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They encouraged me to send further concerns, so I decided to tell em what they should do, from my point of view. Here is what I sent:
1) Build the Lincoln Continental Concept with an American V8. That's what a Lincoln should be. Not a warmed over Mazda (UGH) or a Japanese-looking Volvo. Have SOMEONE in Lincoln product planning take a look at the success of the Chrysler 300 and pause and think.
2) Forget the stoooopid confusing 'MK' thing and change the names to "Mark xx" quick or give the cars back their real names. This MK thing is inane.
3) Fire your ad agency. And keep that doofus Bill Ford off the TV. Even the laughable Dr Z ads are better than his Al Gore-like drone. And tell him if he makes a promise, he should keep it, duh.
4) Design and build a Mustang-based Mercury Cougar, ala 1967. Or just kill Mercury quickly instead of slowly. There's no reason for anyone to go into a Mercury showroom except the Mariner hybrid.
5) Stop marketing Mercury to women only. Mercury means 'fast'. It is a man's car too, or should be. James Dean drove one.
6) Get rid of those old-lady 'D-L' shifters. NOW.
7) Get some more hybrid or fuel-cell or Displacement-on-Demand vehicles/technology before gas costs make everything else irrelevant. Nobody cares about 'flex-fuel.' Why in heavens name would anyone buy a 20 mpg Zephyr or Milan when they can get a Camry hybrid at 40mpg for just a bit more?
That oughtta do it.
George
PS: I read today that the Monterey is dead. I could have told you it wouldn't sell when I first looked at it when it was released. It was boring, bland and plain (thus a typical modern Mercury), it had nothing the competitors didn't have but was lacking many things they did have, and the fit and finish was horrible. You folks should put me in charge. :>)
Rocky
P.S. do you think iluv, is really a Hyundai/Kia executive. :P
Rocky
Rocky
A whole raft of great concepts would be on the road now, had anyone there with sign-off power had the vision to really use their designers and engineers. Don't get me started...but a 2 seater $40,000 Thunderbird instead of the Forty-Nine which had a back seat and even the potential for 4 doors?? The 500 instead of a 427-based sedan with a range of engines? NONE of the Lincoln or Mercury concepts implemented? (Don't tell me the MKX is the Aviator concept...it's a re-badged Ford Edge.)
All of the car companies seem to seek Ford's currently considered "solutions" before they either fully die or are absorbed. GM is right to be getting more variety of product out there at great cost. Their sales are already picking up.
BTW, what is Ford going to counter with when GM produces a hybrid Tahoe in 2008 at only a $2,000 premium? This will be a big rig with highway mileage in the mid 20's, and even the non-hybrid Tahoes offer more power and better mileage already.
Oops. I got started. I am angry as a lifelong Ford admirer and stockholder. Dumb overpaid dolts! And rather than get to work with the cash they have and get more innovation out there sooner, they dither with potential sales that will only stave off death a short while--or change a powerhouse company into a shadow of itself.
Rocky
Lincoln sales dropped 2.2% for the year to 82,132, and down 9.5% for August at 8,979. Town Car sales down 16.6% for the year as the model winds down at 26,989; LS crashing 48.8% with its discontinuation at 7,922; Zephyr the only bright spot selling 21,938 cars for the first eight months of 2006. 35,000 cars in its first year is not unrealistic for Zephyr. Jaguar sales continued its precipitous drop, minus 30.4% for the year at 15,350 with only the XK increasing 106.5% for August selling 393 cars, and 69.2% for the year at 3,043. Come the end of this month, Lincoln will have very few cars to talk about at the Paris Show...Mark Z & S being the only thing remaining...as Wixom will close far sooner than next spring. If you don't want a remaindered TC/LS, you have no choice but to pay more for a new "Z", or buy what is left of Zephyr stock. It's getting harder to buy a car called a Lincoln....and MR. Ford seems to have ensured that holds as what is left of Ford Motor automobiles are being merged toghether into a single car line with minor variation between the brands.
With the competition moving very fast, and Mr. Nasser putting his chips on the table, one wonders what details will be left for Mr. Ford to "pay attention to" by the time the dust clears. Fear is not the word I think I would use to characterise what is now happening at the Blue Oval. Mustang sales shot upwards 64%---one speculates that people might be getting nervous that Ford will move to bankruptcy and begin to curtail production of cars they want, so they are buying them now rather than later.
