car shifter

It's all about the marketing. They wanted to appeal to a wider audience of car buyers so sell some cars with console shifters and some from the column. The higher trim levels typically have the console shifter.

thanx KenF !!! im looking at a 1999 Lincoln continental with 86,000 MILES and some had the shifter by the steering column and other's on the floor it was driving me nuts!!!!!! lol thank you so much brother

The big three have been doing this since the 60's.

I just dug through some old Ford brochures for Continentals, seems the base option was for a column shifter, and a console shifter could be a customer option. So it may not be related strictly to the trim level (Executive, Signature, or Cartier). So allow me to amend my answer to "customer option", as to why some had a console shifter.

Can a column gear shift transmission for a 1997 Lincoln Continental fix-a-floor gear shift transmission