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THere taking lincoln where ever they can! Right now they don't feel they are on steady enough ground to take a bold punch. Hence this MKS. Lately I've been talking a lot about 300 but I know not everyone can have such luck as they did. But still, Either you give your all, or don't give at all. Don't sit on the fence if you want to protect this historic brand!
Then if Ford had brought the NaviCross to market for Lincoln, and made the Forty Nine concept into the new Thunderbird (the back seat alone would have saved the T-bird in the marketplace)....well, woulda, coulda, shoulda.
If this company had any conception of what their periodic successes were built on, we would not have seen them use the same bodies for more than a decade, e.g., the Ranger from 1993 to the present (the platform actually goes back to 1984), the Mustang from 1979 to 1994, the current Crown Vic/GM dating from 1991, etc. etc.
I do hope there is a new MKZ planned for 2010 at the latest and that they are already at work on the next versions of the MKS and MKX. But I wouldn't count on it.
Note to MKS "designers":-That's what blah styling gets you.
Bold Moves, huh?
Actually, I think the MKS should have been a Mercury...one that could compete with Chrysler and Buick. Lincoln still needs the Continental.
I've come to the conclusion that Mercury is toast. They've set it up that way and Mulally I think will pull the plug. There's nothing new in the pipe for Mercury as far as we know. Nothing special. Just the me-tooness of the Montego, Milan and Mariner. So easy to just erase the Mercury on the side and make em Ford trim levels. Lincoln, meanwhile, is getting lots (from the perspective of Fomoco) of new product and lets face it - cheapened product at that. One could say that Lincoln is moving down market to sit just above where Mercury used to be when it had a personality of it's own other than Jill Wagner.
Wasn't wouldn't nope not me - I won't diss that gal. She don't ness'ly make me wanna buy some wheels, but takin a ride does come to mind.
Selling any of them is not going to raise enough money to matter, but it will further degrade Ford's deservedly bad image. I'll say it again...a bunch of overpaid losers got control of this company when it was riding high. Ran it all the way down, and now like Bush with Iraq, has no clue about a path out of the mess they created.
I could not agree with you more than I do on selling PAG. Now's not the time - so much has been invested in fixing, modernizing, and developing these three brands, to sell them now would give the buyer 3 heritage brands poised for greatness with just a little more tweaking and support. The brands are only lacking decent marketing now, to be successful, IMO.
I could not disagree with you more on our President - but this is NOT the place to debate that. So, here I though you were a genius, until......
Besides, you make a lot of assumptions based on a comment that a Republican, Democrat or independent could have as easily dropped. It is so true that politics and religion (both insane topics) are best avoided in polite company.
Back to the topic...I guess we'll see how dumb the Ford team really still is. Selling PAG now goes in the dumb column for sure.
and let's try to stay there! Thanks.
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The plan is to re-skin the current XJ, and the proposed style will certainly make it stand out. The S Type becomes the XF next year, and it is also a great leap forward stylistically (is that a word?).
Got any pictures, gregg? Dying to see them..... Wondering why they're dropping the S-type moniker in favor of XF honestly......the S-type was a hit, and a great car at the same time. Do you know when these cars will hit the dirt? Because I firmly believe new product that's good will revive the brand, unless the engineering expense is too much. Those aluminum cars have to be expensive to make up front.
Just like with Lincoln, it will prove foolish to give all the cars the same name, separated only by a single letter.
I think the problem with Lincoln is having 2 letters the same at the beginning (MK) instead of just one. It makes them harder to distinguish IMO.
I still think that Lincoln's alphabet soup will be replaced with names like Continental within the next 2 years.
Seriously - it's only a problem for me, because it doesn't feel right - XL, XM, XN not bad, but XF - just sounds funky, and makes me think of X-Ford. NOT what they need right now. However, I could be way off (again)....
I still think that Lincoln's alphabet soup will be replaced with names like Continental within the next 2 years.
I can't TELL you how much I hope that is true!
What Ford's groupthink specialists missed is that the names they tried to copy, have the differentiating character at the BEGINNING of the name (i.e E350, 530, RX330 ) Not at the end of the name: MKSMKZMKX
The naming disaster of the Zephyr, I mean MKZ (To be pronounced "Mark-Z" ...oh never mind you should call it "em kay zee") summarizes the rudderless, flailing plight of the whole company
The Lincoln Division needs a new boss, don'tchathink? I'd fire this guys butt with a lot of noise, and put a car guy in there fast, if I were Mulally. Clearly, the direction they are going is wrong.... NOBODY here, and we used to be loyal Lincoln enthusiasts - I've been driving them for 15 years, until now, likes what they have become.....
Next, whattya mean 65 when Mercury had no product? That was a great year for Mercury. The '65 full size Merc had much more in common with the Continental than it did with the Ford that year. And the '65 Comet was a big hit and is a hot car in the collector's market to this day.
