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What you also fail to realize is most of the Ford/Lincoln/Mercury dealers (and Chrysler and GM dealers also) have franchises that go back 30, 40, 50 years or longer. Most of the imports do not have that baggage to contend with. Their dealers are much newer and in some cases better backed financially. And they may have more favorable franchise agreements that give the manufacturer more control, whereas Ford is stuck with franchise agreements written in the 50s or 60s.
It's just another part of the old legacy environment that Ford must deal with.
By the way, the 2010 MKZ has been out late April/early May and I have seen only one on the road. I didn't think it would sell well but, can sales be this bad? It's not like I'm out in the country somewhere either. I'm right in the middle of the Baltimore-Washington megalopolis. Just wondering if the poor sales might speed up a complete redo.
BTW there is link to article about LM dealerships going away:
http://www.fomoconews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3769
Below are some excerpts from article:
...Since Ford's dealership reduction efforts began in 2006, the number of stand-alone Lincoln-Mercury dealerships is down more than 42 percent. The biggest driver of the reduction has been the push for Lincoln-Mercury and Ford stores to merge in metro markets, something the automaker previously discouraged.
At the beginning of 2009, there were 357 Lincoln-Mercury stores in the United States, down from 619 three years prior.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally talked about the future of Lincoln and the stand-alone Lincoln-Mercury dealership with Associate Publisher Peter Brown, Editor Jason Stein and Staff Reporter Amy Wilson...
...I'll share a recent experience: I was driving a Lincoln MKS and visiting a stand-alone Ford store, and I was sitting in the car in front of the showroom for a few minutes. There was a salesman outside on the sidewalk right in front of this Lincoln MKS, and he starts talking it up to a customer, but then the punch line was: “Well, this is pretty much the same as the Taurus, the Taurus actually looks even better. I have the Taurus around the side, and it costs $10,000 less. Come look at the Taurus.”
That wasn't a Ford-Lincoln-Mercury store, but that salesman saw that Lincoln and he jumped right on it to use it as a sales tool.
"I understand. And the answer clearly is the brand promise. Maybe in the past, there hasn't been as much differentiation between a Lincoln and a Ford. But clearly with what we're doing going forward, that Lincoln product is going to be a more of a luxury brand promise. The whole bar's moving up because the Ford vehicles are getting better and all the luxury brands are getting better."
But part of the brand promise is the experience at the dealership.
"Most people that dual have an enhanced experience with the dealership, too, with the service. If you go to the ones that are really successful with that, they really provide the extra attention and care that the Lincoln buyers really expect and really value."
But you have to get them to buy the Lincolns first. And if the sales guy thinks it's easier to sell him the Ford, you're going to sell fewer Lincolns, won't you?
"I know your one example. But we've got a lot of people that are buying Lincolns, and they love Lincolns. The people that have dualed stores know they want to have an experience that fits the vehicle that they're selling, so they'll do it to be successful. They'll have two different experiences."...
Why doesn't the MKZ have keyless go? Same reason it shares doors and a roof with the Fusion. It wouldn't surprise me if they added it for 2010, but either way it will be there when Ford has the resources to commit to it.
Which do you think is more important for Ford right now
minor details like keyless go on the MKZ and a new RWD platform that might sell 50K/yr
OR
A new Fiesta, Euro Focus and unibody Explorer that will combine for 200k-300k units and protect Ford from future high gas prices?
Ford wants to do what you want them to do but it will take years to get there. You seem to think they can just wave a magic wand and fix everything all at once.
Regarding keyfob - what is this:
As for the keyfob - looks like any other keyfob to me. What's wrong with it?
BTW I compared new Buick LaCrosse and MKZ and LaCrosse feels more luxury car than MKZ for less money. MKZ might be in trouble unless Ford reduces the price. LaCrosse exterior and interior execution is perfection rivaling Lexus ES. Trunk is small though and in general car feels too Asian for me. I do not like Asian cars but most American prefer Asian style to anything else. So I do not know how MKZ is going to compete other than discounting car.
The new Consumer's Report is out and a group of cars is tested including the 2010 MKZ. I understand that CR is not the end all be all and is just another review source but, it's interesting that CR's biggest problem with the MKZ was the interior. It said that at the price point of the MKZ, the interior should be nicer and that the interior was nothing more than "middling." The price and the interior are also my two big complaints.
