Lincoln took the final production version of the much hyped 2017 Continental to the Beijing Auto Show. Lincoln expects China to be the second-largest marker worldwide for the new sled, after the United States. The Lincoln Continental will hit the Chinese car market in July, price will start around 400.000 and end around 600.000 yuan ($62.000 – 70.900).

The price brings the Continental in competition with the Cadillac CT6, the Mercedes E-Class L, the Audi A6L, the BMW 5Li, the Jaguar XFL, and the upcoming Volvo S90L. All these cars are locally made, but the Lincoln will not, which makes it relatively expensive.

This particular red car is a mid-spec variant, not the top-spec ‘Presidential’ we saw earlier on. It seems a bit strange that Lincoln launches the Continental in China with a yet unnamed mid-spec car, and not with the best they have, which would make much more of an impression on potential buyers.

In China the Continental will be available with two engines: a 2.0 turbo with 245hp and 350nm, and a 3.0 twin-turbo with 400hp and 542nm. Both engines will mated to a nine-speed automatic. The 2.0 is front-wheel drive, the 3.0 is four-wheel drive.

We were rather underwhelmed with the interior. The fit and finish was poor, probably because this is an early car, but nevertheless; poor. The wheels looks to cheap for a 400.000 yuan car, and so do basically all the plastics. And oh oh oh horror, look at this:

Lincoln has decided, very unwisely we believe, to use the ridiculous center-console mounted gear selector in the Continental. The buttons are located immediately to the left of the touch screen, which is just dangerous, and it is ugly, because the buttons look cheap. The shiny plastic rim does not change that!

The The seats are adjustable in 30 ways (!?!) and they look like it. ll the separate parts are separately adjustable. Crazy. Thirty ways, who is ever going to use that? They should have spend the money on a bigger touch screen, or on any other gear selector.

Double sunroof and cream white leather. The rear of those fancy front seats is not very nice to look at. There also seems to be no space for a tv-screen for a rear-seat entertainment system. Bench is awfully flat…

… and the leather looks worn. And check those head rests! Oh oh oh how unpretty.

The arm rest is OK. Lot of buttons and a small mouse pad-like pad. The system controls the aircon and the audio.

That’s a big boot for sure, clean on the sides and dressed in gray carpets.

The exterior is so much better than the interior, especially from 3 quarters behind. The roof line ends up neatly in the broad shoulder. Lights look great and do remind of older Lincolns. Pipes are in shine and located on the far sides of the bumper. The wheels seem a size or two too small and narrow, bigger wheels would give the car much more presence.

Lights look great, but eye somewhat sad.

The new Lincoln Continental. Nice, but should have been better.