Well - ok, honestly? I was going by what Iacocca said in his book, and I forgot, most of that book was fiction...
He said he saved Lincoln and Mercury, who were dead on their butt, with the 67 Cougar and the 69 Mark III. Undisputed runaway sellers, to be sure. That's what I was referring to. I do recall 65 Mercurys, and they were pretty cool, though I liked the 67's better actually. Back then, Mercury tried to look like a smaller Lincoln, instead of today, when Mercury resembles a slightly chromier Ford. And I've bought a lot of those lately....sigh....
The best thing Io did for Chrysler besides get a free taxpayer loan was to buy AMC to get Jeep. Then the lying SOB did within a year exactly what he promised NOT to do which was close the oldest car plant in America, the AMC plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Lots of folks out in the street on that deal. AMC gone. Yeah, most dont miss em. I had 3 AMC vehicles and while they were not the pinnacle of automotive design, they were as good as anything the big 3 had at the time (who would seriously take a Vega or Pinto over a Gremlin knowing what we know now?) and I drove one to 140,000 with only a timing chain replaced. Nice little V8 Hornet. Lee Io can kiss my LS.
The 65 Mercs were awesome. I had both a 64 and a 65 convert and they were like night and day. The 64 was a Ford with diff tail lights and grille. The '65 was shaped like and was as big as the Continental and had bigger engines and upscale interior compared to the Ford. The '67s were nice too. If I ever get a few extra bucks for a toy car, this time I'd like to find a nice '67 Park Lane convt or if I have a few more bucks, a 1960. 67-69 Cougar would also be on the short list. I guess I'm still a Fomoco guy at heart.
Ya see, those were the salad days for Ford, because Mercury had a real purpose, was marketed as "the man's car" at the time, then evolved into the 'sign of the cat' after the Cougar took off. Can you believe what they eventually made the Cougar into, that obese Torino/LTD II clone?? Whoever was responsible for reviving Mercury at the time, we need him back, and it's not Elena Ford.....
I had an LTD II. It was a good car for the day, and held up lots better than some of GM's trash that had the Metric 200 transmissions in them. But it was no Cougar...
It's hard to get that Ford Blue out of your blood, isn't it George? As ripped off as I am at Ford right now, I still feel some movement in my heart when I see and old Ford restored and running, or a new F-250 really working its butt off, and I still like that new Mustang, though its time for me has passed. I seriously considered a Thunderbird for a long time, but can't justify it. Sure admire them though...
Bill damn near bankrupted his company. Don't know if Mulally can pull it out or not, but I'm betting on him. Just bought a ton of Ford stock and will ride it out with them. Strictly a financial gamble, nothing else. I think he'll do it - but I think Ford will be a completely different looking company when he's done too.
But seriously he looks more like ACLU chairman than car company CEO. Don’t believe he really understands cars and car business so what did you expect?
In what way do these things help design and build a better car?
I also miss AMC - my mother bought a 1970 Ambassador SST (360) which had been an Avis rental car, and it went 140,000 miles before we gave it away before moving 1/2 way across the country. The only repairs needed were replacement of the valve stem seals, rebuilding the carburator, and replacing the Delco distributor. My brother and I bought a used 1970 AMX (360 Auto.) in 1976, our senior year in high school, and replaced it with a 1979 Trans Am (Pontiac 400 4-speed WS-6, delivered to the dealer after a 4-month wait with a basket-ball sized dent in the door, badly mismatched paint on the hood and one front fender, Camaro wheels, and no bird decal...) because one of our sisters also attended the same university. The AMX was a better car.
nvbanker - my wife and I are contemplating more stock market investments, but Ford ... that sure is a gamble. Just like AMC, they may have made one too many mistakes to survive.
You may be correct - but the folks with AMC stock received Chrysler stock when they were bought, and did alright in the short run....and the very long run. However, I'm betting (a small portion of my portfolio) that Mulally can save the company. What it may look like - who knows, when he's done. Consider filling out your Carspace page? I was hoping to see some pictures of your cars there - but, alas...nothing!
You may be right on all counts, STL. And I don't dispute the counter-productiveness the UAW has had on Ford and other companies in the US. But I think you may be over reaching a bit indicating that only Asians can be engineers now. FAct is, the Auto today has been greatly influenced by Asia, and Asians make the best cars today. Prior to the last 10-15 or so years though, Germans and Americans made the best cars and the engineering of the past has to be credited to them. Refinement - is credited to the Asians.
Why the MKS must be made in Mexico, is credited to the UAW. The condition of the Ford Motor Company, IMO, is credited to Bill Ford and the family. Just my opinion. I've rarely been so disappointed in a CEO.
Wow :surprise: My family history is repleat with "woulda shoulda coulda" including passing on original issue Ford stock, original issue McDonald's stock, and venture capital to Dairy Queen. Oh, well. Woulda should coulda