Well, I just read an article regarding Lincoln's new direction, and it seems that their revolutionary idea is to rename the Lincoln division "The Lincoln Motor Company". I would bet $1000 RIGHT NOW that literally ZERO consumers will notice this name change as being part of the "new" strategy. I still think Ford was STUPID to ditch the Mercury brand name, and see this "new Lincoln strategy" as one of the last nails in the Lincoln coffin. What validity or value does "The Lincoln Motor Company" name give me or any other car buyer?

I feel bad for the Lincoln/Mercury dealers who lost Mercury as a volume sales opportunity, and frankly see almost NOTHING as getting me, or most other consumers, into a Lincoln showroom. Seems like all that would result in is the opportunity to buy a Ford car, with different (and usually uglier) styling for a huge price premium. Again, I am sad that Ford has put a bullet into their alternative brand name. I see this as nothing other than a reduction in their market share.

RIP Lincoln,
George

 

Very interesting thoughts George and I agree 100%. Mercury and Lincoln should have had a line of their very own. Ford selling identical cars and SUV's that ultimately complete against each other for the same sales base is kinda dumb. I hope that Lincoln can come back and excite the younger buyers like Caddy has.

 

As much as I hate Ford selling off and ending lines it was the right thing to do financially and the shareholder side of me likes that. Still hurts when I see new Aston Martins and know they aren't Ford's any more. At this point I can't see them spinning Lincoln off but I haven't read the financials to know how bad it is doing. Europe is their money pit right now and will hopefully be fixed first. I can't even tell you any of the models Lincoln has currently (M this and M that I know), at least when they were Ford clones I knew what they were and mostly what options were different than the Ford cousins.

I always thought vehicles like the Blackwood and Navigator were exactly what Lincoln should have been selling. A vehicle still heavily based on the Ford design but with an engine upgrade or radically different styling. Felt the Same way about the Marauder and it flopped as bad as the Blackwood. Apparently what I like isn't what most of the people like and I/my portfolio have faith that Mulally knows what he is doing.

 

When I think Lincoln, I think Continental...... With suicide doors......

 

This has been a disaster. Changing the name is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Lincoln dealers need PRODUCT to build BRAND IMAGE backed up by decent MARKETING. It may be too late already. Crying over Mercury isnt going to help. It was a long lost cause and I agreed with killing it. Remember, Ford is unique in that the largest shareholder is the Ford family trust. This is not like a typical corporation that has to answer to Wall Street every quarter. Long term strategic planning is still tricky, with volatile fuel prices and intense competition.

Bringing back a livery fleet queen, the Towncar, isnt going to do it. Average retail luxury car buyers dont care which end of the car has the drive wheels or platform construction. Lexus successfully sells RWD, FWD and AWD unibody cars and BOF SUV's. How many knew that the '61 Continental was unibody and the Imperial was BOF, or cared. What can be done and there isnt much time. A new RWD platform wont work for that reason. Take the current Tarurus/MKsomething (what a disaster in model naming) platform and give it unique sheetmetal, sharing nothing with the Taurus, then fit out the interior with the finest leather, fabrics, carpet and real wood and metal trim to justify a price north of lets say, $50K. Provide a choice of interior colors, not just black or tan. Cadillac is trying to go after the Germans, an expensive exercise. Lincoln should go after Lexus instead.

 

Lexus and Acura have definitely figured this out, why is Ford stumbling over itself?

 

This is a tough question. First, Lexus and Acura have had stellar and unquestioned reliability. Infiniti (Nissan's high end brand) is struggling, and Mazda tried but failed to come up with a high end brand (leaving the Millenia to be sold as an upscale Mazda model.) When Lexus and Acura load up a fancy new car with state of the art power equipment, it DOES NOT BREAK. They have beaten Mercedes and BMW at their own game of "the best cars in the world". The Germans still own the "driving dynamics" title but the Japanese brands own the high tech electronics and long-life dependability titles.

Lincolns, on the other hand, have long been Fords with gaudy bodywork tacked on, and gimmicky electronics that DO break. How appealing were Lincolns that were Fairmonts with lipstick on them? (Or Caddies that were freaking Chevys with lipstick? Remember the Cimarron?)

I still think that a Ford/Mercury/Lincoln hierarchy was the right way to go, with clear but tasteful styling differences in the brands, and progressively fancier styling, but with impeccable quality throughout. But with Mercury gone, that is not a possibility, and I fear that Lincoln dealers are doomed to extinction.

As Ford makes their electronics more complex, they are choking in Consumer Reports reliability ratings. Loading more of this crap into Lincolns, still undependable, is not gonna help. I think the luxury market is now based on "status symbol" vibes, and I do not see that Lincoln has any of these. Caddy is doing OK with their knife edge styling stuff and some unique models (sometimes based on Euro models) that target BMW. Fatass SUV's like the Navigator and Escalade are fading away fast. I sadly think Lincoln is gone and I don't have an answer for them.

