The 1956 Continental Mark II: A "Rich Man's Car"

The first time I saw a 1956 Continental Mark II was as a teenager from the back seat of our family car during a Sunday drive in 'the countryside.' We were on Route 22 in New Jersey and this sleek, modernistic automobile was in the opposite lane turning into a swank restaurant. My father removed his foot from the accelerator and gently depressed the brake to slow us down. I noticed he was also staring at the sleek two-door with a hood that looked nearly as long as a Volkswagen.

"Dad, WHAT was that?" I asked because, when you're 15, father's are supposed to know anything and everything about cars, Especially if your father worked in the automobile industry, as mine did.

"Son, THAT'S a rich man's car, Ford's new Continental model" he replied, adding, "It's the new American luxury car...costs $10,000, nearly double the price of a Cadillac." What he didn't say was that the $10,000 price-tag was the same as that of a Rolls-Royce in 1956. What he didn't have to say was that few people we knew could afford one.

Indeed it was 'a rich man's car,' the kind only the well-healed rich and famous and captains of industry in that decade, or any decade, could afford. The actual base was $9,966, $44 short of the full $10,000, but the price easily went over the top by installing the only option: factory air conditioning. Many buyers did.