Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
All I'm saying is Lincoln Caddy Acura and Lexus have a larger base of customers who would consider their vehicles because of the success of Ford Chevy/Buick Honda and Toyota . A loyal buyer of the mainstream brand is more likely to buy a premium vehicle from the same company. Surely you understand that.
What you say was true about moving up the brand ladder for a long time, but not so much now. Those who buy a Ford now are not as likely to consider a Lincoln when they move up. Ford itself has moved up the premium ladder a bit, and now attracts lots of customers who would not have considered a Ford years ago. When these same flexible customers consider a premium brand, Lincoln is not as likely to be it anymore.
Genesis sold just under 3K last month and if what Hyundai said in the past is true that's only about 1500 sedan sales versus over 3K MKZ sedans.
I don't know why you think a current Ford owner would be less likely to buy a Lincoln now unless you're referring to the Ford Titaniums being so good for less money. That's true to some extent now but the new vehicles introduced from now on should fix that problem, starting with the MKC. It's far different from the Escape and should have no problem selling 5K+ per month.
The Azera is more the MKZ's speed. And again, while US sales represent practically all MKZ sales, they represent a fraction of Genesis sales. Hyundai-Kia is on a roll world-wide, and new luxury iron is issuing fast for non-premium brands. The Azera and Cadenza (another MKZ alternative) are new, the new Genesis is coming, the Equus has been updated, and the KIa K900 (an S Class type car) will be here about the same time as the new Genesis.
If Hyundai can do what they are doing--you don't have to go back too many years to find when their vehicles were bland to mediocre--Ford with all its resources and know-how could have issued an MKZ at the top of its class by this year. They didn't.
Every month that goes by with no new and superior products means that that many more buyers go elsewhere to buy any number of excellent products already on sale or known to be coming soon. Each delay makes the comeback effort that much more difficult.
You don't start building a brand new luxury mansion by installing marble floors first - you start with the foundation and build up from there. The MKZ, MKC and dealership experience need to come first, then the lower volume/halo vehicles.
What you say is often true, except you only have one year left on the 4 year warranty, assuming the car has mileage left on the warranty. The reason depreciation is so high on the models you mentioned is that the cost for maintenance and repairs is also very high. It's hard to beat the system. However, I generally agree with you; if you're going to buy an expensive luxury car, it's worth the risk to buy it used.
By the way, there's a discussion in the "Classic Cars" forum entitled "Buying Luxury Used Cars."
You're obviously not the target customer for the MKZ or the MKC so why do you care?
2015 Lincoln MKC Revealed
The "2015 MKC will start at $33,995 - "about $5K less than German competitors", per the Twitter feed.
The Lincoln website has more details. Some things that still aren't clear are whether it gets the Adaptive LED headlamps. I certainly hope so.
One may believe that a style may look like it belongs on a premium vehicle while another person may not.
Meanwhile, Audi will have the Q3 to compete with the MKC, and more like that will be forthcoming, now that even truly tiny luxury like the Buick Encore has actually found a market. Comparing the MKC price to say the Q5 price is a bit disingenuous, as it should cost less than the slightly bigger luxury CUVs. It should cost a bit less than the MKX as well.
Ya think?
Much of what gets leased or occasionally bought by the American public has more to do with ingrained brand loyalty that goes back to whenever the individual involved went on thier first memorable picnic or road trip or whatever, reinforced by whatever their family drove. GM, Ford & Chrysler have benefitted (or not) from this for years/decades.
To intrude on that will require something extra. Whether Lincoln can deliver it remains to be seen. Fortunately, I'm no longer directly involved -- just watching the parade go by.
Not sure you understand what rebadged means.
The MKC started with an escape platform but they modified the track, width, height and every piece of sheet metal plus the entire suspension and interior. And added a new engine. How much do they have to change it before it's not a badge job?
If Lincoln uses the mustang platform will you say the same thing about badge engineering or does that only count with fwd platforms?
What we can all agree to right now is that Lincoln does not have a competitive line-up. Even Acura, with its questionable styling and Honda underpinnings across the line-up, sells two to three times as many vehicles in the US as Lincoln does.
Lincoln's offerings mostly suck when compared to the competition. We all agree that the Navigator, MKS, MKX and MKT need to be revamped. The MKZ needs tweaking too, as it sells "ok" at 2800 units per month, but that is hardly anything on which to sustain a brand.
The MKC looks to be done right for its class, from everything I have seen about it so far. But two models that are, or will be soon, competitive won't reverse Lincoln's fortunes. The MKC won't even be in showrooms until fall, 2014.
