1958 Lincoln Continental built by the Continental Division, not.
The Continental Division was killed off by HFII in May of 1956. By November of 1956 the Continental Division offices in Highland Park were being vacated and filled with Employees of the new Edsel Division. The plant portion of the building continued to build out the 1957 bodies in stock, but they were done by mid-'57. The plant portion of the building was then, and is still, used to test pilot assembly line components, hence its current name of "Pilot Plant".
William Clay Ford went on to Ford Styling while Elmer Rohn and Gordon Beuhrig went on to Ford Engineering. Continental Sales manager went onto the Lincoln Division and every one of the employees that wanted a new position went elsewhere. The Continental Division left no forwarding address, except in the minds of some subsequent "Continental" owners.
Ford marketing is rife with examples of badge engineering and the '58 "Continental" is no different. The Continentals and Lincolns were identical in sheetmetal and drive train. The only differences were the available trim packages. Ford Marketing kept the breezeway window and the convertible as "Continental" cars, but were only Continentals as a model, not a make. They tried to make the consumer believe the car was something special, but it wasn't. They were built on the same assembly line by the same Lincoln Division employees, but just picked trim from different bins. People ignore the fact that the Continental Division already had a 4-door variant that was fully developed and ready for the '58 market. The Berline was a stand-alone unit-body car with rear hinged rear doors while the Lincoln products just had a conventional door arrangement.
Not only did Ford find it a positive to hoodwink the buying public into thinking that the Continental Division was still building cars they further fooled the public by absconding the Continental Star and called it the "Lincoln Star" when we all know that the star was designed for the Mark II and as the corporate symbol. They continued to confuse the public when subsequent Continentals built at Wixom were badged as Continentals when they were really T-birds on the inside. The owners of these cars always revert to the claim that it doesn't say Lincoln anywhere on the car, yet the sales documents and titles all say "Lincoln" as the maker. If you order a Marti report, Ford even categorizes all the subsequent Marks as Lincolns.
No, the Continental Division died an ignominious death at the hands of the corporate overlords in search of greater profits of mass produced belly-button cars. Ford was going public and wanted the money-losing Division off their books and the looming recession sealed the deal when they saturated the market for a $10,000 car.
I've asked for documentation of a new address for the phantom Continental Division, but no one has been able to produce a single document or letterhead for any location but the Allen Park building. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Please read the following document. It's pretty clear that Ford was moving on, leaving the Continental Division to whither on the vine.Edsel memo..jpg
Barry Wolk
Farmington Hills, MI
C5681126
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