The Versailles was the first compact car from Ford Motor Company's Lincoln division. It was sold from 1977 to 1980, as a four-door sedan only.

The Versailles was largely a response to the great success of the smaller Cadillac Seville which had appeared in 1975. That car was a rebodied Chevrolet Nova, audaciously priced even higher than the larger, standard-size Cadillacs. It should have been a mechanically warmed-over sales disaster.

However, Cadillac had shrewdly spent the necessary money to create a whole new body and interior and to throughly re-tune the Nova chassis. The design took the public's fancy, and there was nothing in the look and handling of the car to betray its plebian origins. Sales took off despite the price. Lincoln management couldn't help but notice, and the relatively new Ford Granada/Mercury Monarch compact was ready to hand for a makeover. Using it as a base, and with a very thrifty budget, they promptly created a mechanically warmed-over sales disaster.

Ford, due to its smaller size and volume, has never enjoyed the luxury of spending as much development capital on its vehicles as General Motors. This has often been evident in the similar bodies of Ford and Mercury models. Until the Versailles, however, care had generally been taken to give Lincolns a distinct appearance, whatever mechanicals they might share with the humbler marques. But the Versailles was visibly a Granada clone.

Unable to afford a new body, Lincoln stylists attempted to disguise this fact with a Lincolnesque grille and wheels, along with a "humped" trunk lid that mimicked the spare tire bulge of the Continental Mark coupe. Whether these elements really worked on a smaller vehicle could be debated, but what was in between was indisputably Granada. Doors and windows would interchange, the roofline was identical, and inside the potential luxury buyer faced the same dashboard design as the budget-minded Granada customer. Perhaps most tellingly, the Granada windshield wipers remained present and exposed, long after hidden wipers had become expected not just on luxury cars but even on intermediates. (Cadillac, of course, had discreetly concealed the Seville's wipers.)

Mechanicals were also somewhat lackluster, the standard 351 CID V-8 being carbureted, as opposed to the Seville's fuel-injected 350. Even worse, Ford's situation with regard to the tightening fuel-economy standards was precarious, as it had not been able to afford as fast a downsizing of its line as GM had managed. Consequently, almost immediately the Versailles was cut back to the smaller 302 V-8, which was very common in, of course, the Granada.

At least the Versailles did measure up to its Cadillac rival in having four-wheel disc brakes. A unique and rigorous quality-control regime was also used at the factory, according to advertising. The car managed about 15,000 sales in its first year, compared to Seville's 45,000 that same year. For '78, sales were about half of the mediocre '77 figure.

A somewhat longer, more formal roofline was grafted on for 1979, carrying a carriage-style landau vinyl roof. The car was also given some genuine firsts, as the first American use of halogen headlights and the first use of the clear-coat paint process, which would shortly spread throughout the industry. Buyers evidently noticed, because sales did perk up to 21,000, but then virtually stopped. The Versailles was withdrawn before the end of the 1980 model year with only about 4,000 produced, although prototypes for the next generation design had already been built.

Lincoln remained out of the luxury compact market for a couple of years, then re-entered in 1982 with a car using the venerable Continental name and the Ford Fox platform.

Today, paradoxically, the Versailles' lack of success is working for it. The fairly small number produced has given it rarity value, and Versailles values are reportedly trending up. Like the Edsel, it may someday be regarded as a classic because it was a failure.

See also

• Ford Versailles

External link

• Versailles enthusiast site