I don't think Lincoln will ever get back to where it was. Over a decade ago, it lost it's way and Ford doesn't seem to be interested in putting it back on the original intended course. I think it is pretty competitive with Buick but, it is no longer competive with Cadillac and it never was competitive with Lexus.
Ford hasn't even begun to rebuild Lincoln. The MKZ, MKS and MKX are all lame ducks. Ford put most of it's limited resources to fixing Ford - the core brand. Without a strong Ford there won't be a Lincoln, and Ford had some serious product holes that are now being filled (Fiesta, Euro Focus, Transit Connect, Unibody explorer, new engines, fusion hybrid, etc.). The new Taurus proves that Ford will be taking Lincoln further upmarket and the MKT is first Lincoln product that really had the benefit of that new strategy.
And it would cost a lot more money to shut down Mercury than to just ignore it as they're doing now (no new Sable....). Mercury will continue to be on the back burner until they fix Lincoln. It's just not a priority. OTOH it keeps the stand alone Lincoln/Mercury dealers in business with Milans and Mariners.
Anybody that understands business decisions can see what's happening with Lincoln. The future will be bright but it will take a few years to get there. Some people are just impatient.
I had to approach desk in search of sales people and funny enough no one was available. I never had that experience before except of Honda dealerships - normally sales people jump on you as soon as you put your foot on dealership's parking lot,
Finally they found some guy who presented himself as Internet sales manager. I asked him about test driving MKZ and he told me he can fill the form without test drive. I told him that I actually came here to test drive MKZ. Then he told me that there is only one MKZ and it is in show room. I replied him that they have 3 of them - red, white and green, because I saw their inventory on their website. He scratched his head and said - "Oh yeah we had couple more on parking lot!". Then we went to test drive. After test drive I agree that MKZ is grossly overpriced - it mostly feels like Fusion I rented some time ago and many thing in car's exterior and interior screams - "I am Ford Fusion!". I do not say it is a bad car. Fusion in fact is a nice car. But it feels more like what Mercury supposed to be - better appointed Ford. But it is lacks luxury feel of Lexus or Buick - something more like Acura (European Accord). I hate Acura, so may be I have to wait for Buick Regal (European Opel Insignia) to see what Buick offers in size similar to MKZ. CTS, Mercedes or Audi are too upscale for my needs.
Internet sales manager was a nice guy without all that pushy nonsense that mostly uneducated sales people generate. But I got a feeling that dealership is not interested in selling Lincolns at all - all their focus was on Ford brand and Lincoln and Mercury were relegated to poor relatives in someones house status.
Having only 3 MKZs in the dealership? I noticed that two of them were made in April of 2009 and one in September. So they have only 3 MKZ and two of them are sitting on the lot for more than half a year? Are they really in the business of selling Lincolns? I do not think so. I got an impression that Ford dealership is the wrong place to look for Lincolns or Mercurys.
As we all know, the MKZ is a gussied up Fusion. I see the 2011 MKX will remain an Edge with a Lincoln grill. How hard would it have been to change the rear side window shape and/or the door skins to give a bit more family resemblance to the MKT? Why spend the money on yet another grill design (and new MKX tail lights that don't say Lincoln to anyone), when Ford already has plenty of experience with grill switcheroos (e.g., 500 to Taurus) being relatively useless for increased sales?
There is no one advocating for the Lincoln brand. Yes, yes, I know...Ford must survive first. But why can GM completely differentiate Chevys from Buicks from Cadillacs so soon after the company almost went belly up? Who knows? Maybe it is because they are even hungrier than Ford.
But in the meantime, why should dealers stock a lot of MKZs? If they had even more of them, they could only move them out the door at fire sale prices.
Practically all mainstream brands are now producing well-equipped, quiet, comfortable, good performing models. Lincoln really needs to move up market (rather than simply restyle, add equipment to, and jack the price of Ford models), but there is no money to do that right now.
I do not see what is the point of having Lincoln after Jaguar and etc gone if it is not a high end luxury brand competing with Mercedes and Lexus. Milan is absolutely identical to Fusion to add insult to injury Fusion has upper scale version (lwith 3.5L engine).
Hmmm......Maybe someone who is really fussy about details to which average consumers are oblivious or do not consider important. Or maybe someone who has driven both back to back and judged the MKS ecoboost to be more than worth the difference. Maybe someone who views the SHO as a classic case of "over promise and under deliver" and the MKS ecoboost as delivering precisely what was advertised.
