This American Luxury Sedan Gives You Rolls-Royce’s Coolest Feature For $80,000

According to Lincoln, a vintage advertisement for the Continental once began by telling the reader to ‘notice the doors, and how they open: from the center, to make everyone’s entrances graceful’. From that point on, center-opening or ‘coach’ doors were used to convey elegance and glamor, allowing rear seat occupants to exit by walking straight out of the vehicle, instead of twisting and ducking around the rear door on their way out.

It would be 6 decades later before Lincoln brought back the modern version of these doors, which they did in extremely limited amounts. While the latest-generation Lincoln Continental has come and gone, the 2019 model year marked the nameplate’s 80th anniversary, which was marked by an exclusive run of just 80 Lincoln Continentals built with coach doors– all for the 2019 and 2020 model years and all built on the top-line Black Label trim grade.

The Life and Times Of The Lincoln Continental

The 10th and final generation of the Lincoln Continental launched for the 2017 model year as an attempt to help Lincoln re-establish itself in the large luxury sedan scene, which was now shrinking rapidly as shoppers spending big bucks on new vehicles were tending to buy trucks or SUVs instead. Atop this challenge, the Continental would also have to stand up to powerful competition, including Mercedes-Benz S-Class, BMW 7-Series, Audi A8, Lexus LS, Cadillac CT6, and then-emerging Genesis G90.

Despite strong sales out of the gate, demand sharply dropped in quick order. Shoppers decided the Continental’s fate with their dollars – directing them more towards already-established luxury sedan choices and the market’s rapidly growing number of luxury SUVs, including Lincoln’s own Navigator. When the Continental was discontinued alongside the MKZ in 2020, Lincoln became an all-SUV automaker. This shift was a strategic one, as Lincoln was mid-way through a brand revival and needed to focus strongly on products their customers wanted to buy – and a decreasing number of these customers wanted sedans.

The Coach Door Edition Recalled The Original

Originally, the Lincoln Continental was a custom luxury car hand-crafted by chief stylist Eugene T. Gregorie for Edsel Ford in 1939. By 1961, the Continental had introduced unique center-opening doors and a chrome-accented upper shoulder line that established a signature look for Lincoln in the day.

“The center-opening doors became synonymous with the Lincoln Continental, even though they were only featured primarily in the ’60s,” says David Woodhouse, design director, The Lincoln Motor Company, in 2018.

“It was truly a watershed moment for us in terms of iconic design. They struck such a chord that they’re still remembered so fondly today.”

In this era, the Continental offered a trio of V6 engine options, the two most powerful of which were turbocharged units from the EcoBoost family.

Each of the Coach Door Edition models has a special door sill plate featuring its number in the run. These center-opening doors open on a rear seat lounge complete with unique tailoring, a pass-through console that offers a stowable tray table with tablet holder and wireless charging pad, and six inches of additional wheelbase added to allow the fitment of the larger doors, while bringing rear-seat legroom to SUV-like levels.

The doors themselves are operated by electronic touchpads concealed within a fixed, metal-accented handle that’s integrated with the Continental’s belt-line. This makes for a more striking and flowing look, reinforces the centre-door configuration even when the doors are closed, and makes the doors more graceful to open with almost no effort. The 90-degree opening was an engineering challenge, but mandatory for the most glamorous possible exits from the interior.

Closing the doors could be done noiselessly, as the electric ‘soft-close’ function would automatically cinch the doors shut by simply touching them lightly against their latch. Add in special interior lighting designed to highlight your passengers exit from the car, and it’s clear that the Continental Coach Door Edition is all about arriving in style.

The only other automaker doing coach doors at the time was Rolls Royce, so if you’re dead set on owning a car with this highly-exclusive design feature, the Continental Coach Door Edition is by far the most affordable way to do it.

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Pricing Then Vs Now

Turning a regular luxury sedan into a stretch-wheelbase verison with center-opening doors is no easy feat. With an original MSRP exceeding $115,000, the specially-modified Coach Door Edition cost almost double the amount of a standard Continental with the shorter, conventional body. Part of the reason for the high price is that this special edition was built by Cabot Coachbuilders, who even stretched the body and redesigned the door glass to flow and fit perfectly.

Today, this exclusive Lincoln sedan (and one of their most expensive vehicles ever) is a rare sight in auctions and used car listings, but you’re looking at about an $80,000 asking price if you can find one. You can be all but certain you’ll probably never see another one in the wild, which is something some shoppers are willing to pay a lot of money for.

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Before You Buy

You’ve got a lot of good ways to spend $80,000 on a unique and spacious used car in 2025, and the Lincoln Continental Coach Door Edition might just be one of them. You’d have to be in the market for something special and extremely rare for maximum return on your investment– otherwise the high price and low availability of the Continental Coach Door Edition may be significant barriers to your purchase. Still, this is one of the ultimate American luxury sedans ever made.

If you can do without center-opening doors, consider machines like the Infiniti M or Lexus LS, each of which can be had for less money in a stretch-wheelbase configuration with loads of rear-seat legroom accessed by conventional doors. You could also go buy either of those two alternatives tomorrow, as there are many more of them in the wild.

Sources: AutoTempest, Lincoln, Coachdoorcontinental