With the Lexus LS 400 in the $50,000 plus pack, and the Cadillac STS neck and neck or just a short step or two behind, athletic luxury sedans weren’t setting soaring sales records in 1994. That was why the Contempra was probably making marketing departments nervous on both sides of the Pacific. The way to make a big impression with an auto show dream car was to offer a bit of blue sky mixed with a healthy helping of reality, which was exactly what the Contempra did. But the way to make impressions in the showroom is with canny pricing. If Lincoln price-setters could hold down the sticker of this thinly disguised 1995 Continental, the car’s success was only an introduction day away.
Nyce