, pure quality!
The Mark IV may look really good and definitely is smoother in terms of lines, something about the Mark III looks like it has better attention to detail, a little classier and a little higher end, really just a little bit more special. Definitely the winner
I had a Mark IV. Rode excellent. Did a Duke of Hazzard airborne of about 6 inches going to fast. But my son was about 8 years ago and to this day he remembers it.
@@RareClassicCarsmaybe not a generation to the next but how about your 67 Impala with the 454 vs your 1977 Chevy Impala 9C1? Would be interesting to see how much they changed. I already know your favorite one😉
That would be interesting. I can imagine the handling and rattling differences alone. But even if the '77s had supposedly "more interior room" according to the EPA, I bet the '76s would feel wider especially in the back seat.
I know where a 58' Lincoln Premier is. Just finished complete drivetrain and all mechanical restoration on one about 2 months ago in Southeastern Virginia. Also did a 69' Mark III 6 months before that. I love the 69'. The 58' not as much...lol
Great video and 100% agree with you. When the Mark III came out I remember all I wanted was M lll. But I believe, because a friends dad had one, the Mark IV actually was introduced in 1971-1/2, it did not have the lower cross bar on the grill and it also did not have an opera windows. Some late models (71.5) did have opera windows but still no cross or bumper bar on the grill. I read it was because Ford rushed it. These Marks (3&4) were the best in my view. I had 75, 76, 77 never a 72. I did have a 68 Lincoln 2 door it was very much like a Mark lll. Thanks for the great video!
In 1982, my older brother had a '72 Lincoln, it was a light blue w/a white vinyl top. Don't remember whay Mark it was, but it was certainly a tremendous car for my 13 yr old eyes! Then a week or so later, his bestbud drives up in a 78 Town Car, that was even more HUGE!!! 😳 Since seeing THAT Lincoln for the first time, I've driven nothing but Town Cars since! But the Linc Coupe my brother had...started me on my love for these boats!!! 😊
GREAT story. I remember seeing the 59 Caddilac at a gas station in 59 for the first time, at 6 years old. I have been a Cadillac fan ever since, even though I owned a 69 Mark III, a most stunning, fine automobile. The Mark III finer than the 67 Eldorado I owned and loved it also.
I owned a "72 Mark IV in Ivy Moondust, green interior and black roof (it wasn't vinyl but appeared to be some sort of nylon.) I really enjoyed driving it.
I'd be happy driving either one of these beauties. I remember when the Mark IV came out I thought the dash looked "Fordish" and cheap compared to the MarkIII dash. I think the best year for the MKIII was '71 and the best year for the MKIV was '72 because of the smaller front bumper - although I like the the one that has the totally exposed radiator instead of the one in this video with the bumper that goes across the radiator.
Would love to see you compare the features and driving experience of the Mark III vs the 72 Continental Coupe that you have. I am considering both and would love your comparisons on them!! 🙏🏻
I had a 1969 mkIII it was a really nice car. Noticed yours must be an early build car, it doesn't have the embroidered Lincoln crest on the rear seat, unless leather interiors didn't do that mine was fabric interior. I found the build sheet for mine under the hood center insulation peice that is inline with the air cleaner. 69 models had the only factory balanced and blueprinted engines ford ever sold for a production model. Those engines were also externally balanced, there is an counter weight on the front of the crankshaft. Sent the cylinder heads on mine for 3-angle valve job and porting and polishing, after flow testing they pulled more cc's than a 429scj head. found a dual 4bbl low profile intake manifold and installed a couple 390cfm holley's on it. The 69 was the lightest mkIII also, by 71' they had ballooned up to 5000lbs, mine weighed 4280lbs. Love the memories with that car.
I always wanted a Mark III, but it never happened. But I had an identical 72 Mark IV to the one in the video, including the same color exterior, but black interior. I bought it on eBay around the year 2000, with 10k original miles, and it was _literally_ a barn find, as it had been stored in a barn for decades. It's true that with the changes to the 460, the stock Mark IV wasn't a scorcher. So I gave the engine a little help with an Edelbrock performance intake and carb. I added an appropriately quiet dual exhaust, which I believe further woke up the 460. All that plus being carefully tuned for high octane gas (which allowed for advancing the timing a bit). With these changes, my Mark IV was able to do some scorching. ...And was able to burn through even more gas! I was asked several times about the mileage, and I would always answer, "Umm... it does pretty good, it burns _slightly_ less fuel than the space shuttle when launching." Lol
I was given a 1976 Mark IV by an aunt and uncle in the early nineties. It had the blue diamond luxury group which ment turquoise inside and out plus light driftwood faux wood trim. It rode very smooth and quiet although the 1968 Imperial i had at the time was much better handling. The 76 Mark had a rear wheel antilock braking system that worked quite well in the rain.
