Lincoln Town Car: recalls and complaints by model year

NHTSA lists 47 recall campaigns for the Lincoln Town Car, model years 1977 to 2011. NHTSA has 3,308 complaints on file for this model line. 27 of the 34 model years have a page on this register.

Select a model year NHTSA VIN lookup

Complaint information entered into NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation vehicle owner's complaint database is used with other data sources to identify safety issues that warrant investigation and to determine if a safety-related defect trend exists.
NHTSA publishes these words. Source: NHTSA Datasets and APIs, section Complaints, read on 1 Oct 2026. Complaint file through 30 Sep 2026. Recall file through 30 Sep 2026.

Model years

The number under each year is the number of recall campaigns.

Lincoln Town Car: recall campaigns and complaints for each model year, newest first
Model year	Recall campaigns	Complaints	Share of the line average	Units in the campaigns
2011 Lincoln Town Car	3	6	6%	392,049
2010 Lincoln Town Car	3	13	13%	392,049
2009 Lincoln Town Car	3	5	5%	392,049
2008 Lincoln Town Car	3	20	21%	392,049
2007 Lincoln Town Car	3	84	86%	400,688
2006 Lincoln Town Car	2	143	147%	391,888
2005 Lincoln Town Car	3	119	122%	490,724
2004 Lincoln Town Car	0	83	85%
2003 Lincoln Town Car	1	201	207%	47,314
2002 Lincoln Town Car	0	65	67%
2001 Lincoln Town Car	5	161	165%	2,527,500
2000 Lincoln Town Car	8	108	111%	2,114,935
1999 Lincoln Town Car	5	148	152%	1,062,296
1998 Lincoln Town Car	7	154	158%	5,234,096
1997 Lincoln Town Car	6	314	323%	3,778,949
1996 Lincoln Town Car	8	259	266%	3,924,057
1995 Lincoln Town Car	6	165	170%	3,948,603
1994 Lincoln Town Car	5	155	159%	3,992,192
1993 Lincoln Town Car	4	176	181%	4,038,387
1992 Lincoln Town Car	4	249	256%	4,111,532
1991 Lincoln Town Car	5	155	159%	489,637
1990 Lincoln Town Car	4	209	215%	318,116
1989 Lincoln Town Car	5	89	91%	7,901,083
1988 Lincoln Town Car	5	99	102%	11,511,886
1987 Lincoln Town Car	6	32	33%	3,651,378
1986 Lincoln Town Car	4	50	51%	3,601,557
1985 Lincoln Town Car NHTSA page	1	21	22%	544
1984 Lincoln Town Car NHTSA page	1	15	15%	544
1983 Lincoln Town Car	3	4	4%	134,706
1982 Lincoln Town Car NHTSA page	0	2	2%
1981 Lincoln Town Car NHTSA page	0	1	1%
1980 Lincoln Town Car NHTSA page	0	1	1%
1978 Lincoln Town Car NHTSA page	0	1	1%
1977 Lincoln Town Car NHTSA page	0	1	1%

The share is the complaints of the model year divided by the average of the line for one model year. A campaign that names 3 model years is in the count of each of the 3.

A model year with fewer than 2 campaigns and fewer than 25 complaints has no page here. The link in its row opens its NHTSA page.

Recall campaign: One recall in the NHTSA recall file, with one campaign number. A campaign can name many makes, models and model years.

Complaint: A report about a possible safety problem that a person sends to NHTSA. This site shows the number of complaints and not their text.

Units: The number of vehicles or products that a recall can include. The manufacturer or the firm reports the number to the agency.

Components in the complaints

4,329 component mentions.

A complaint can name more than one component. Each component that a complaint names is one component mention. The figure per 1,000 component mentions shows how many of each 1,000 mentions name the component.

Lincoln Town Car: complaints by component, per 1,000 component mentions
Component	Per 1,000	Mentions
Electrical System	128.9	558
Engine and Engine Cooling	109	472
Vehicle Speed Control	108.3	469
Service Brakes, Hydraulic	100	433
Suspension	77.2	334
Air Bags	76	329
Steering	55.4	240
Power Train	41.3	179
Visibility	40	173
Structure	38.6	167

Counts by year

Recall campaigns that name the Lincoln Town Car, by the year NHTSA received the report. The largest year is 2000, with 9 campaigns.

Complaints about the Lincoln Town Car, by the year NHTSA received them. The largest year is 1996, with 283 complaints.

Other model lines of the make

Continental46 campaigns
MKZ32 campaigns
MKX23 campaigns
Navigator68 campaigns
LS3 campaigns
Mark Viii3 campaigns
MKC14 campaigns
Aviator51 campaigns
MKS11 campaigns
MKT14 campaigns
Zephyr5 campaigns
Nautilus23 campaigns
MKZ Hybrid0 campaigns
Corsair36 campaigns
Mark VII9 campaigns
Lincoln11 campaigns
Corsair Phev2 campaigns
Mark LT4 campaigns
Nautilus Hybrid2 campaigns
Blackwood3 campaigns
Mark V7 campaigns
Mark IV11 campaigns
Mark VI7 campaigns

Lincoln: all 24 model lines

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Official channels

NHTSA VIN lookupNHTSA shows the unrepaired recalls of one vehicle from its VIN or its license plate.
NHTSA: report a safety problemThe NHTSA form for a complaint about a vehicle, a tire, a child seat or equipment.

Cite this page

Recall Register. Lincoln Town Car: recalls and complaints by model year. https://recallregister.com/vehicle/lincoln/town-car/. Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation, recall, complaint and investigation files. Data through 30 Sep 2026.

Sources

Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
Licence: US government work, public domain
Recall file through: 30 Sep 2026
Complaint file through: 30 Sep 2026
Manufacturer in the recall file: EMPIRE COACH COMPANY

The model name is the name in the NHTSA files. NHTSA keeps a variant of a model as a different line. How the register is made. Report an error.

Questions

Which Lincoln Town Car model years have the most recall campaigns?: 2000 with 8, 1996 with 8, 1998 with 7. A campaign that names 3 model years is in the count of each of the 3.
Which Lincoln Town Car model year has the most complaints?: The 1997 model year, with 314 of the 3,308 complaints for the line. A newer model year has had less time to get complaints.
Which components do the complaints about the Lincoln Town Car name?: Electrical System: 128.9 per 1,000 component mentions. Engine and Engine Cooling: 109 per 1,000 component mentions. Vehicle Speed Control: 108.3 per 1,000 component mentions.
How many NHTSA investigations name the Lincoln Town Car?: 26 investigations name one or more model years of the line. The page of each model year lists its investigations.