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Many older luxury cars match the appeal of today's high-tech rides
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: October 2, 2018
Ask Schumacher Place resident Steve Wagner, owner of one of the few thousand Ford Continental Mark IIs ever made, about luxury cars today and he's likely to shake his head dismissively.
Sure they have all the bells and whistles, but they practically drive themselves, he says.
He puts the ride of his '56 Ford handmade masterpiece up against any top-of-the-line Mercedes or BMW made today.
"Both have very luxurious rides," Wagner said. "My '56 Cadillac just rides like a dream, so does the Continental Mark II, just like a big, old Mercedes Benz."
"They're both a pleasure to drive. They just don't go as fast (as their newer counterparts)."
Wagner, who is part owner of the former Wagner-Hagans (now Wagner-J-Bird) Auto Museum at 476 E. Kossuth Street, bought the Continental Mark II 25 years ago, when he approached its owner at a car show in Indianapolis and expressed interest in purchasing the showstopper.
"It was the luxury car to have in the mid-'50s," he said after ticking off a list of famous owners that included Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the later-deposed Shah of Iran and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
"It's a very, very rare car, maybe two or three in Columbus," he said.
The cars were billed has having been handmade and Ford claimed to have lost $1,000 on every car, he said.
His cream-colored beauty originally was sold to a Bellville couple from a Mansfield dealership.
It was equipped with leather seats, power windows, power steering and power brakes. The only option was air conditioning, with fewer than a quarter of the 3,000 cars built having it.
"Of course air conditioning was just coming out in the mid-'50s," Wagner said. "Power windows, nobody had power windows in those days.
"Power steering, power brakes - that sounds very common, but it wasn't common then."
He pointed to his own collection of 17 vintage cars as proof - "I've got a lot of cars that don't have that," he added.
The only other luxury automobile around at the time was the Rolls Royce, which Wagner said was more limousine than luxury car.
Cadillac and the Chrysler Imperial were American attempts at luxury but were thousands of dollars less than the Continental Mark II.
"It was made for the high-end crowd," he said. "When I take this to car shows, car guys just flip out. They're like, 'I've never seen one of these,' but they're aware of them.
"To see one, it looks like a cross between a Rolls Royce and a Thunderbird."
The museum is open by appointment only. To make an appointment, call (614) 271-0888.
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