Ford shakes up their marketing teams

its a waste of time, they'll never learn. I can assure you ford will never make a car as beautiful as the ls...I hope there happy they f'd up the potential of that car...if the ls kicks the bucket im done with ford and american cars for good...you will see me in a 2009 bmw in 4 years. I hate to turn on my country but can you blame me?
 
no matter what ford does, lincoln will never be the same! i do not know how many guys they replaced to over see the lincoln/mercury division, in the last 4 years.
 
I think there is a big problem with corporations in America. For the purpose of this thread, however, I will simply stick with the Ford Motor Company. In this capitalist driven economy where money is the only factor to consider with the wants/demands of the consumer coming in second, and the environment coming in last, we are at a crucial point to make our voices heard. The Ford Motor Company is ruining itself and has been for quite some time now (following the examples of other corporate greed mongors).

To give you an example: My parents owned a sucessful FLM dealership in the town in which I grew up (population - 6000). I started working for them at the age of 14 detailing cars and by the time I was 18 and off to college, business was slowing. At the age of 16-17, the local Sara Lee plant closed its doors and relocated to the south for cheaper labor. This caused around 500 families to leave the community and the population dropped to around 4500 people.

At this same time, FLM was in the process of phasing out the smaller dealers and consolditating them into larger regional stores. Rather than just telling the dealers to merge together, the corporation decided to make it nearly impossible for the smaller dealers to operate via the "blue oval program" whereas dealerships were responsible for buying a new "blue oval" sign, certifying all the techs to be "blue oval certified," and footing all the expenses for the upgrades. If these certification requirements were not met, the dealership would ultimately be phased out of business as it was not following the vision of FLM.

My parents eventually sold the francise and cut their losses. The community lost another 17 families as my parents were forced to let their higher experienced techs, salesmen, and parts workers leave to the city where the dealerships were doing better.

In the end, it comes down to someone or a group of people wanting to turn a profit and care only about the bottom line. It is no longer in the interests of corporations to provide the consumer with products they want (of course you will have exceptions such as the Mustang and F-series, however, for the most part they lack the compassion to give the customer what they want).

This is not to say that Ford can not produce a great car, however, once they do that they do not know how to market it and have it sell (nor are they willing). Case in point? The Lincoln LS.......Thunderbird.........Mark VIII.......the 500........the entire Mercury division. These are all great cars, however, they will all face the same fate in the end which is that they will cease to be (or already have).

I could go on and on about this topic as I am finishing my degree in communication studies with a business admin. degree and have taken many classes dealing with business and culture. The bottom line is that FLM is more concerned about making money on their bread and butter than they are to take a risk and invest in something geared toward a niche market. The Lincoln LS, for example, will never be a car that the masses will buy. But, that does not mean that they can not make it the best car it can be for the people who do want it. If I were FLM, I would go out to the LS, BMW, Audi, and Benz owners and see what they would like to see in a 4 door sports car and then go with it. The last thing America needs is some suit up in this office sipping his calonic coffee making decisions for me.

Sorry for the long post...........I had to vent. But if FLM doesn't make a car that is comprable to the LS, than my next car will be an Audi.......at least those hold their resale. I just find it pitiful that a 2000 LS which was probably about $10,000 more than an A4 and about the same as an A6 could be worth about $10,000 less now.
 
I agree with you about Ford and other corporations in America, sorry to hear about your parents' dealership. I have been thinking pretty hard lately about the A6, not ready to buy that car looks like my next vehicle. Hey by the way was that you I saw in Iowa City today??
 
If the LS is dropped, I wouldn't mind too bad. The LS isn't a very common car, and those with an lse or the 5 spd have a pretty rare car. I think it's better to be driving an LS than an all too common 5 series or audi.

If ford wanted to save the LS, they could have dropped a supercharged 4.6L in it, put 18's on it, dropped it, LSE kit and a 5 spd. Then they could be out there competing with cadillac, bmw, audi, and mercedes. I would love to see an LS like that out there in a comparison with the bmw m5, cadillac cts-v, and others like them.

Also, with ford cutting marketing, and switching to fwd, they kinda shot themselves in both their feet. I don't think it'll be easy for them to recover if sales start to decline.
 
SurfjaxLS said:
If the LS is dropped, I wouldn't mind too bad. The LS isn't a very common car, and those with an lse or the 5 spd have a pretty rare car. I think it's better to be driving an LS than an all too common 5 series or audi.

If ford wanted to save the LS, they could have dropped a supercharged 4.6L in it, put 18's on it, dropped it, LSE kit and a 5 spd. Then they could be out there competing with cadillac, bmw, audi, and mercedes. I would love to see an LS like that out there in a comparison with the bmw m5, cadillac cts-v, and others like them.

