The print ads started appearing this month in the major mags. I kinda like the Annie Leibowitz spread that they did.

 

I think the fact that Lincoln hasn't invested in the marketing of this car the way Cadillac has the CT6 is very telling. It's almost like all they wanted it to be was a fleet car...

 

There never should have been an embargo to start with. Lincoln needs to make a good explanation for that. The Customer Service people don't know ****, and the higher-up managers who should be talking simply aren't.

If my knees, in January, allow me to make it to the D.C. show, I'm going to bring that issue up forcefully with those Lincoln reps present...and, if the real managers aren't there, get their contact info.

 

I don't think they wouldn't have given a (primarily) rental or fleet car that kind of interior....where they obviously spent time, money, and effort on it. Of course, the disappointing (former) MKS speaks for itself (that's a given)......they HAD to do better than that, especially if they wanted to sell to the executive/limo/livery-car business. And now, they have.

 

I just don't get it. Where's the press coverage?

 

Everyone has press embaragoes- that's par for the course now. The weird thing was how long the Continental's lasted.

 

What major publication doesn't have a review by now? I see a few were posted on November 4 like this AutoGuide one: http://www.autoguide.com/manufacture...inental-review

 

stealth marketing.

 

Yes, they all have press embargo's. Movies and other product launches have them as well. Generally speaking, they are a good thing to have. I suspect the Ford delayed the press release at the last minute. For whatever reason we don't know but the car has been getting generally favourable reviews and I like their idea of quiet luxury. And the car is selling from what has been posted.

 

You can't sell something that doesn't get any publicity, though...unless you're people like us, that read about things ahead of time.

Frankly, I think that they might (?) have done it for liability reasons. Ford is not the world's best automaker when it comes to getting things right the first time....and, after several years, they still don't have the Focus and Fiesta transmissions right LOL. They might have not wanted Continentals with (possible) defects in them getting pushed around by the press. If that were the case, then, fine, that's acceptable, but they probably should have said something. Oh, we'll, we're not their bosses anyway......they don't answer to us.

 

So launching a product with flaws so significant they would decide not to market the car is acceptable? LOL, not to me.

I don't think this is the case at all, but I can't imagine anybody would think that was okay.

 

Oh, no...of course not. I wasn't suggesting otherwise. But, due to a lot of tight-lips, we don't even know what actually happened (the defect-delay was purely a guess on my part)...although, when I actually test-drove the Continental, that shop apparantly didn't have any no-drive bulletins.

 

It's easy to rule out that a defect caused the delay given they were already arriving at dealers for sale. Something else drove this behavior. Manufacturers regularly tell press to ignore certain faults due to continuing calibration or provide explanation for press cars' behavior, so really that wouldn't have caused an embargo extension anyways.

 

Actually it hasn't disappeared into a black hole as some might like to hand-wring and say the end of the world is nigh:

http://www.motortrend.com/cars/linco...-drive-review/

. Multiple reviews here.

Detroit Free Press: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...ward/93226022/

Forbes Magazine: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kbrauer/.../#5b2a1c327204

Canada, Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe...ticle32680259/

Motor Authority: http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1...t-drive-review

http://autoweek.com/article/drive-re...ln-continental

https://www.cars.com/articles/2017-l...1420692024988/

 

Nice to see Auto week agree that the car is elegant, serene, and effortless