by sears roebuck 1905 1912 see lincoln motor car works . lincoln motor company type division industry automotive founded dearborn michigan u.s. august 1917 ; 99 years ago 1917 08 1 4 founder henry m. leland wilfred leland 1 4 headquarters dearborn michigan u.s. area served east asia north america middle east 2 key people jim farley president until september 1 2014 kumar galhotra president from september 1 2014 3 products luxury vehicles limousines parent ford motor company 1922 present website www.lincoln.com the lincoln motor company also known simply as lincoln stylized as the lincoln motor company or simply as lincoln is a division of the u.s. based ford motor company that sells luxury vehicles under the lincoln brand . founded in 1917 by henry m. leland lincoln has been a subsidiary of ford since 1922 . while currently sold primarily in north america ford introduced the lincoln brand to china in 2014 . 4 lincoln vehicles are also officially sold in the middle east and south korea . the current lincoln model range in north america consists of two sedans continental and mkz three crossover utility vehicles mkc mkt and mkx and a sport utility vehicle navigator navigator l . lincoln also sells two vehicles specifically for limousine livery use both based on the mkt . contents 1 history 1.1 1917 1940 lincoln motor company 1.1.1 purchase by ford 1.1.2 lincoln zephyr 1.2 1940 1945 lincoln division 1.2.1 lincoln continental 1.3 1945 2012 lincoln mercury division 1.3.1 continental division 1956 1960 1.3.1.1 unibody era 1958 1960 1.3.2 1961 1969 slab side continental era 1.3.3 lincoln mark series 1.3.4 1970 1979 zenith of the full size lincoln 1.3.4.1 large lincolns 1.3.4.2 small lincolns 1.3.5 1980 1998 lincoln downsizes 1.3.6 1998 2012 premier automotive group end of lincoln mercury 1.3.6.1 the way forward 1.3.6.2 trucks and suvs 1.3.6.3 mk series 1.4 2012 present the lincoln motor company 2 sales 3 brand image 4 current models 5 motorsport 6 presidential cars 6.1 1939 sunshine special 6.2 1950 bubble top cosmopolitan 6.3 1961 ss 100 x continental 6.4 1969 continental 6.5 1972 continental 6.6 1989 town car 7 references 8 external links history edit 1917 1940 lincoln motor company edit 1926 lincoln l series town car 1931 lincoln model k lincoln k series lebaron convertible sedan 1938 the lincoln motor company was founded in august 1917 by henry leland and his son wilfred . an engineer henry leland named his new automobile company after abraham lincoln the first presidential candidate for which he had cast a vote in 1864 . as the united states was still involved in world war i the primary source of income for the company was military contracts ; lincoln co assembled liberty v12 aircraft engines using cylinders supplied by ford motor company along with buick cadillac marmon and packard . 1 4 5 163 164 alongside aircraft engine production lincoln produced its first automobile in 1917 the lincoln model l. powered by a v8 engine the model l was marketed as a luxury automobile competing against other american luxury car manufacturers . following the end of the war the lincoln factory was retooled entirely for automobile production . purchase by ford edit during the early 1920s lincoln suffered severe financial issues balancing the loss of revenue of liberty engine production with the obsolete design of the expensive model l. after having produced only 150 cars in 1922 lincoln motor company was forced into bankruptcy and sold for us 8 000 000 to the ford motor company on february 4 1922 ; some of the proceeds of the sale went to pay off its creditors . for henry ford the purchase of lincoln was a personal triumph as he had been forced out of his second company henry ford company by a group of investors led by leland . 6 52 57 the company renamed cadillac in 1902 was purchased by general motors in 1909 serving as the chief competitor to lincoln . while henry ford had previously introduced ford branded luxury vehicles the ford model b in 1904 the ford model f in 1905 and the ford model k in 1906 the company found little acceptance . with the acquisition of lincoln the nameplate became a top selling rival alongside pierce arrow marmon peerless duesenberg and packard . although the chassis itself saw few major changes with its l head engine and unusual 60 degree cylinder block the body saw significant updates . at the direction of henry s son edsel in 1923 several body styles were introduced that included two and three window four door sedans and a phaeton that accommodated four passengers . they also offered a two passenger roadster and a seven passenger touring sedan and limousine which was sold for 5 200 . a sedan limo cabriolet and town car were also offered by coachbuilders fleetwood derham and dietrich and a second cabriolet was offered by coachbuilder brunn . lincoln contracted with dozens of coachbuilders during the 1920s and early 30s to create multiple custom built vehicles to include american anderson babcock holbrook judkins lang lebaron locke murray towson and willoughby in the 1920s . murphy rollston and waterhouse were added in the 1930s . 