The new Lincoln Continental lives up to its famous name (F)

Matthew DeBord/BI

The Lincoln Continental is just one of those cars. It really isn't even a car — it's an ideal, a dream, an evocation.

Ford introduced the Continental in the late 1930s, and over the decades it was conjoined with American history, most tragically in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas while riding in a 1961 Continental limousine.

Ford discontinued the Continental as its flagship Lincoln luxury sedan in 2002, but the nameplate never really went away. You could say that it haunted Ford.

And then, in 2015, a new Continental concept car took the New York auto show by storm. Ford had considered killing off Lincoln after the financial crisis but decided against it and put billions into a revival of the brand. By 2016 we saw the production version of the big new sedan as it hit the car-show circuit.

Last year, we finally found ourselves behind the wheel of a 2017 Lincoln Continental Reserve with all-wheel drive, stickered at $56,000 but then benefitting from about $20,000 worth of options, taking the final price up to $76,000.

Lincoln usually has something special in store for the New York auto show, which kicks off in about a month. The Continental concept was a star in 2015, but did it live up to expectations — not to mention the lofty reputation of its name — when we checked it out? Read on:

The Continental concept was the toast of the 2015 New York auto show.

Newspress

The production sedan went on display a year later.

Hollis Johnson

Last year, we finally got a chance to test Lincoln's flagship sedan.

Matthew DeBord/BI

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