What is the year, model and mileage on the Lincoln? How long have you owned it?

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

The lincoln is a 2003 town car executive with just under 200,000 miles on the clock. When my wife began her health crisis in April 2024, it was one hospitalization after another for a total of four hospital stays within an eight month time frame before she passed away. I was spending more time at the hospital than at home and needed a reliable car to go back and forth from home to hospital.

During this time period, she was complaining about the condition of our two mercedes and so when the opportunity came up to buy the Lincoln, I did. The Lincoln has been a good car, but, as an older car there are some maintenance items that it needs as well. I need to check my records to see the exact date the Lincoln was purchased.

If you need a car immediately, I would suggest watching cars in your neighborhood to see which ones sit for months on end. Go up the door of the house and knock. Ask them if they would be interested in selling the car that has been sitting for months on their driveway. You may need to knock on a few doors but in my experience you will eventually get a "yes I am interested in selling the Honda, Toyota, Mazda, Lincoln whatever". You can also check with car mechanics who may have cars customers never picked up nor paid for the repairs. Some mechanics are known to have several mechanics lien cars sitting around. Remember, he who seeks usually finds.

All that said, having the Lincoln allows me the time to work on the other two cars which is a good thing. I have to have some form of transportation and right now the Lincoln is it. After I get the other two cars back to acceptable operational status, I can make better decisions concerning which car(s) to keep and which to sell.

That era Lincoln Town was quite a good car. Parts should be available for it quite some time, if not OE then aftermarket or excellent used. The only out of the ordinary issue I've seen with them is the plastic intake manifold cracking at the thermostat.

Good luck with your decision.

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"Rudeness is a weak man's imitation of strength" - Eric Hoffer

I'd keep lincoln and sell the 560. I just totaled an 86 420 because the crank sensor is nla. Be a while before you have that problem with the lincoln.

I dunno, it looks like the crank sensor is available?

https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/0261210020.htm?pn=0-261-210-020-INT&bc=c&SVSVSI=2488

Saw that before but found none in stock.

Go ahead and order 1. You keep the 560, you're gonna need it. They age out. The sensors for m103s dropped like flies after about 10 yrs. The 86 up v8s took longer.

It appears one needs a budget to afford the maintenance on vintage mercedes benz automobiles. My dad used to say, "If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it".

I wish the dealer stocked these parts but it looks like they only care about new mercedes.

The M103 isn't that bad in my experience, you might have to compromise on quality but most parts are still available. The early M104 is another story, any model with that engine (C124, R129 and W140) will become a paperweight at some point.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).