Ford is still concentrating on Ford, and that may not be a bad thing. The new Mustang (fall 2014) looks like a hit out of the park. The new F150 will be along at about the same time. The new Edge too. The two new Transit sizes are coming at about the same time. The Ford brand pays the bills. Lincoln does not add much to the bottom line, unlike for example Audi whose far smaller sales than Volswagen still nearly provide similar bottom line profits.
Lincoln is still the stepchildof Ford. Even though many more resources are being thrown at it, it is still not enough when even Hyundai and Kia are beginning to put out superior premium products. Well, ok, what is planned by Lincoln could give Acura a run for its money in about two years. But every established premium brand has far more new iron in the pipeline than Lincoln does. The plan as I understand it is that Lincoln will expand to a seven model lineup by some time in 2015.
Audi and Mercedes and BMW have handfuls of new models coming to market in just the next two years. Cadillac is a distant competitor in this arena, but even they have clawed a way back to some respectability with good sales by the ATS (a new market for Cadillac audaciously going up against the iconic BMW 3 series), SRX, XTS (3,400 sales last month for a full size and quite expensive FWD sedan--a market that continues to shrink), the new CTS which will soon build sales beyond even what the ATS has done, and the new Escalade which goes on sale early next year. The ATS coupe and ELR coupe won't add many sales, but like the German big three's many specialized offerings, they will bring peoplle into the showroom who will then look at some of the other more practical choices.
That's something Lincoln truly lacks...anything like Ford's Mustang that will cause people who have a sort of allegiance to another brand to have a look. Even if Lincoln had that sort of "halo" model, like Allen points out, the other highly competitive and more practical products simply aren't there yet.
Lincoln will need the better part of two decades to again have the opportunity to become the player it was from 1990 to 2000. In 1990, Lincoln sold about four times as many vehicles as it does today. Cadillac speeded up their recovery by spending inordinate amounts of money. It is working for them so far, but was a huge gamble.
Lincoln on the other hand seems to now have adopted a more "Acura approach" to their overhaul. Mind you, Acura still has more money and resources committed to the process than Lincoln does, but Lincoln has definitely stepped it up. It gives me some hope that Lincoln will still be here in 20 years, but I wouldn't bet on them surpassing Cadillac anytime soon, as Lincoln first did in 1998 after 59 years, and again in 2000.
Is Lincoln dead meat. In2013, Cadillac sold 182,543 units which is an increase of aprox 22% over its total sales from 2012.. Lincoln ,in 2013, sold a total of 81,694 units which is a decrease of about 0.5 % from its total sales of 2012 yr. I would think that Lincoln should be showing some improvement over last yrs sales if Lincoln were going to be viable product. After all the MKZ was to put Lincoln back in the premium vehicle game. It may be time for Ford to stick a fork in Lincoln and call it cooked.
I kind of think Lincoln's big problem in a nutshell is that it is trying to sell a premium car at a luxury car price. Fomoco needs to decide if it wants Lincoln to be a Buick or a Cadillac and build and price accordingly.
Lincoln lost 3 months of MKZ sales due to launch issues. And the ATPs for Lincoln now are much higher than before. On MKZ the current ATPs are something like 60% higher than the previous model and they aren't offering many incentives. So while volumes may be low, profits are not and that's all that Lincoln cares about right now as it looks to put out 5 new vehicles in the next 3-4 years.
Ford is profitable while GM is popular, but owned by Fiat . As an investor, I'll take profits over popularity any day.
Chrysler is owned by Fiat, not GM.
When it comes to products like the LS or the Navigator, Ford has to really step up the longterm reliability.
Ford has to really step up the longterm reliability.
Kind of true for all of D3 isn't it? They've made good progress on early ownership, but after the warranty expires they still seem kind of iffy compared to some transplants.
GM is again tied with Toyota as being the Worlds biggest Automaker. Ford fell a notch below nissan.
I live in San Diego and Lincoln dealers here are value pricing Lincolns when highlighting Lincoln's standard features and price advantage when compared to other premiere makes. Lets face it . Lincoln dealers can do that because Lincolns share Ford vehicle platforms. Of course, that also means that Lincolns are not as exclusive as other premier makes. One can say they are Fords with slightly different styles.
According to current sales for January Lincoln will probably top out at a total of about 6600 unit sales with the MKZ accounting for about 2500 of the units.
. "Of course, that also means that Lincolns are not as exclusive as other premier makes. One can say they are Fords with slightly different styles."
One could say the same for the Jaguar S-Type for that matter.