My mom bought a new Burgundy 69 Mark lll and then a new Medium Blue 73 Mark lV - I Like the the bigger look & feel of the lV. I had a new (sister car) - the 75 Thunderbird (but with the rectangular Opera window) that was FULLY Optioned that included the front ELECTRIC Vent windows that went down 1st the then the main side window followed, the car was White with White Leather Interior and Black Carpets & Dash, with a White Vinyl Roof with Moon roof, auto headlights & delay wipers ... (It was gorgeous). I drove the 73 Mark IV to my High School Prom in 74 ! (my car then was a 69 GTO Judge Carousel Red 4 Speed Ram Air lll)
Love these Great Looking Cars. The dash on the ‘69 LOVE IT! But the ‘72 Full sized Ford products all kind of look very boxy to me and especially as the 70’s progressed.
I did this same 'battle' as 13 years old when the new '72 Mark IV came out! I ended up just thinking of one as Matt Helm's car and one as Frank Cannon's car... it's kind of makes sense!
Mark III is sure the nicest. Cheaply built Mark IV looks sleek but front bumper has that guppy fish mouth. My brother had a floaty 77 mark VI Lincoln with 5mph bumpers.
I remember those long heavy bank vault doors when they close you tdident what your fingers anywhere near! Also remember the blue green backlining for the gauges. The the 8-tracks tapes always seem to have some sort of a Whistler or hum, dad thought it was maybe a bad diode on the alternator.
Even when I was a kid delivering papers in 1972, the new Thunderbird looked big-for-the-sake-of-big and kind of cheap compared to its predecessors, which I saw in the driveways of the houses on the route. While the T-Bird's sister car, the Mark IV, did have a bit more legroom than its predecessor and with obviously more crush length, was probably safer, it had clownish proportions and a Torino-esque dashboard. As I often point out, the Mark III was 2.5 tones of car packed into about the same exterior dimensions as the "downsized" 1977 T-Bird. The price premium of a personal luxury coupe is for exclusivity and the Mark III just seemed to have a lot more of it. But ... the public swallowed up the 1972-1979 overgrown-Torino models as fast as Ford could churn them out, so it seems that sector of the market wasn't as exclusive as it was hyped up to be.
When comparing interiors, the Mark IV looks like a lower trim level of the Mark III. Yes, the Mark IV has better exterior styling but, in the end, you spend your time in the cabin and there really is no contest which of these two is more luxurious. Mark III all the way.
I'm impartial as I owned a magnificent Mark III, it was Beautiful, but I guess maybe my years are off because we got it in 72.... always thought it was 72... Also, my young Padawan, it takes time, hard work and hit or miss, trail and error, and patience like a Grand Master, but it is possible to get both eyelids, as we called them in the shop, to work together when turned on or off. Together I mean. It takes time, but you play with the vacuum tubing enough long enough you will get there. In fact they make or made a vacuum tube tool kit that would help assist in working on the headlights. Many, including mine would slowly over time slip and eventually they went out of alignment, and that was do to a small air leak in the system, it was a cool but dumb idea lol, as vacuum is used to open and close the lids, so it had to hold that vacuum without any assistance when the engine is off, and the hoses were not of the highest quality, my Dad and I changed that and wow what a difference, we put thicker rubber tubing in and were the lines turn aluminum we replaced those and put a less hard bend or a more gentle angle on it, we tested the system found zero leaks, aligned the lids and after that upgrade they never lost their alignment. And folks would ask, very nice, hey how did you get them aligned, we would tell them and they'd wave their hand in the air like shooing a fly, nah forget all that work I'll just live with the sleepy look. Which is what it looked like lol like the car was sleepy waking up and sleeping going to sleep. Ours was a green metallic think avocado but with metallic flakes of fine silver dust scattered, beautiful shiny chrome, with super dark green think Green Death Ny Quill leather interior, and with chrome touches inside too, and a mean black tight vinyl roof top, make fun of those all you want but man did the roof hold up. I'd give almost anything, maybe a step child of mine lol, to have one of these back, almost anything until you look at gas prices and small parking spaces. In 1994 my Brother was driving home and at a stop sign he stopped behind the line and some kid I'm a new BMW ran his stop sign and turned left and swiped across the front, because my brother a young driver assumed the BMW driver was going to stop and being first there to cross straight through the 4-way stop, well thanks to the awesome breaks on this bad boy, he didn't come out all the way, but when that BMW made contact lol the whole left side from the driver door back just folded up underneath and the Mark 3 the grill was pushed back, thankfully the real radiator is back a bit from that cool grill so no mechanical damage was made, and there was a blue paint