They need world class driving dynamics (Ford is actually doing OK here with Ford models--but I don't think Lincoln can do better), world class reliability (Ford is nowhere compared to Japanese brands and Lincoln just has more crappy etronic crap that breaks), world class styling (current Lincolns are UGLY--could they maybe take a page from the Jaguar/Aston Martin book or something? Please? Yesterday?), and world class reputation (NOBODY I know aside from one Jewish interior designer woman who drives a Mexican MKZ--which is a Fusion with lipstick--thinks very much of Lincoln's reputation these days). Caddy is making some good performance cars like the hotrod CTS with Corvette engines, and Lincoln is nowhere near this marketing area right now. I seriously do not see what Lincoln has that will bring customers into their showrooms right now. Changing their name to the "Lincoln Motor Company" is a joke. Unless they come up with a really cool V12 or V16 engine YESTERDAY.

George

 

They should have kept Mercury, complete with Mustang-based Cougars and M-series pickups. The FWD Cougar was really a sign that Ford had ceased to take the brand seriously, everything after that was downhill. The Marauder was cool, but not much different from a PI-optioned Crown Victoria.

 

At one time, Lincoln and to some extent Mercury were proving grounds for Ford branded cars. The upscale brands would get the latest and greatest upgrades as the mark up would cover the R&D costs and eventually these items would filter into Fords. not so much now. It seems that Ford is trying to push all of it's new technology at once and it's costing them dividends in reliability ratings. Ford SYNC is still the single largest complaint.

I fear that you are all correct. Lincoln could very well be too far gone to resurrect as a respectable and profitable entity.

 

I guess the ultimate test for me would be to ask myself what cars Lincoln makes that I really WANT. I am 60 years old, have owned a lot of performance, luxury, and utility vehicles in my life. (Everything from Corvettes to 426 Chrysler Hemi cars to Olds 98's to trucks and vans.) I sadly have to say that there is NO Lincoln that I am aware of that I really, really WANT. Trying to sell me overpriced Fords with lipstick is not gonna work. They need some special and unique cars and I don't think they have them.

When Mercury existed, I knew a bunch of people who drove them. My late FIL drove a Grand Marquis, I bought my wife a Sable, and knew other people who had Sables and even the Tracers (Escorts). These cars gave Lincoln Mercury dealers some bread and butter sales. It's gonna be really hard to get me to walk into a Lincoln dealer nowadays...and I see a great many local dealers that I fear will not survive.

And for the record, I had a '98 Acura TL that was a GREAT car; I had a 60 mile round trip commute in horrible traffic, and got a great deal on the Acura as a used car the same year I got a great deal on my wife's '98 Sable. The Sable was also a great car. I felt fine as an Acura buyer and as a Mercury buyer, but simply do not see myself as a Lincoln buyer. I don't even know what their models, MK whatevers, are called. I think they make a Fusion with lipstick, an Edge with lipstick, some horribly ugly variation of the Flex (is that the MKT?) and what else? With the Town Car gone, I don't see Lincoln limos any more, so what else is there?

George

 

So true....

 

The whole concept of mid brands is DEAD. There is nothing between Toyota and Lexus, Honda and Acura, VW and Audi. Buick only still exists because of China, if not, it would have joined Oldsmobile and Pontiac. Chrysler did it differently, of course, killing the top and bottom brands Imperial and Plymouth instead, but still leaving a two brand strategy. Dodge moved downmarket into Plymouth territory a long time ago, and that is where Mercury went as nothing more than rebadged Fords. Chrysler-Plymouth and Lincoln-Mercury dealerships may have had more volume, but a cheapened customer experience for the top brand. Audi and BMW succesfully moved upmarket to compete with Mercedes instead of Opel. That didnt happen overnight.

I totally agree with your last statement.

 

I guess I see your point, although Toyota also has Scion (their youth brand) selling at regular Toyota dealers.

Still, I recall looking at sales numbers for Mercury and Lincoln, and recall that Ford sold a LOT more Mercurys than they did Lincolns, and I am not sure that Mercury's presence made for a cheapened experience for Lincoln buyers...in fact, it got the Mercury people into the showrooms where they might have been tempted to move up to a Lincoln. Our friend who drives the MKZ moved up from years of driving Sables. Lincoln dealers around Detroit look awfully quiet, and their used car lots seem to have a great many Ford and Mercury cars on them, trying to draw in "regular" people instead of just the older men and women who buy Lincolns.

I don't really think Mercury slotted in that high compared to Ford--it just gave Lincoln dealers something else to sell, kind of the way that Buick dealers have GMC trucks to sell which are often really rebadged Chevy trucks.

What's done is done...I just hope Lincoln does not die off as a result. But I won't be buying one.

George

 

Exactly a decade ago, at the Los Angeles Auto Show, guess what was on display? A gorgeous Lincoln Continental concept car, suicide doors and all. I can't believe they tossed this aside for the pathetic MK alphabet soup.

 

Sad thing is I know of several people who would never own a Ford but where happy to own a Mercury, Just made me scratch my head. There probably weren't enough of those types to make a difference. The last Lincoln I was really impressed with was the LS, another car that died quick and early. Probably because it was based on the DEW98 and the T bird also failed miserably only leaving the Jag S type to share the platform and therefore not being profitable. Ironically that is what made the car great, basically a Jag in Lincoln clothes.

So as I type I wonder, what if Ford killed Lincoln and would have kept Jag as their premiere brand OR killed Jag and renamed them all under the Lincoln name. Or in the same vein what if they did it with Volvo instead of selling? Would have pissed a lot of people off but they very well could have had a very solid premium car line up. Too bad Ford really turned Jag around by the early-mid 2000's and dumped a ton of money into it to do so.