Is handwriting on the wall - Lincoln closing 1/3 dealerships

[Fleetwood86]

Have any of you followed Ford's revitalization plans the past few years? Being a Chevy and Caddy man, I was focused on GM.

Now that I own a '94 Continental, I am looking at Ford. The Wall Street Journal is saying Ford may let go of the brand citing people's tastes have changed and the market for luxury vehicles has declined.

Anyway, they announced closing 33 percent of their dealerships nationwide and reducing after-market parts.

 

[kustomizingkid]

If Ford needs to do ANYTHING it is get ride of Mercury... there is NO reason why that brand should exist, period.

 

[Andrew L]

Have any of you followed Ford's revitalization plans the past few years? Being a Chevy and Caddy man, I was focused on GM.

Now that I own a '94 Continental, I am looking at Ford. The Wall Street Journal is saying Ford may let go of the brand citing people's tastes have changed and the market for luxury vehicles has declined.

Anyway, they announced closing 33 percent of their dealerships nationwide and reducing after-market parts.

Lincoln is not going anywhere, they are consolidating stores because they have too many

Lincoln is going to be making some huge changes real soon including:

7 new products in 4 years starting with:
1.Refreshed MKX that just came out this year
2.Refeshed MKS which is rumored to move on the MKT platform so it will grow and be longer and most likely offer a larger rear seat
3.Refreshed MKZ rumored to move onto the Mondeo platoform
4.Refreshed MKT not much info on this
5.Refreshed Navigator supposed to get the 3.5 EcoBoost as an option
6.New C-Segment Crossover
7.???

Also Lincoln has gotten its own deveopment team for the first time in a real long time and leading that team is someone they have stolen from Audi

Other things worth noting is they mentioned
-push button gear selector
-exclusive new V6 not offered in Fords
-exclusive transmissions (probably DCT)
-sliding glass roofs
-computerized suspensions
-there are more but I can't remember off the top of my head

as for Mercury it was already announced it was done this year, there will only be a hand full of 2011 models, then the brand is done for good
Mercury 1939-2011

 

[83 markvi]

I see nothing good ahead for Lincoln. First off they killed the Town car which was the only real Lincoln left. All the cars have bland styling and if it were not for the giant emblems they would be mistaken for any generic mid size car. The mk names are confusing. The styling is hideous and the size is too small. Lincoln needs a big rear wheel drive sedan like the town car preferably built on a frame. It should look like a Lincoln. Have a rolls grill and flip up lights. Have suicide doors and continental trunk. Lots of chrome and slab sides. Have a long hood and a long rear end. Have lots of options like different interior colors. Different roof tops. Carriage' landau or steel . Opera lights and shark gill fenders and opera windows should be options. Lots of chrome. Turbine wheels. Make it big. 125 inch wheelbase and 225 inches long. Use the best styling of the 70s, 80s and early 90s. Make a commercial chassis and own the limo and hearse business.Name it town car. Then make a slightly smaller coupe and call it continental mark 9. This car should be a cross bwbetween a mark 3 and mark v. Offer it as a convertible. Both of these should have the new 5.0 engine with the 6.2 optional. Then build a smaller car that is the size of a Chrysler 300 that handles like a sportss car. Make it look like a smaller version of the new town car. Call it continental or zephyr. Make it rear wheel drive. Junk the current line up.when every car is luxurious Lincoln needs size and bling and broughamification. Also make it reliable like a town car with no air suspension was. Make it aspirational. Save Lincoln. Otherwise Chrysler will steal all your customers. For many tiny cars don't cut it. If I had to get a car the size of a current Lincoln I would buy a Toyota or a hyundai instead. New Lincolns and Cadillacs are a joke. Please ford bring back real cars before Chrysler crushes you.

 

[BadinBlack]

I agree with most of what 83 markvi said. The problem with these new Lincoln's such as the MKS, MKZ, MKX, etc. is that 1) they have a bunch of weird looking mismatched lines and angles which means 2) they look absolutely horrendous and 3) there's no longer any real Lincoln brand identity when it comes to styling. The designers go with either the twin vertical waterfall grille for the 2011 MKX & 2014 MKS, a twin kidney type grille with horizontal slots (2015 Navigator, 2016 MKX) or that really busy rectangle grille with way too much chrome and way too many slots on the 2007 Navigator and MKX. These new models look nothing like any Lincoln from the past and the MK whatever monikers are confusing. At least Cadillac bothered to use alphabetic names with a different first letter for each of their models. Unlike Lincoln, Cadillac has a bunch of high quality, well designed vehicles which still have fairly distinctive styling (you automatically recognize a CTS, ATS or any of their other models as being a Cadillac due to the angular front end, prominent grille and vertical taillights). The new Cadillac's don't look anything like the 90's models, they are far less traditional and more european like than before but at least they still retain a stylistic link to Cadillac's of the past.

