The body shell of the Continental is a great deal stronger and stiffer than the old car's, a situation that can lead to quiet ride and brilliant suspension if it's all done right. In the Continental, they have come very close to an ideal setup. The problem we see with the new car is the 4-window roof - not as open and airy as the 6-window roof on the old car - and the evolutionary front- and rear-end designs, which make the Continental look more like a standard sedan than a luxury car. Up front, the new design echoes the distinctive theme of the Lincoln Mark VIII, and a curved character line running the length of the car is an eye-pleasing update of the slab-sided appearance of the previous Continental. But though it's pretty, it's also conservative and a bit bland - a car with a lovely personality but not much presence. Better news is the 260-hp V8 engine that replaces the 170-hp V6. This 4.6-liter V8, a distant relative of the engine in the rear-drive Mark VIII coupe, is bristling with technology, including all-aluminum construction and lots of plastic accessories, but its best feature is its power, which will yank the car from rest to 60 mph in about 8 seconds. That is competitive with the best American and Japanese luxury sedans available. The all-new Continental has kept a lot of the good stuff, such as an electronic, self-leveling air spring with three levels of ride control, and three levels of rack-and-pinion, power-steering assist. The Continental also has a system called "multiplex electronics," where each major feature of the car is run by a module, and all of the modules interact to get the car down the road, communicating with each other many times per second. And the car maintains a wealth of safety equipment, including standard dual airbags, electronic all-speed traction control featuring braking and engine intervention, and anti-lock brakes.
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