After having a 2017 Conti as a loaner car for a few days I thought a lot about how it differs from my car (And by extension the SHO). Thought I'd post some of these thoughts here for reference in case anyone is on the fence about going to look at a Continental.
There are a lot of positives to the car. I'm 6'3" and about 190 lbs so a huge improvement to me is the seating position. I love my car but the MKS/Taurus has one of the worst seating positions I've ever been in. The pedals and steering wheel are way too close to each other. If I sit where the pedals are comfortable then the steering wheel is too far away, and if I sit to where I reach the wheel correctly my knees are crammed into the steering column. Thankfully the continental fixes this, and it's super easy to adjust for proper driving position. The Continental has way more room inside. I have a carseat in rear passenger seat in my MKS. With the front passenger seat moved forward enough to fit the carseat, the front passenger has an ok amount of room. I put the carseat in the continental and there is miles of space for the front passenger. I found the Continental didn't feel as huge to drive as the MKS though. I also love the radio/HVAC controls on the continental. Real buttons, not touch sliders! The sunroof is way better too. At night the LED lighting on the outside of the car gradually comes on as you approach it, and it looks really cool. The seats themselves were super comfy and snug to me, but If you got some meat on ya bones, they might actually be too snug as to be uncomfortable. The instrument cluster is one solid LCD screen, with no physical gauges, which looks pretty damn cool. Plus you can finally see temperature and fuel economy info at the same time. Not that I rage about not being able to do that in my car. All in all the interior looks and feels great. I sat in a "Black Label" continental in the showroom, and while it sure does feel nice, I think $80,000 for a fully optioned one is a bit unjustified. They're damn nice, but I dunno about $80k nice.
Some stuff I didn't like. The exterior door handles look cool, but they feel kind of cheap. It's not a capacitive touch sensor like most new cars, it's an actual button on the back of the handle. In one of the few places that a touch sensor feels better lol. The lock button is a touch sensor on the keypad, but it sucked at recognizing my finger. Not sure if that's the car or my finger's fault... The front seats have padding that is stuck onto the hard parts of the seat in such a way that the pad snags your body when you get in. My loaner car only had 3000 miles and the left side of the drivers seat had already started coming off due to being snagged so often. The trunk is weird... It's plenty wide, and extends into the car fairly deep, but it's kind of short vertically. The trunk of the MKS is enormous, and you really notice how much smaller the Continental trunk is. I looked it up and it's 19.2 cubic feet vs 16.7.
Stuff that's neither good nor bad, just different; The car is physically smaller than the MKS/SHO. It's a little shorter front to back, and way shorter vertically. That said, the wheelbase is actually longer on the continental. You certainly don't feel so like you're sitting so high up in the air in the continental. It feels like any other sedan in terms of how high you sit. I prefer that, but some folks might like the "not quite crossover" height of the MKS/SHO.
All in all if you're on the fence about going to a dealer to check one out, I'd say it's totally worth your time to do so. I came away really impressed with how nice it all felt. But then what the hell do I know... I'd never even owned a car with buttons on the key till 2 years ago.
