Toys4RJill

I would say Lincoln is a spectacular failure. All of their cars are simply not competitive and now we are seeing luxury prestige buyers look over the Lincoln and pick up the Lexus or MB products. The interior design of the MKC is nothing great. The MKZ looks good on the outside but fails on the interior.

But I do really like the Navigator, but I also like BOF designs and I have to give Lincoln some respect for putting a turbo 6 in such a massive vehicle.

The new Continental concept is a home run IMO,,but it does lack a V8

LexBob2

Regarding the MKC, I don't think that it's as good as some make it out to be, or as bad as others see it. It seems to be selling 2,000-2,300 units per month here in the US. My guess is that it will keep that niche in the market and be another alternative for those shopping in the hot Compact Luxury CUV segment.

dseag2

If Lincoln revamped the interior of the MKZ, tweaked the suspension and added more power and made it a real contender it would be in my consideration set. The exterior is like nothing else out there and it always turns my head.

SW17LS

Parked next to an MKC today. Found it completely ordinary and non-compelling.

The MKZ is a stunning car I agree. Needs help inside.

Toys4RJill

Yes, non compelling is what I would have to say. The thing is the dash design, looks bland.

Also, those stupid PNDR buttons are terrible. They have to go. Apparently there is recall for the push button start as well as the push button PNDR and Lincoln is going to remove or change these buttons. 15,000 units got recalled.

Toys4RJill

I agree, but too bad for the interior.

mmarshall

My experience, though, is that the Fusion was just as comfortable if not more so, for less money (though the ride could be borderline stiff on bumps), overall drove and handled better (the MKZ felt like a appliance) and has easier-to-use controls on the dash and console. The public seems to agree, if you look at the sales difference between the two cars.

FrankReynoldsCPA

The problem with Lincoln is that Mulally practically ignored it IIRC(in fact, I do believe he wanted to kill it off). So essentially you have a division that's still living in the pre-2008ish era where you took a car from your main brand, changed the badges, and added some fake wood trim and a new grille.

It's supremely frustrating to see it dwindle like this when we KNOW that Ford knows how to turn it around.

Toys4RJill

I think I can agree to some of this for Navigator but the MKC and MKZ are different in style from their Ford vehicles. My main issue is with the interiors, there is no risk taking or chances. The interiors really need to get better so they earn the respect of prestige buyers.

T0ked

iTrader: (2)

Very true. Journalism at its best. Easy to be the fastest growing when you're at the bottom. Outside from one or two models, what else do they have? Once these models get long in the tooth, watch them fall back to the bottom. the continental concept is beautiful, let's see what FoMoCo does with it. I don't know anyone who has or aspires to a Lincoln... Unless you're an Uber driver...

mmarshall

Mulally couldn't kill Lincoln off. They had to keep it......he had no other choice. They had sold Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, and decommissioned Mercury. Where else was Ford going to put its upmarket products?

The only way Lincoln could have also been killed off is if a whole new upmarket division (ala Lexus/Audi/Infiniti/Acura) had been created to replace it, and Ford simply did not have the money or resources for that, having narrowly escaped the bankruptcy that hit GM and Chrysler.

2GSKaizen

iTrader: (1)

Lincoln is faking their way to the top. The only reason the MKC is helping them become "The Fastest Growing Luxury Brand" is because Lincoln has forced this car down the throats of it's own employees at their production plants. They are basically taking a loss leasing these cars for something stupid cheap like $0 down $159 a month to employees. So it's not actually consumer's buying Lincoln's product, it's Lincoln taking a loss to make it SEEM as if they are selling this many cars to try and jumpstart sales.

mmarshall

You can't (yet) say they are taking a loss. First of all, the MKC isn't even a year old yet (it was released in the American market last July)....so the residual values from those 2-3 year leases won't even be known (only guessed) for at least another year or two. If, in fact, the average MKC does depreciate more than what Lincoln collects for them in lease-payments, then, yes, Lincoln may take a loss on each one...but even that might be tax-deductible up to a certain extent. It can be very difficult to predict depreciation in advance, as a number of factors come into play.

2GSKaizen

iTrader: (1)

I guess that is true. We never truly know what the depreciation will be, but the point remains that this employee lease push is the only way they were able to achieve those sales numbers....

mmarshall

That's assuming that all of the employes that work in the MKC plant (or maybe some of the other Lincoln plants) actually cashed in on it. And, given the MKC sales figures, it would take a lot of employees to actually do that. However, you are correct that 0 down and $159 a month for a luxury-grade entry-level SUV is chump-change, even by lease standards, and though it's too early to say for sure, I would not be surprised if Lincoln does end up taking at least somewhat of a loss. I think you're going to end up being at least partly right.

BTW, though it's not my absolute favorite vehicle, I like the MKC enough that, if they offered me 0/$159, there would probably be one sitting in my parking-space tonight.