Mr. Ford pushed Wolfgang Reitzle out the door four years ago July 1, 2002, and he was the last publicly acknowledged Ford Executive that had a plan to invest in Lincoln..."I think the strategy is a convincinvg oneand this principle is independent of the people proposing it...the Lincoln brand is not sharp enough and is not consistent enough..." PAG his bailiwick, and when his Lincoln plan was rejected, and its offices moved back to Detroit, he left going to Lindt AG in Germany, which just merged with BOC to become the largest natural gas supplier in Europe. Landing Mr. Fields his job, from which he as quickly promoted again---bringing him to Detroit to hold sway over Lincoln. Now the whole of PAG may well be gone...and still no plan for Lincoln has been announced, much less hinted at, other than ubuqitious comments about 'luxury for the blue-jeans set., beyond 'merging' platforms together. At the end of the day there will just be different flavors of the same platforms...unique cars at Lincoln will be gone, as is the chance for them seemingly dimming---if we take MR. Ford at his word.
DouglasR
(Sources: Ford Motor Company; The Car Connection, Mike Davis interview with W. Reitzle, April 12, 2001; WSJ)
2) Bill Ford just stepped down. Ex-Boeing chief taking over. Maybe Ford/L/M will take flight after all?
http://www.forbes.com/columnists/2006/07/17/bacakseat-driver-lincoln-cx_jf_0718f- lint.html
Sadly that pretty much sums up the situation.
Hopefully Mr. Mulally will not prove to be the 'Roy Hurley' of Ford Motor---Hurley representing the 'Management' Curtiss-Wright brought to Studebaker-Packard in 1958 that led to the demise of the company. "The reaons he called was not to restructure, not to get rid of stuff, not to sell it off...He called because he wanted to make the finest cars in the world." Mulally said yesterday at his appointment of CEO of Ford Motor.
"I think the U.S. can compete...there's no reason why we can't be the best in the world..." He added.
Mr. Mulally must now buy a Ford Motor product. If he is smart, he will arrive in a new Lincoln when he drives into the Glass House when he starts his tennure October 1. Though there are fewer competitors within the aero industry, the stakes are higher. He may know nothing about cars, but by making tough choices saving Boeing and bringing the 777/787 and checkmating AirBus, means that the various brands now might have a chance as resuscitation at Ford. Palace Politics aside, being that WCF Jr. could not convince another auto executive to run the company, this might be the best bet.
Jaguar and Astons will go...Land Rover might form the last triad of Mr. Nasser's new company. Ford and Mulally can use that money to regain what they lost.
DouglasR
(Sources: WSJ, FT, Ford Motor Company, Detroit Free Press)
Seems like Ulrich Bez is putting together an employee buyout of Aston Martin. He wants to continue managing A-M as well as being a major shareholder.
http://www.autoextremist.com/index.shtml
I agree with Lemko though - Finally we have a guy who doesn't think the Town Car is the benchmark for quality in the Luxury segment! They desperate need that input!
Driving an LS430 myself these days (only because Lincoln doesn't make a large Luxury sedan anymore), I can say from experience that it's not the best looking Luxury Sedan around, inside or out, but functionally, tactilly, kinetically, it is. If Ford can even get close to that level of tangible quality you can feel, and make it look great, Lincoln could get me back.
I hope so, but that depends on just how much Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin are worth on the open market.
The Forbes article above estimated Ford has $10B tied up in Jaguar and $5B in Land Rover. Would percentage of that $15B would any company pay Ford in cash for the two brands today? It might be in the 15-20% range: Jag might bring $1.5-2B and Land Rover not more than $1B.
Aston Martin may sell for a good price if the employees do buy it out as Ulrich Bez, the manager, is suggesting.
The $15B figure is what Ford has invested in the two brands since buying them, not what they are worth on the market.
Even $3-4B would be a wonderful boost to Lincoln, though.
Yes, it would, IF that's where they deployed it. But there's not even an implication that it would be spent on Lincoln. Nobody at Ford really seems to give a rip about Lincoln. Certainly, Bill JR didn't. If Mulally gets a Town Car for his company car, he'll flip after driving an LS430. Even the new Navigator has been ruined now. Probably the least objectional vehicle Lincoln has to offer now, would be the Mark LT. Never thought I'd say that.
No...he must keep that Lexus, and tell the product planners to use it as the benchmark for quality and refinenment as the next generation of Lincolns is being developed.
He should, however, keep a 1940 Lincoln Continental, 1961 Lincoln Continental sedan and convertible and 1968 Lincoln Continental Mark III in the styling studio to inspire stylists as they work on that next generation of Lincolns.
douglasr: He may know nothing about cars, but by making tough choices saving Boeing and bringing the 777/787 and checkmating AirBus, means that the various brands now might have a chance as resuscitation at Ford. Palace Politics aside, being that WCF Jr. could not convince another auto executive to run the company, this might be the best bet.
