Lincoln has two years to live.

[Jesda]

--Lincoln is relaunched as "Lincoln Motor Company" after the end of Lincoln-Mercury
--4 cars launched in 4 years,
--Only $1 billion in investment from Ford, less than 25% of what GM spent reviving Cadillac a decade ago

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NklipvTBf64[/youtube]

For that kind of money, I'm expecting a lot of rebadging and poorly executed platform sharing combined with Lincoln's bizarre new design theme. It doesn't look good.


30% chance of survival.

[MinisterofDOOM]

It's Ford's fault. They killed Mercury BECAUSE BADGE ENGINEERING WASN'T WORKING. And then what did they do to follow up? MORE BADGE ENGINEERING in what seems like a concerted effort to turn Lincoln into Mercury.
They're idiots. Ford clearly understands how to build a good car. What they don't understand is brand marketing. Unless it tries to go DIRECTLY after Cadillac, it will be nothing more than a parasite on Ford, sucking resources while giving nothing back. "Only $1 billion" is a lot of money to spend on failure. I would give no water to the dead if Lincoln closed up shop tomorrow. For me, the brand died with the latest redesign of the Navigator--wherein Lincoln proved that they have NO understanding of the WHY behind their past successes. While the deaths of the Mark LT and LS saddened specific enthusiasts, the Navigator's redesign was a failure of far more significant (and obvious) scale.

I read an article recently that talked about Lincoln being surprised at how exceptionally poorly the MKT has sold. It's probably not worth mentioning that I predicted that failure before the model even launched.

I point and laugh at people in MKZs. They sell for the same as the LS did! In 2006 $41k would have bought an LS V8 Ultimate WITH EVERYTHING. Now you'd pay that much for a loaded Ecoboost 2 liter MKZ!!!!!!

Lincoln's playing hard at Acura's game. It's a waste of effort for Acura...doubly so for anyone dumb enough to "compete" in such an uninspired marketplace.

Lincoln's current styling is definitely a special kind of bad. Look at the new MKZ next to a Fusion and you can't help but wonder if ANYONE at Ford talks to ANYONE at Lincoln. The Fusion is ten times classier-looking and ten times less generic-looking.

[Kompresshun]

Ford is making a lot of great cars, but I honestly can't think of anything Lincoln has made that i'm interested in since I worked for them in 2006/2007. Back then I loved the LS, MKZ/Zephyr, and the Mark LT, but ever since then i've found myself wanting the Ford version of the vehicle more. Something is VERY wrong with that picture, when Lincoln is your luxury brand.

I was a lot more sad to see Mercury go than I would be to see Lincoln go at this point.

[krash]

I'm no expert, but that seatbelt airbag looks like a bad idea.

[SoCal-S13]

Ford/Lincoln/Mercury = Garbage anyways. Chevro-mothafukkin-let is where its at.


On a serious note, id be sad if Oldsmobile ever went under, as they are the first ever high volume gasoline-powered automobile manufacturer.

[Jesda]

Ford/Lincoln/Mercury = Garbage anyways. Chevro-mothafukkin-let is where its at.


On a serious note, id be sad if Oldsmobile ever went under, as they are the first ever high volume gasoline-powered automobile manufacturer.

Oldsmobile's last car rolled off the line in 2004.

Of all the brands that have expired in recent years including Saab, Oldsmobile is the one I miss most, if not for what they were producing then for what they meant to American motoring and culture.

[SoCal-S13]

Ford/Lincoln/Mercury = Garbage anyways. Chevro-mothafukkin-let is where its at.


On a serious note, id be sad if Oldsmobile ever went under, as they are the first ever high volume gasoline-powered automobile manufacturer.

Oldsmobile's last car rolled off the line in 2004.

Of all the brands that have expired in recent years including Saab, Oldsmobile is the one I miss most, if not for what they were producing then for what they meant to American motoring and culture.

apparently im sad then. wow.

