At $3,995, Could This Salvage Title 2002 Lincoln Blackwood Have You Saying “Yes I Would?”
Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Lincoln is about the jankiest-looking Blackwood you’re likely to find and is tainted with a salvage title. Could its quirkiness and price make up for those downsides?
With many automakers these days settling on two-liter turbocharged four-cylinders as their engine of choice, it’s nice to still have the opportunity made possible by the used car market to choose instead a big thumping pushrod V8 for all your tire-smoking needs. Back that up with a solid manual transmission and capable rear-wheel-drive platform and now it’s a whole hootenanny.
That’s what we had to offer with last Friday’s 2005 Cadillac CTS-V hot rod sedan. Modest mileage and an acceptable presentation wrapped up that Caddy’s advantages and somewhat overcame the car’s styling and interior, which, based on the comments, seemingly haven’t aged all that well. What couldn’t be overcome was the CTS-V’s $21,500 Buy-it-Now asking price. Seeing as, on Friday, with just one day left and no bids on even the car’s $15,900 auction opening, we saw the car fall in an 82 percent No Dice loss in the voting.
Speaking of falls, have a look at today’s 2002 Lincoln Blackwood pickup truck and wrap your head around the fact that — despite it being an off-shoot of the best-selling Ford F-Series and a luxury truck thrown into a market that, at the time was when such things were starting to take off — this fancy-pants pickup failed miserably in finding sales.
So unloved was the Blackwood that it was one-and-done for the 2002 model year, managing a pitiful 3,356 units sold in total. That, of course, makes it rare, and since it’s still all kinds of kitschy and gauche, it’s also pretty interesting. Because of those attributes, Blackwoods have tended to hold a reasonable amount of value in the used truck market, typically trading in the low five-figures arena. That’s what makes this one’s much lower price intriguing.
Naturally, there are a couple of reasons for the truck’s low price so let’s get those out of the way at the outset. First and foremost, there’s the title which is salvage and which means at some point in this Blackwood’s history it has suffered some egregious event that caused its insurer to throw in the actuarial towel and pay to have it sent to the scrapper. Someone intercepted it along the way and paid to put it back on the road, now tainting the truck with that scarlet ‘S’ of a salvage title. A number of insurers won’t look cross-eyed at a salvage title vehicle and while others may, they might not offer full coverage as a result of it. That drives down the desirability of any vehicle, and hence the monetary value.
There’s another reason why this Blackwood is cheaper than most and that’s because it’s missing its entire back bumper. I mean, it’s gone like a fart on a windy day. And, with so few Blackwoods having been built and Lincoln well out of the woods on parts availability for a model of this age, good luck finding a replacement. That is unless you could somehow craft one out of a bumper off a similar year Navigator. Hmmm… The Blackwood’s goofy barn door tailgate and hard tonneau are both, thankfully still intact.
You know what I’m thinking is that the back bumper situation may very well have been what led to the truck’s current salvage title status. It all seems to fit together. Or to have fallen apart, as it were.
Despite these obvious issues, the seller describes the truck as “EXCELLENT” in the ad. It’s right there in the ad’s title, surrounded by many asterisks to focus and elevate the assertion. That’s followed in the description with the claim that the truck “Runs excellent” and has been “always maintained.”
It is fully loaded, expected since this was a luxury truck from an American luxury car builder. Unfortunately, some of those luxuries, like the leather seat upholstery aren’t still living that preferred lifestyle. There are only 120,000 miles on the truck, and it does have the 300 horsepower 5.4-liter DOHC V8 under the hood, which should give it some beans when needed. Finally, the price is $3,995, which as we noted earlier, is way off what a really “excellent” Blackwood typically asks these days.
The question, of course, is whether this tainted truck is worth even that? What do you think, could this Island-of-Misfit-Toys cast-off be worth that $3,995 asking as it sits with its butt hanging out in the breeze? Or, is there just too much going on here to back this Blackwood at that price?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to FauxShizzle for the hookup!
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