By designing vehicles with sportier, more up to date, European like styling Lincoln has abandoned their traditional clientele (older people who like large cars with a soft ride and lots of tradition) in favor of a younger group who would normally be buying a Lexus, Mercedes, BMW or Acura. I however am 32 their target audience and I can't stand the new Lincoln models. I like my black 01 Continental and the newest Lincoln's that I like are the 03-11 Town Car & 03-06 Navigator. Lincoln's from the 90's beginning with the Mark VIII, continuing through the 1995-2002 Continental as well as the 1998-2011 Town Car and even the first two Navigator's were stately, stylish & elegant looking vehicles with curvaceous lines that stood out from the crowd. You can't say the same thing about these new import-inspired models. As an aside with only one large car (the 300) I don't see Chrysler crushing either Lincoln or Cadillac ** By the way I've seen the 2014 Lincoln MKZ rear styling before, just Google pics of the 1990 Infiniti Q45 sedan.

 

[MooJohn]

This thread is from 4 years ago but it's still valid. A re-wrapped Taurus isn't going to save Lincoln no matter how fancy it is.

Hyundai gets it. That's why they offer 2 rwd v8 sedans with everything you used to expect in a Lincoln. The Genesis gets the job done (and now comes in AWD for the v6 models) and the Equus totally kills anything offered at a Lincoln dealership.

Chrysler killed the 300's appeal to enthusiasts by ending the SRT8 version this year. I could put up with the car's "ghetto" reputation knowing there was 475hp under the hood and giant Brembo brakes, but nooo. More people buy the Jeep in SRT8 form so that's what they're going to make.

Imagine a 300 with the new Hellcat engine - a 707 horsepower gentleman's car. They couldn't produce them fast enough at a $60k sticker price. Chrysler's infotainment and gauge offerings are leagues ahead of those offered by GM and Ford - they are very nice.

 

[cadillacdude]

I see nothing good ahead for Lincoln. First off they killed the Town car which was the only real Lincoln left. All the cars have bland styling and if it were not for the giant emblems they would be mistaken for any generic mid size car. The mk names are confusing. The styling is hideous and the size is too small. Lincoln needs a big rear wheel drive sedan like the town car preferably built on a frame. It should look like a Lincoln. Have a rolls grill and flip up lights. Have suicide doors and continental trunk. Lots of chrome and slab sides. Have a long hood and a long rear end. Have lots of options like different interior colors. Different roof tops. Carriage' landau or steel . Opera lights and shark gill fenders and opera windows should be options. Lots of chrome. Turbine wheels. Make it big. 125 inch wheelbase and 225 inches long. Use the best styling of the 70s, 80s and early 90s. Make a commercial chassis and own the limo and hearse business.Name it town car. Then make a slightly smaller coupe and call it continental mark 9. This car should be a cross bwbetween a mark 3 and mark v. Offer it as a convertible. Both of these should have the new 5.0 engine with the 6.2 optional. Then build a smaller car that is the size of a Chrysler 300 that handles like a sportss car. Make it look like a smaller version of the new town car. Call it continental or zephyr. Make it rear wheel drive. Junk the current line up.when every car is luxurious Lincoln needs size and bling and broughamification. Also make it reliable like a town car with no air suspension was. Make it aspirational. Save Lincoln. Otherwise Chrysler will steal all your customers. For many tiny cars don't cut it. If I had to get a car the size of a current Lincoln I would buy a Toyota or a hyundai instead. New Lincolns and Cadillacs are a joke. Please ford bring back real cars before Chrysler crushes you.

Nope to all of that. Who wrote that, Lee Iacocca?

 

[83 markvi]

Lee Iacocca was a great man. Responsible for mustang and mark 111 and broughhamization and saving Chrysler. I bet he could save Lincoln. All these bland cars they make now won't do it.

 

[Rockbottom]

Lee Iacocca was a great man. Responsible for mustang and mark 111 and broughhamization and saving Chrysler. I bet he could save Lincoln. All these bland cars they make now won't do it.

Lee had a likuing for the strong running and sports car feel cars. His boss was Macnamar at ford who championed the falcon over the mustang. Macnamara was chosen for sec of defense under President Kennedy . If not for that promotion out of ford, Lee would be held down from making the mustang one of fords best money makers. The falcon died and no one missed the little ugly duck