GM, Chrysler step in as livery services look to life after the Town Car

[nadepalma]

Carmakers line up for limo business
GM, Toyota, Chrysler step in as chauffeur companies look at life after Lincoln Town Car
By Bryce G. Hoffman | The Detroit News
December 21, 2012

A year after Ford Motor Co. pulled the plug on the venerable Lincoln Town Car, other automakers are racing to grab a bigger share of the potentially lucrative market for chauffeur-driven cars.

Ford is offering a "Town Car" version of its Lincoln MKT crossover, but it has failed to win over most of the big limousine companies that provide airport transportation and executive car service.

General Motors Co. is about to announce a new livery package for the 2013 Cadillac XTS. Last month, Toyota Motor Corp. said it would offer a livery version of its 2013 Toyota Avalon. And Chrysler Group LLC is readying a new livery version of the Chrysler 300 sedan.

All that is great news for companies like Carey International Inc., the world's largest livery company.

CONTINUE AT DETROIT NEWS

[bone]

I can see the livery companies opting for the Chrysler 300 because it is RWD/AWD. The XTS being FWD/AWD is not going to please the drivers of those that liked the Town Car.

[EJD1984]

I would think that a Caprice, as a Buick Park Avenue, would be a far better choice than the XTS.

[MCGARRETT]

Wow, talk about yesterdays news tomorrow.

Cadillac announced a Livery Version of the XTS like 2 months ago if not more.

I can see the livery companies opting for the Chrysler 300 because it is RWD/AWD. The XTS being FWD/AWD is not going to please the drivers of those that liked the Town Car.

Yep, that there new-fangled FWD is unproven, its only been around for like 60 years....
Thankfully the drivers dont get to pick, normally its the owner of the company. Why even get a 300 at that point, why not just rent Chargers?

[Rocket 88]

The Lincoln brand is somewhere between struggling and dying as a luxury brand, yet Ford walked away from a lucrative limo/livery business. Let's be honest, Lincoln isn't going to be going head to head with BMW, MB and Audi etc. anytime soon if ever and Ford doesn't even seem sure what to do with Lincoln.

Instead of trying to turn Lincoln into something it's not they should have put the Town Car and Crown Vic on a new RWD platform and improved the build quality and materials and kept the one area of mojo they had and built from there. The reality is Lincoln has nothing.

Dodge is probably having a great time replacing Crown Vic's with Chargers and somebody is going to enjoy making money replacing all those Town Cars.

[MCGARRETT]

What I dont understand is why they dont offer a livery version of the MKS(or whatever the big FWD/AWD Lincoln sedan is called) its as big as an XTS, offering the Town Car package on the SUV/X-over MKT ONLY is going to turn off operators that still want a sedan. Offer it on both and them them pick, they offer a police package on the Taurus and the Explorer, why not the same here?

[spd98]

The 300 gets better mpg and costs less. I would guess that its a tough business case to buy the Caddy. Unless you want the extra lux stuff anyway.

[Stéphane Dumas]

I have some trouble to imagine the Avalon as a limo business, why an Avalon when you could get a Lexus limo for a better pedigree?
http://limos.cleanridelimo.com/lexus.html

[MCGARRETT]

The 300 gets better mpg and costs less. I would guess that its a tough business case to buy the Caddy. Unless you want the extra lux stuff anyway.

Same reason they used Town Cars instead of Crown Vics or Grand Marq's, the people that use hire cars usually want luxury nameplate.

[DirtyMoney]

I can see the livery companies opting for the Chrysler 300 because it is RWD/AWD. The XTS being FWD/AWD is not going to please the drivers of those that liked the Town Car.

Livery cars are suppose to please the passengers, right?

[sonjaab]

The Ford Panther cars only sold 80,xxx units in its last year of production.
Why didn't Ford move production to another factory?

[MCGARRETT]

The Ford Panther cars only sold 80,xxx units in its last year of production.
Why didn't Ford move production to another factory?

Mexico comes to mind......

Not finding a way to either keep the Panthers in production or come up with REAL replacement was not one of MessiahMuallys "better ideas".

Its like the F150 going out of production and they offer a Fusion with a bed welded on.

[ral1960]

Why didn't Ford move production to another factory?

I'm guessing it was too expensive to re-engineer the car to meet newer crash standards. The assembly process was probably several generations behind, too (but paid for).

[69gtsdart]

What I dont understand is why they dont offer a livery version of the MKS(or whatever the big FWD/AWD Lincoln sedan is called) its as big as an XTS, offering the Town Car package on the SUV/X-over MKT ONLY is going to turn off operators that still want a sedan. Offer it on both and them them pick, they offer a police package on the Taurus and the Explorer, why not the same here?

Cause interior space is just about the same as a Fusion.. CTS might even be a larger car than the MKS. As for the Chrysler 300 Livery version. that could also be the "Imperial" or "New Yorker" people be waiting for, just only for Livery which seems like a good idea

[nferr]

I can see the livery companies opting for the Chrysler 300 because it is RWD/AWD. The XTS being FWD/AWD is not going to please the drivers of those that liked the Town Car.

Yeah, those livery companies sure hated the DTS because of it's FWD drivetrain.........