7 better source needed vehicles built by these coachbuilders went for as much as 7 200 and despite the limited market appeal lincoln sales rose about 45 percent to produce 7 875 cars and the company was operating at a profit by the end of 1923 . in 1924 large touring sedans began to be used by police departments around the country . they were known as police flyers which were equipped with four wheel brakes two years before they were introduced on private sale vehicles . these specially equipped vehicles with bulletproof windshields measuring 7 8 of an inch thick and spot lights mounted on the ends of the windshield also came with an automatic windshield wiper for the driver and a hand operated wiper for the front passenger . police whistles were coupled to the exhaust system and gun racks were also fitted to these vehicles . optional equipment was not necessarily an issue with lincolns sold during the 1920s however customers who wanted special items were accommodated . a nickel plated radiator shell could be installed for 25 varnished natural wood wheels were 15 or rudge whitworth center lock wire wheels for another 100 . disteel steel disc wheels were also available for 60 . lincoln chose not to make yearly model changes used as a marketing tool of the time designed to lure new customers . lincoln customers of the time were known to purchase more than one lincoln with different bodywork so changing the vehicle yearly was not done to accommodate their customer base . 6 52 57 lincoln zephyr edit 1939 lincoln zephyr 4 door in 1932 lincoln introduced the v12 powered kb platform alongside the v8 powered ka platform with an all new streamlined appearance . in 1933 eugene t. bob gregorie at the styling studio created by edsel ford began designing the smaller lincoln zephyr 8 130 which led to the first continental a bespoke one off specially created for edsel ford henry s son . the smaller lincoln zephyr was introduced for the 1936 model year as a marque of its own 8 155 with a 267 cu in 4.4 l v12 . the lincoln zephyr was so successful in its first year as to increase lincoln sales nearly ninefold . 9 1196 1197 it remained a separate marque until the end of the 1940 model year and then became a model under lincoln 8 206 when the large lincoln twelve was discontinued . in the 1941 model year all lincolns were based on the zephyr chassis and when production resumed after the war the zephyr name was not continued . 1940 1945 lincoln division edit 1948 lincoln h series on april 30 1940 the operation of lincoln changed as the lincoln motor company became the lincoln division of ford motor company . 8 199 once an autonomous entity lincoln was now brought closer under ford control in part to modernize the division to better compete with the equivalent competition from chrysler imperial packard and general motors cadillac . in 1946 an all new model called the lincoln h series was offered as a coupe sedan and limousine all installed with the lincoln v12 as standard equipment . lincoln continental edit 1942 lincoln continental coupe in 1940 the lincoln continental commenced production as a personal luxury car quite literally due to the popularity of the personal car of edsel ford . dissatisfied with the boxy designs produced by his father edsel wanted a european style car to drive around on vacations in florida . in 1938 he commissioned ford chief stylist e. t. gregorie to design a body for a 1939 lincoln zephyr v12 convertible coupe . most of the bodywork involved sectioning the body 4 inches 102 mm and the deletion of the running boards and an external mounted spare tire on the trunklid . the styling of the rear tire mount proved popular ; it would become a styling feature of the lincoln mark series and those who work on custom cars call a similar mount a continental kit . the car was put in production for the 1940 model year as a model under lincoln zephyr . 8 198 in june 1940 the club coupe was added and from 1941 to 1948 it was a model under lincoln marque . when production ceased in 1948 a total of 5322 had been built . 1945 2012 lincoln mercury division edit in 1945 ford motor company merged the mercury and lincoln divisions together forming the combined lincoln mercury division . for the revival of civilian production in 1946 lincoln introduced a two model lineup continental and the zephyr based range . based on the former zephyr the standard lincoln range only wore the lincoln nameplate . in 1949 both the h series lincoln and the continental were discontinued . in their place were a new generation of cars . magnifying the relationship between lincoln and mercury was the new el series as its styling shared much with that of the mercury eight . more significantly the 1949 lincoln and cosmopolitan were the first lincolns since 1932 without a v12 engine ; as lincoln could not develop a new v12 in time a v8 was borrowed from the ford f 8 medium duty truck . in 1952 lincoln developed its own overhead valve v8 engine the y block . continental division 1956 1960 edit main article continental mark ii 1956 continental mark ii for 1956 ford revisited the original concept of the 1940 1948 continental . organized under its own marque the newly created continental division the continental mark ii was a two door hardtop coupe . instead of an actual spare tire mounted on the trunklid the trunklid was styled with a tire shaped hump . unlike many cars of the era the mark ii wore conservative styling ; relatively little chrome trim was used on the body and tailfins were notably absent . positioned above the lincoln marque the continental division s mark ii was the only vehicle in the division and was designated as the flagship of the ford motor company at a base price of 10 000 equivalent to 87 038 in 2015 10 comparable to a rolls royce silver cloud . until the introduction of the 1957 cadillac eldorado brougham it was the most expensive american produced car . as a result of its largely hand built construction every mark ii was sold at a loss of over 1 000 . production of the mark ii ran from june 1955 to may 1957 . unibody era 1958 1960 edit in a cost cutting move the continental division was expanded as a single vehicle and shared a platform with lincoln branded vehicles in july 1958 .