This may not be a popular suggestion, but one of those "tough choices" should be dumping Mercury and figuring out a way to save the dealers and Lincoln.
The auto market is too competitive to waste resources on badge engineered versions of other cars. Most people under the age of 50 don't even care that Mercury still exists.
In reality, Mazda and Volvo today fill the niche that Mercury should fill, but doesn't, because Ford can't - and won't - spend the necessary money to give it a distinct identity.
On a side note, I was watching Green Acres the other night and noted that the Douglas family drove a convertible 1961 or so Lincoln. Sweet looking car.
As Mr. Longfellow said..
'Of all sad words of tongue or pen
The saddest are these - "It might have been".'
If Ford gets rid of British marques it will be left without luxury brand, like Honda. Nissan, Toyota, GM, VW – all have well established luxury marques. With all respect you cannot seriously consider Lincoln or Acura as a luxury marque.
As posted before, Lincoln needs a new Town Car (modern 1961 design), an LS, a top-line SUV, a coupe (a la Mark series) with companion convertible and an SL/XLR/XK type roadster.
There should be sport versions of the above to compete with the 'V' series at Cadillac.
We will see if the new CEO has the vision.
By the time the series ended, the Lincoln convertibles were gone, so the Douglases drove a full-size Mercury.
Mr. Kimble drove a modified Bronco.
No word on which one Arnold the Pig preferred.
Those Lincolns conveyed an air of sophistication and wealth to the "city-mice-in-the-country" Douglases.
Sadly, Lincoln makes no vehicles that would have the same effect today.
Acura is Honda's "well established luxury marque."
Doing something truly Lincolnesque for a change might actually work. The MKZ could be a design from just about any non-luxury brand. And Lincoln is reduced to touting 35,000 annual sales of a relatively inexpensive car as a roaring success (I guess it is for a Lincoln on its knees). The Mark LT is an F150, not even thinly disguised. The Navigator has lost its way. The MKX is a thinly disguised Ford Edge, having almost none of the panache of the Aviator concept from which it was allegedly developed. The Town Car has died of neglect.
Merc1 recently posted pictures of Mercedes coupes from the last 50+ years.
The newer cars are undeniably modern, but there is a family resemblance across the years.
I guess it is because culturally USA is not capable of producing luxury cars. All American luxury marques perished long time ago. Lincoln is just one example. It requires perfectionist approach in engineering, constant innovation, attention to details, craftsmanship and long-term commitment. American approach is “it is good enough to go to production” so we okay “next quarter”, we can "fix problems later" in next release, but most likely product will be obsolete by then, so "we are saving lot of money".
Over the 20th century, the USA produced many luxury brands and models that could compete anywhere in the world. Yes, there likely is a cultural problem, but perfectionist American consumers would be happy to buy American if the choice were there.
Very true, which is why many on this board have cited the 61-67 Lincoln as a design to emulate.
Both the sedan and 4 door convertible of the 61-67 body style are eye-catching and elegant 40+ years later.
Yeah, in France.
It's inconceivable how Bill Jr. unceremoniously undid all the good things Nasser had done, along with some of the dumb ones. But PAG was a Good idea, certainly at the time, when Ford was awash in cash. Structurally, it still makes a lot of sense, and I hate to see it dismantled like a corpse to save Ford. If Jaguar is a hopeless money pit, ok, sell it, but the thing is, to me Jaguar/Land Rover should be merged. They're so complimentary - Jag for sedans and sport coupes, and L/R for SUVs. It's perfect! But they have to SELL in order to make bucks. From what I understand, the XJ is an awesome engineering triumph - but the Ford 500 guy designed it, so even though it's totally different than older XJs, it doesn't look it. No reason to buy it. Plus, Jaguar still suffers from their pre 98 reputation as horribly unreliable.
Aston Martin can go. It's such an exclusive car, Ford doesn't need it as badly....
Either way, Lincoln needs to be restored to its former greatness.
That Conti was Lincoln's most stylish moment...same the cues seen today borrowed from it just don't do it justice.
Right you are, Fintail, but I think that's just due to some budget constraints and tight reigns on J Mays. He can do a great job if give the freedom, like the Thunderbird, and the Forty-Nine. I believe he also did the New Beetle, if I'm not mistaken.
Here's an idea...Instead of making a counterfeit Acura, how about making a real Lincoln?
Now, where do I sign up for that Cobra-powered Continental concept 4 door convertible?