scratch on the driver side bumper and the left turn light housing had a crack but that's it. The accident wasn't far from the house and where the stop sign intersection was at in a neighborhood the house on the right corner where the Mark 3 was stopped at, was my Brother's Football coach and he was out watering the lawn, thankfully he saw the whole thing and was also the Fire Chief retired by this time. So his report and his neighbor who also witnessed it overruled the BMW driver who had no witnesses and said my Brother was the one who ran the stop sign. Insurance paid for the repairs. We got her back after a long hard week without her and she looks like a beautiful butterfly. But for that plastic BMW to just cave up lol is a testament to the strength of a real Detroit steel car! Today I'd much rather be in that Mark 3 like a tank compared to the Mattel and playschool cars of today. Made from 100% recycled plastic trees lol worked on an 09 Toyota Camry and my magnet bottom flashlight wouldn't stick anywhere until I finally found a tiny spot of metal and I was remembering the 4 way stop accident my brother had. Things got tight, my Dad and Mom split, my Brother and I were trying to support us to keep the house, we went a couple of winters without a heater, no Thanksgiving or Christmas' you really can tell there's something special about Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Day no matter how hard you try to think of it being just another day it isn't. Like a Sunday. So we sold a few things to help pay the bills, I was going to school and helped work on cars in the neighborhood while my Brother was also doing school and worked at a local grocery store. Mom had jobs here and there but was mostly a House wife which is a job and really there should be a Housewife day very important and a hard job to do. Stay at home Mom's are Awesome and Thank you to them. But Mom was out trying to find work and a man at the bank saw the Lincoln and was taken by it, as it was in great condition and wouldn't you know that morning the driver side power window died and I was going to fix it but my Brother and I did get it to lock in the up position as this was early November and it was cold where we lived. But the man said he was a collector Scout for a famous man and he was authorized to make good deals with owners, and that his boss has been looking for an eye catching original off color Lincoln that not many bought, (trust me that green was cool but it took a special person to want that color lol) he said he knows what his boss likes and he knows that he will love this car especially being a Mark 3. Mom was brave and we really needed help and I don't blame Mom one bit. Mom was at that time, (still alive as of this writing 2023) she said oh, this car is an extension of herself she said to him I could part with it for anything less than 60 thousand. He asked to look it over and she asked if he could meet at the house where she would be more comfortable and not in a bank parking lot, he agreed and later my Brother and I and Mom watch this short long brown haired man in a black suit and light blue tie crawl all around with a flashlight looking and checking making notes he knew about the driverside window and he didn't care said they have a whole shop with master mechanics that can keep this car going till the end of time lol. My Brother and I asked him so who is the Boss and he said I can't tell you that but he has a huge car collection and he collects motorcycles he usually keeps what he finds or I or one of his scouts find, sometimes he uses them to trade with other owners but he has been looking for a nice example of a mark 4 or 5 but this is a mark 3 and I had called and told him all about this one and he said get it. And so he says Ma'am, I am authorized to give you 60 thousand. Mom asked my Brother and I and we agreed, after the check cleared it was from a corporate business so we still had no idea who bought it. But when it was all said done we stood in the driveway and watched our mark 3 driveway. We were sad but we needed the cash. And to this day we never did find out who bought it, but my Brother and I believe it was Jay Leno lol you never know. But I never saw it or one like they one we had ever again. I sure miss it, powerful, graceful, majestic car. You put the peddle down and you'll bury your head into the headrest of the seat as the rest of your body experiences G force like never before. I always joked Miles of hood out before you, because this was before that nose vanishing trick all cars have now you get in and the hood is gone and you cant see it. No, not in the Mark 3, it was all out there for you to witness its glory. And it arrived 30 minutes before you did lol. Beautiful cars, but the winner will always be Mom's extension Mark 3. ❤❤❤
@10:51 I remember as a two- or three-year-old asking my mom why there was a sundial on the Pattersons' car. This really confused her, so she asked me where it was. When I said it was on the trunk, she finally realized what I was referring to and said, "Oh! No, that's a styling feature that's supposed to look like a spare tire, like on older cars from the '20s and '30s." I remember then wondering what *those* cars looked like.