Before someone starts talking sales numbers, I fully admit that there aren't a lot of us in that enlightened group who view the MKS ecoboost as a vehicle with an entirely different mission and value statement than the Taurus. Those of us who are in that group have big smiles on our faces, though.
The ecoboost is also available in the Flex and the MKT, and will soon be in the Mustang and F150. Sure, the MKS is a good car. So is the MKZ. But nothing stands out about either of them in a way that will stem Lincoln's slide.
Lincoln has an image problem, and no, they do not have anything special enough to get out of the hole that has been dug over the past 10-15 years. I also agree they need something with drop-dead different and distinctive styling to attract some attention. The MKT is drop-dead different but maybe not in a good way.
I like the Taurus but it hardly stands out next to a Buick LaCrosse or several others in the $25-$32 thousand dollar range. The SHO with its goofy little spoiler, metallic doodads on the pedals and dash, and sports sedan ride without sports sedan handling has a bit of a market now but I wonder if it can be sustained.
The MKZ is in a tough market and while a nice car, it is very difficult to find an area where it exceeds the competition.
There is no bright spot yet at Lincoln. Lincoln's sales have not increased...they have decreased year over year for the past couple years. FoMoCo's slightly increased market share is due to the Ford brand.
Need some stats? In 2008 Lincoln sales were down 18.4% overall as compared to 2007 sales (themselves nothing to crow about).
So far in 2009 (compared month-to-month with 2008 sales rounded):
Jan -24%
Feb -41%
March -33%
April -42%
May a bright spot +2%
June -27%
July -24%
Aug -38%
Sept -21%
Oct -9%
Nov -20%
There is nothing here to indicate that any of Lincoln's current efforts have been successful. Since GM hit the skids and went bankrupt over the summer, Cadillac sold 9% fewer vehicles in September 09 than in Sept 08. In October they increased sales by 10% and in November increased sales by 22%. In November, Lincoln sold 6409 total units in November to Cadillac's 9721. Somehow Cadillac is clawing its way back within a very beaten down corporation. All GM core brand saw sales increases.
GM appears to be focusing on each of its remaining four core brands. Ford is focusing on Ford.
My understanding is since Ford is broke they decided to relegate Lincoln to second rate status ignoring Mercury in the process and investing all available credit in Ford brand. They also decided to get rid of Lincoln-Mercury dealerships since most them them are too old and dilapidated and sell Lincoln and Mercuries in Ford dealerships just like Toyota does with Scion. Then it would be easy to kill both Lincoln and Mercury if necessary and become one brand company. Alternatively Ford someday may decide to move Lincoln up to become truly luxury brand - then it can establish brand new modernly designed Lincoln-Mercury dealership network.
As Bruce stated, the MKS is outselling all of the competition except for MB and BMW (last time I looked). Lexus and Infiniti are not even close. How can that be so terrible?
I realize there are shortcomings but I think Lincoln is doing much better now than they have in the last several years and they will go up from here (slowly but surely).
As for dealers - Ford has no control over them (sadly). Once they shrink the too-large dealer base through attrition (assisted or otherwise) and they have new products and marketshare then the dealers can afford to do things separately. Right now they don't have enough products or volume to do it.
In Minneapolis, several Ford stores have consolidated and remodeled. The best ones took on Lincoln and drastically raised the customer experience not only for Lincoln buyers but Ford buyers as well. My Ford/Lincoln store has well trained personnel, a nice lounge with computer hook-ups and loaner laptops, Starbucks coffee, pastries in the morning, popcorn during the day and a huge clean service department. They are one of the highest volume Lincoln dealers in the Midwest and just a couple of years ago, they only sold Fords.
When I bought my Lincoln, the Sales Manager spent over an hour with me going over sync, the Nav system, and a number of other things. He was the first car salesperson I ever met who actually knew the product as well as I did. He had come from a dedicated Lincoln store which is now closed.
There is a huge variation in customer experiences at dealerships. I shopped 3 local dealers and the one I chose was head and shoulders above the others. My only point is that there are still some very good stores who are more than happy to put you in a Lincoln.
No question Ford is focusing more on the Ford brand. The Fusion and Fusion Hybrid are excellent cars and are doing well. They have had excellent press, too. Focus and Escape are doing well sales wise without being state of the art. Taurus sales are up with the new body but they couldn't possibly have gotten worse. In terms of being super competitive in their market segment, I would say the Fusion is in the best shape of any Ford. With mid-size car sales being the bread and butter, they certainly have the right car to take advantage.