Also, with ford cutting marketing, and switching to fwd, they kinda shot themselves in both their feet. I don't think it'll be easy for them to recover if sales start to decline.
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OMG!! You guys remember.... the Lincoln LS isnt after the market alot of people wound up getting into. Ford NEVER thought teens and 20's would end up in these cars. They did go after a wider demographic range.... The late 30's and 40's age group instead of there tried and true rebuyers in their 50's and 60's. I love the fact that the LS has appealled to so such a wide group. I hate the fact it did that at the same time. Lincoln makes Ford money. They dont need to advertise. When was the last time you've seen a Town Car or Continental commercial? Aviator? Navigator? The name "Lincoln" sells itself due to brand loyalty and word of mouth. 2 months after I bought my lincoln a coworker traded in her CTS for one.
 
Hawk03 said:
I agree with you about Ford and other corporations in America, sorry to hear about your parents' dealership. I have been thinking pretty hard lately about the A6, not ready to buy that car looks like my next vehicle. Hey by the way was that you I saw in Iowa City today??
Click to expand...
Anything is possible.......I work at Carousel Motors and drive Riverside to Hwy. 6 to get to work. You should stop by or something sometime.
 
We can all agree on one thing it will be a sad day when the last LS rolls off the line!
I will always see FLM thru and thru, I may not buy another Lincoln but they will always have my business. DLS8K I am sorry to hear about your parents dealership, operating my family machine shop I can relate with big corporations I have seen a lot of them leave this part of Ohio. It really is sad one day we will all be managers at wally world thats what its about to come to.

-Scott-
 
I think all of us in this forum who are Lincoln LS owners agree that the LS is one of the most underated cars in America. At the time it was introduced it was a car in a class all its own. It was a car that boldly went where no other American car had gone before. It was a car that may said, remove the Lincoln badges and it could have been mistaken for a European car. We all know that Lincoln rested on those laurels. It failed to market the car enough and properly and thought that adding the first LSE appearance package in 2002 was enough to compete with BMW, Audi, and Mercedes. More so they thought it was enought to attract a younger age group of buyers. If Lincoln was serious and wanted to make the LS really known they should have gone through with the McLaren LS or make the LSE a performance and appearance package. But what happen is when Lincoln saw that the younger buyers were not flocking to the LS they then starting making the LS into more of a luxury car than a performance car. Well the Older generations did not like it because it was too small and not smooth enought. Lets face it, the LS Ultimate without the sports suspension can't compete with the Town Car in a nice comfortable smooth ride. Also the Town Cars' size is sought by the older generations for its safety issues. Ford is a truck company, period. They are good in building and selling trucks. They do not know how to sell cars, any car much less luxury cars or performance cars. They cant even sell or market rebadged vehicles that are build off successful platforms. Well the Navigator may be the only vehicle, that hold true. It is sad to see a once great marque go down the tubes and base its future on rebadged vehicles. The Mark LT on the F150, and the Zephyr on the Ford Fusion. The next Aviator which will be a crossover vehicle or a car based suv will probabley be based off the Ford Freestyle. The reason Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover have seen some success and have introduced some interesting vehicles is while they may be Ford owned they have their own marketing and design teams. They also have a long history and tradition in that segment. If the LS is dropped I also will be forced to buy an import. BMW, Audi here I come!! Maybe.
 
Besides advertising I think Ford could have done two things that would have extended the longevity of the LS. First, they should have had a decent automatic transmission from the very beginning. A car that cost 35K+ should have an automatic transmission that shifts better than the one in the Focus. The second thing is that Ford could have greatly increased the exposure of the LS platform if they had a lesser cost Mercury version. A Mercury version with perhaps unheated cloth seats, no rain sense wipers, no automatic climate control, perhaps offered only with the V6 and priced around $20-$25k would have increased the volume of ownership of the LS platform. More and younger people would be exposed the the great handling and as their income rose would possibly trade the Mercury in on an LS. That seems to be the way it works with Fords most successful long lived models: Taurus/Sable, Explorer/Mountaineer/Aviator, Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis/Towncar. I don't think the LS/S-Type works because there is no similarity in looks, and the entry price is too high.
 
The LS came out of Jacques Nasser's DEW98 platform. Once Nasser messed up enough to get canned the car had no insider riding on it success so it was left to twist in the wind.
 
The other problem is the massive brainwashing of the American public back in the 80's by the likes of people like Lee Iococca about the superiority of front wheel drive cars. Hopefully, with the sport of drifting becoming popular with the younger crowd, we'll see a major resurgence of rear wheel drive cars. Although with oil prices hitting $65 a barrel maybe it's just a dream.
 
The sad truth is that car guys are not running car companies.......accountants are running car companies. The other sad truth is that buyers go straight to Toyota and Honda dealers and never even think about an American car. They are not even on the shopping list! A person I know recently told me that they were worried about their GM stock, because they are getting ready to retire. I asked this person why then, did they buy a Toyota? This person gave me a "dear in the headlights" look and said they never even thought about a GM car!! Can you imagine that? Sad.
 
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