1996 Lincoln Continental Posh, roomy and powerful. By Mike Sante, New Car Test Drive .com

The traditional American luxury car is big, boxy, supremely comfortable and

awesomely powerful.

But when the last Cadillac Fleetwood is built this year, only the Lincoln Town Car

will be left to champion the old standards.

The future belongs to a new breed of prestige models like the Lincoln Continental

and its archrival, the Cadillac Seville.

These are cars that recognize how the extraordinary popularity of European and

Japanese sport and touring sedans has redefined what many affluent younger Americans

want in a pricey car.

They're trying to take what many Americans liked best about our traditional luxury

cars--the power, the size and the gadgets--and marry that with what we like most about

the new breed of foreign luxury cars--the performance, the handling and the style.

The new Lincoln Continental, which was completely redesigned for the '95 model

year, is an intriguing step in that direction.

There's a lot of traditional American luxury car here. It's more powerful. The

first V8 Ford has ever offered in a front wheel drive boosted the Continental's

horsepower 62 percent. It's bigger. The Continental is longer, wider, taller and

heavier--a hefty 3911 pounds, just 120 pounds lighter than the Town Car. It's gadget

heaven. An unsurpassed array of wizbang electronics allows you to customize 13 aspects

of the car to your personal tastes. But the new Continental also offers better

performance and handling--not great performance and handling, but definitely

better--cutting-edge technology and sophisticated styling.

Is this progress or what?