As for Lincoln, I will give them credit for what they have done with the upgraded 2010 MKZ, the introduction of the MKT and the under the skin enhancements to the MKS. Lincoln's overall numbers don't look so hot in part because their version of the Edge is in need of a re-do, the Navigator is not competitive and the Town Car is an embarrassment.
As for Cadillac's success, who cares how they get it, as long as they get it after the corporation went bankrupt? In the past few years, Lincoln hasn't done what the SRX has done: take an almost moribund model like the former SRX, re-do it, and see sales really take off. The MKZ upgrades did nothing for sales. I doubt the 2011 upgrades to the MKX will do much either...after all, it is in direct competition with the SRX, which seems to have hit a sweet spot. Cadillac also has several more new models in the pipeline. What is the next really new Lincoln planned? Anyone know?
Note to Allen: comparing the MKS to Mercedes and BMW is a bit a of stretch. Both are rear drive cars that cost more than the MKS. I have never seen a test where anyone thought they should be compared head to head. The MKS is more of a modern Town Car or Continental, and as such goes up against Chrysler 300 V8, Lucerne, Azera (maybe even Genesis), Taurus Limited and SHO, Maxima and the like. In that field, it more than holds its own, but Lincoln volume growth (real growth based on demand) cannot depend on it. I think Lincoln was shooting for 50K sales when they designed it. That is not a big number for any car, luxury or otherwise, that is in real demand. I don't think even the Taurus will make that number at this point. Hope I'm wrong.
Look at what Lincoln had 5 years ago. The MKS has far more luxury and performance than any recent Lincoln and still it gets no respect whatsoever.
Exactly what does Ford need to do with the MKS and MKZ to please you guys?
I like a MKZ-size car. I just don't like the MKZ. It (and you have said it yourself) is too much like the Fusion to be a real Lincoln. With the MKS, it is a matter of personal taste. I find the styling dowdy and the front overhang way too big. The Taurus is prettier. At least with the MKS, Lincoln is proceeding in a better direction than before. Although it should have a longer wheelbase for the size of car it is, remember how ridiculously long the last Continental was while having only a 109" wheelbase?
Get some styling pizazz going. The new grill is a start, but even the MKT styling fades into the pavement, once you get past the grill. And everyone will. Most people are habituating to large grills these days, because it is the current style, and even subcompacts have them. How about a Lincoln that you look at and say "wow!"
The field is moving so so fast. Brands like Hyundai and Kia are on the rise big time, and it is because they are exploding with good, new reliable product in practically all classes, save super-luxury. And they are soon going there too. VW?Audi is one to watch again. And I still don't know how GM is doing what they are doing with Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC all at once.
Lincoln is now keeping up so to speak, but that is not enough anymore to get noticed. They need to leapfrog the competition with something like Ford is doing with the 2011 Mustang engines, the Fusion Hybrid, the Raptor and the Festiva.
All I'm saying is they're taking steps in the right direction and they're better off now than a few years ago and they'll be able to tread water until they get new products.
The Lincoln nameplate just doesn't have any pizzazz. People still think airport transportation. Years of neglect of the nameplate have really hurt. At the time the MKS was hurried to market, I think Ford was looking at 50,000 in annual sales. We are in different times now. None of the MKS direct competitors are turning in those numbers. IIRC, the LS sold more than 50,000 in its first year. Lincoln had a stronger reputation in those days. In spite of an incredibly bland body style, the LS brought buyers in. Early LSs had a few problems, the car withered on the vine, it developed a reputation of unreliability and many of those LS buyers moved on, never to give Lincoln another chance.
I hope that when and if Lincoln gets a new platform and something really special there will be enough buyers who care. They have a tough row to hoe to overcome their image of airport transportation TCs, unreliable LSs, and Fords with different grilles. In the meantime, the MKS ecoboost is by far the best Lincoln ever built and the most competitive in its rather narrow market.
Lincoln had an enormous opportunity when the MKS was designed--because it was a clean sheet car done this decade--but they dithered around with derivative styling and initially proposed a car that had no Lincoln presence at all before they pasted on a different grill. It also apparently never occurred to the project team that a relatively cheap wheelbase stretch (from the 500) would have an easy way to distinguish it more. (Mercury and Lincoln used to do that all the time when they started with a Ford chassis.) Yada yada, water under the bridge. Another missed opportunity.
They have now solved weak engine problem (big time!) and quickly corrected the quality issues but the initial impressions of the 2009s hurt the reputation.