[Bubba1]

It's not surprising to me that Lincoln is on the endangered list. I agree it's more Ford's fault but not so much that they build cr@ppy cars. Those are Fords underneath those skins. IMHO the big issue is dreadful marketing combined with Ford's awful electronic infotainment system.

New Lincoln buyers have always had an average age of 65, if not older, (and taxi/limo companies for the enormous ancient Town car). Since the town car is on its way out without a replacement, that leaves old stodgy consumer reports subscribing geritol taking aarp members, expecting baby carriage riding traditional familiar 3 box luxubarges. And Lincoln pretty much walked away from them without replacements lined up. And they wonder why sales are not great?

So what did Ford do? they drastically restyle everything into sleek looking but ugly packages (split front grills scream overstyled Pontiac) and stuff it with that awful myfordbadtouch infotainment system that's so bad, it single handedly drove the Lincoln brand down in reliability studies.

I also think the trend in model naming is downright stupid and does not help Lincoln. Naming everything "MK something" removes all distinction, kinda something you'd want with a near luxury brand.

So It looks like Ford quickly abandoned their solid (but slowly dying) primary customer demographic to go younger, like Cadillac did but Caddy did it more slowly. Caddy also began attracting some younger buyers because their cars got better. Fairly or unfairly, Lincolns are not yet being perceived as better.

[Jesda]

Early review on the new MKZ is pretty bad:

http://www.edmunds.com/lincoln/mkz/2013/road-test.html

[MinisterofDOOM]

245/45R18 Michelin Primacy MXM4 low-rolling-resistance all-season tires

Ugh. These tires suck. I can tell you from personal experience: I have two on the front of my Lincoln (purchased barely-used for next to zero dollars...I did not go looking for low rolling resistance tires).

They suck on dry asphalt. They suck on wet asphalt. Oddly, they're not entirely terrible in the snow. These tires aren't worthy of base-model Camrys, let alone entry luxury cars that pretend they're sporty. They make my LS understeer like a front-heavy FWD family sedan. I can only imagine what happens when you put them on a front-heavy, FWD family sedan.

[Bubba1]

Interesting article. Kinda sneaky of Ford to equip their free Edmunds test model with sticky summer performance tires instead of those cheapie POS low rolling resistance ones which are standard. Technically, the performance tires are part of an option package, but it's not yet available. Those performance tires drastically improved the MKZ's grip in their tests. I'm glad Edmunds caught 'em.

I say buh bye Lincoln.

[300ZXttZMAN]

I'm no expert, but that seatbelt airbag looks like a bad idea.

I agree... Think about how much airbags cost. So later down the road when the seat belt stops working and you have to replace it your going to likely have to buy the airbag with it. smh

[MinisterofDOOM]

Federal laws require all seatbelt issues to be covered under a lifetime warranty. Great for people with power seatbelts in early-90s Nissans.

[Mr1der]

I'm still gonna prettynd they have a sleeper hit in the works.

Ford needs a full-size red sedan platform again. They're behind the curve with the Caprice coming down the line now. I've seen a few of them in town, Lebanon pd got them a few months back. They're incredibly boring. I thought it was an Impala at first.

[Bubba1]

I'm still gonna prettynd they have a sleeper hit in the works.

Ford needs a full-size red sedan platform again. They're behind the curve with the Caprice coming down the line now. I've seen a few of them in town, Lebanon pd got them a few months back. They're incredibly boring. I thought it was an Impala at first.

I think the con-Fusion...er MKZ represents Lincoln's last chance as the Fusion is not a bad car. unfortunately with the awful low rolling resistance tires Ford chose plus the still unreliable MyFord bad-touch, I'm not sure they'll sell enough to survive.

IF they do survive, I could see Lincoln entering the full sized sedan market with a rebadged Taurus with the MKZ's Pontiac style split grill.

[elwesso]

Honestly right now Ford doesn't have any business in the luxury car segment. Even the hyundai genesis is a car I'd prerfer over the MKZ for less money.

I do think the "entry level" cars Ford is making are good in general. Even though the Ecoboost is some stupid marketing term for people who don't know anything about cars, the concept is still good.