Toys4RJill

highrev6

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

oldcajun

If Ford does indeed cancel the Fusion, it is likely that the Continental would also disappear as they are on versions of the same platform. It is obvious that Ford believes that the Navigator is the Lincoln flagship and that the MKX (now Nautilus) is their volume seller. There is an update (and a new name) coming for the MKC that could help its sales. I hate to think that there might not be any Lincoln sedans, but that is what the market is saying.

Where would Cadillac be today without the XT5 and the Escalade? There is apparently a new large SUV based on the CT6 platform in works. We thought the follow-on would be a CT-8, but it looks more like an XT6 will follow.

Och

iTrader: (3)

There are people who have a soft spot for Lincoln (mostly elderly folks), but otherwise the car doesn't have much appeal. Its wrong wheel drive and has archaic infotainment system.

Fizzboy7

^^
Thank you for clearly summing up the problem. Styling easily killed it. I believe a few of us predicted this in an early thread when the car first debuted. As I've said for twenty years, America does not like dumpy-butt cars. It's soft, weak, incomplete, and lends nothing to an expensive or luxurious appearance. The Germans and Asians have a better grip on this class of cars, and have so for years.

GS69

I always thought that the Continental was in the GS class since it started at $45k. There it is doing OK in the mid-pack; if you put in the LS category the numbers are comparatively even better. No, they are not Mercedes levels but still ... here are some #s from 2017 just for reference:

2017

Eclass 51,312 +.8%
5series 40,658 +25.5%
A6 16,304 -12.7%
XTS 16,275 -26.65%
G80 16,196
Continental 12,012 +128.3%
CTS 10,344 -35%
S90 8,640 +213.5%
GS 7,773 -47.6%
Q70 5,772 -1.7%
RLX 1,237 -16%; hybrid 292 +24.7%

Sclass 15,888 -15.5%
CT6 10,542 +15%
7series 9,276 -28.2%
Panamera 6,731
G90 4,398
LS 4,094 -25.5%
A8 3,127 -24.6%

RNM GS3

spwolf

Continental starts at $46k MSRP and you can get $10k deal now for brand new 2017 model on lots, via cars.com, let alone negotiating directly.

So I dont know if any buyer compares it to LS, S, A8 or 7, I am pretty sure they dont. Average selling price is likely $30k less than LS.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

agreed.

jrmckinley

I think the front design is actually pretty cosmetically appealing and find the concealed door handle design interesting...though I don't know if I mean that in a good or bad sense. I absolutely hate the car from most side profiles and especially from the back. I haven't seen the interior yet.

But I don't think it's fair to compare it to the LS (interior quality comment) considering it's a fraction of the price. Without knowing where an Avalon is priced, it may be more comparable and accurate to compare it within a class like that for Toyota products.

mmarshall

Well, that's the case with most automakers...if they don't make enough of a profit on Vehicle A, sometimes Vehicles B or C can subsidize it, at least to an extent. The money, even with the different divisions like what we see at Ford and GM, ultimately goes into the same coffers...or can be shifted as necessary. That, for example, is how Chrysler was able to keep the Plymouth Prowler on the market for several years....its sales were near zero, but the then-huge sales of the minivans and the traditionally high profits of the Jeep Division helped compensate for the Prowler's loss of money. In fact, even after Plymouth itself folded in 2001 (couldn't subsidize the entire division LOL), the car was kept in production another year as the Chrysler Prowler.

MattyG

The Continental going away is as much a function of what's going on behind the scenes at the top, ie. change in leadership as it is slow sales. Veteran Ford management guy Mark Fields was the CEO on whose watch the Continental name was brought back. He was ousted last year because Ford's stock price had been dropping despite the company being profitable

His replacement is Jim Hackett, a guy who comes from an office furniture company and who has said that Ford wasn't fit enough as a company and that it needed to consolidate its product portfolio. Notable is that the new CEO is the one who hinted that the Fusion might be going away in favor of SUVs/CUVs. That means that the Fusion's stablemate the MKZ would go away and by extension the Continental, because they all ride on the CD4 architecture.

The previous CEO's plan might have been to keep Fusion/MKZ/Continental and have them on the upcoming CD6 platform, but now it looks like only the next RWD Explorer and its Lincoln cousin will have that, along with Mustang.

Lincoln sure didn't do a whole lot of publicity with the Continental either. There was a magazine ad campaign with black and white pictures. Mathew McConaughney whispering Zen-like soloquies about MKZ and Continental, and that was about it. It says something when even the aging XTS on its old platform outsold the Continental. Too bad for Conti fans.

SC300Es

It definitely has the weirdest door handle design. The first time I saw one, the way the light was reflecting off the body, I thought it had no door handles and that the area was dented. Just looks awful.

jrmckinley

I agree with you on the "dumpy butt" comment as it pertains to the Continental (it's one of a few reasons I hate the car from behind). However, I was also thinking that the S-class actually is a bit "dumpy" as well in the way the roof line goes to the trunk and the shape of tail lights, etc. I wonder why it looks acceptable/elegant on an S class and horrible on other cars.