My `97 Lincoln Town Car has a lot of wind rush sound coming through the windshield. I've never experienced that in any of my Cadillacs. The trunk is the deep well trunk like your `69. In some ways my `96 Cadillac Sedan DeVille rides nicer than the Lincoln, but the Lincoln has much less engine sound inside. As for those two cars, both are beautiful, and the comparison was interesting. Thanks.
My mom bought her triple black 1970 Mark III in 1970. My dad wanted her to buy an El Dorado but she would not drive a Cadillac. When my mom saw the 1972 Mark IV her salesman showed her, I remember her commenting that the interior looked cheap compared to her Mark III.
Love both of these cars but the Mark III is definitely my favorite. I wonder if Lincoln drew some design inspiration from the 66-68 Toronado. The overall shape and fender flares evoke an evolution of that theme.
I grew up with a 76 Thunderbird my grate aunt was 4 ft 2 never drove when I knew her but she had a 76 Thunderbird all options except sunroof lipstick red with white interior. When she went in a nursing home she gave my dad the car I remember many trips in it and I wanted to have it for my first car but Dad was not going to give me a 32 k miles 460 with dual exhaust for my first car. Anyway my 73 Dart Swinger two-door hardtop 318 with duel exhaust and repainted all red was nothing more than a kid could ask for!
Forgot to mention that I also LOVE the Mark lll wheel arches. Theyre similar to the "French Curves" of Classic Cars Think Talbot Lago. But another Iconic car that was a very similar front and rear wheel arch is the 1957 Chevy! I just did a google search and its uncanny how similar they are though the Mark has a bulging lip around the upper part of the arches. Does anyone else agree?
Ok I love these cars!!! I remember back in the 80s when I was a kid one of my neighbors down the street had a 70s Lincoln mark 4 !!! I remember they traded it in for a brand new Honda Accord 🤷♂️ but at the time the Honda Accord was very popular!!!! I remember my parents had an Audi 5000 and a Volvo wagon!!! When the elderly couple down the street traded their big old Lincoln for a Honda Accord!!! Everyone was so surprised, but I remember my mom telling my dad how did they get a Honda Accord, I have been on the waiting list for a few months!! 😂😂 obviously the Honda Accord was very popular!!! But the 60s 70s Lincoln is beautiful car and probably didn’t not know how much the Japanese cars were coming and how well received they were 🤷♂️
I think with the mark iv looking back it was essentially the same from 72-79. The dash is the same the body ( aside from the bumpers ) looks so similar for 8 long years the styling wore out its welcome in a way. The mark iii was only three years and you just don’t see them as often. Both beautiful cars. I’d take the mark iii.
Actually, the 1971 Mark III. The one year with the high back seats. The ‘58-60 Mark III-Vs were HORRIFIC, and I have a ‘58 T-Bird, made in the same Wixom, MI plant as the unibody Lincolns. The Mark IIIs looked nothing like the ‘68-‘71 T-Birds, but the ‘72-‘76 Mark IVs looked nearly identical to the T-Birds of those years.
Admittedly, I prefer the Mark IV’s exterior *appearance* , but the Mark III is undeniably the superior car - bottom line, I’d take either in a heartbeat! 😅
Nice old boats, I've never seen one only an LTD of the same era. The ruched and buttoned leather and heavy cut-pile carpets is something you don't see any more. A pity the camera lens fogged up, lol.
These cars look like they were made yesterday and I feel that way being old enough to grow up with them 😮 Hard to believe they are over fifty years old 😅and I over sixty 😮
Give me top notch classy understated Mark 3, or full blown disco land yacht Mark 5. I think I'd genuinely be just as happy to own either. The Mark 4 is just an awkward set of years for me though.
The 1972 Ford mid-size platform family elevated the Ford Gran Torino and Mercury Montego MX Brougham into the "near luxury" class with cars so heavy that 6-cylinder engines were no longer offered, only V8 power. But while the Torino and Montego got a step-up in class, the Mark IV and Thunderbird took a luxury hit when compared to their predecessors. The 1972 all plastic interiors were acceptable in the Ford and Mercury mid-sized cars but were a disappointment in the Mark IV. Styling made the 1972 Mark IV a success. The luxury crown goes to the Mark III.
