Ask The Best And Brightest: How Would You Pitch Lincoln's Future?
Poor Ford. As the latest sales data shows, its lone luxury brand Lincoln is one sick puppy. Lincoln’s best-selling vehicles are its entry-level models, the MKZ and MKX, indicating that killing Mercury still has yet to bring higher-end buyers to Lincoln showrooms. Higher-end products like MKS and MKT are dead in the water, failing to crack 1,000 monthly units combined in January. Pull out the dying Town Car and Navigator, and Lincoln moved less volume last month than the subcompact Fiesta. And though Ford acknowledges that it has a problem at Lincoln, managers have hardly been forthcoming about what it plans to do to fix the problem. Which, as far as TTAC is concerned is fine… Ford doesn’t have to convince us that Lincoln is coming back. It does, however, have to convince Lincoln dealers to stay on board… and because they’re playing with their own money, that’s a trickier task. Ford’s Jim Farley tells Automotive News [sub] that
My experience is that if you cannot show concretely that you have to spend x amount of resources and you get this out of it in terms of volume, margin and profit, they’ll never invest, no matter how much credibility we have
But will they invest without seeing product? Ford has announced that it won’t be showing new Lincoln products when it pitches dealers on the brand’s future at the upcoming NADA convention. But isn’t product the problem? Hasn’t product been the problem at Lincoln for years? Even if Ford commits significant resources to the problem, dealers have no way of knowing what that investment will actually yield. Need we mention the LS experiment?
Since Ford won’t make a solid pitch for the future of Lincoln, we’ll send the task over to you, our Best and Brightest. Short of mocking up prototypes, what products and promises does Ford need to make to get Lincoln out of the luxury cellar?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Comments
Join the conversation
Say what you want, but Acura does pretty well with their tarted-up Hondas - heck, if Lincoln was in the same position we would not be having this discussion. Also, what are Lexus best sellers - a FWD Camry-based sedan and a FWD/AWD crossover. I do not believe the "halo car" effect - has anyone actually offered proof that such a thing exists? Why isn't Lincoln selling? Easy to answer after going into a showroom and sitting in them. Their interiors are sub-par when compared to the competition, a Lincoln looks like an upper trim Toyota (at best). Your average buyer looks at a Lincoln in a showroom and walks out without even bothering to do a test drive. He/she does not care about RWD, V8 and other stuff (heck, he is out there buying FWD Lexuses and Acuras). As far as RWD is concerned, do you know what I hear from people who own BMWs? Man, rear wheel drive sucks in the snow, my next car will be an SUV for sure. Never confuse what the car geeks want with what the general public wants.
I've said for years that Mercury dies with the Panther, and it did. Now I am beginning to think the same with Lincoln. 1. Dump the alphabet soup names, bring back names like Continental, etc. 2. RWD V8 flagship, if it's not too late, save the Panther, or import from AU 3. Mustang platform needs something else to do, about a knock your socks off Mark 8?