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Lincoln kills Continental, goes all-in on utilities

6K views 56 replies 27 participants last post by  sdotjeezy 
#1 ·
Lincoln kills Continental, goes all-in on utilities
By Michael Martinez
autonews.com

DETROIT — Lincoln Motor Co. confirmed Wednesday it will end production of the Continental at the end of 2020 as the luxury brand abandons sedans.

U.S. sales of the Continental, reintroduced in 2016, slowed in recent years as customers shifted to the brand's growing crossover lineup. Lincoln announced this year that it would end production of its other sedan, the MKZ, at the end of the year.

"Lincoln is investing in growth segments and the brand will feature a full portfolio of SUVs, including a fully electric vehicle in the future," the brand said in a statement. "Lincoln will continue to keep its newest SUVs fresh and we will have more news to share later this year; however, as the full-size premium sedan segment continues to decline in the U.S., we plan to end production of the Lincoln Continental at the end of this year."

A spokeswoman said the brand would offer a 2021 Continental in China.
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#3 · (Edited)
Sad -- but not unexpected.

Always had a soft spot for the revived Continental. It arguably deserved more attention than it got.

And thought you can't always fight the market forces that sweep a product off the field of play, one has to wonder how some brands are still able to stick it out in an ever-shrinking market space to offer customers something different than an SUV or crossover ---- and some can't.

R.I.P. Conti!


Maybe because it's never really died in its sleep -- I just hopped a plane for China :)
 
#17 ·
From a purely Fiscal perspective sure, even though the platform was shared with the Chinese Taurus. But it marked the turning point for Lincoln from gussied up Fords to Luxury Lincolns. I think there was plenty of brand value/marketing return on that.

My neighbor had a Continental, the one that recently retired from GM...........

He was leasing a Continental, replaced it with an Aviator a few month back.
Not a bad choice! :tup:: Felt like the Continental was 80% fleshed out, while the Aviator pretty much nails it. Aviator may be my next vehicle (if they get the teething issues fixed).
 
#15 ·
Wasn't impressed with the Continental when I first saw pictures. But as I saw them - rarely - in person, it grew on me. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was admiring one in a parking lot.

The industry sucks. I get Motor Trend. I used to love getting that magazine. Now I flip through it in a few minutes, nothing but page after page of lookalike appliances.
 
#20 ·
Sad, I loved the Conti!

Imagine those who may have foreseen this and bought up a Coach Version!
Only 80 were built for 2019. I wonder how many were ordered for 2020? $40,000 premium for the honor!
 
#19 ·
I said it before and I will say it again Continental should have gotten another gen but as all electric or with the GT's hybrid system.
 
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#25 · (Edited)
The Continental was based on the Fusion, people would be surprised to learn how much of the platform stampings are modified versions of the Fusion. It's not quite the huge investment people think it was, although I'm sure it wasn't a bargain either. Ford had cancelled the CD6 replacement the same year the Continental came out in 2017, so Ford was intent on dropping the sedan almost the minute it came out.

Lincoln's original plan was to transition to the Rivian-based flagship Lincoln EV and call it Continental, but that was cancelled. The Rivian CEO said it was an incredible design, hopefully we'll see it one day but unlikely. They burry those things in the vault really deep. Lincoln has it's sub-flagship BEV SUV coming for 2024, but I'm sure they could slap the Conti badge on it if they wanted. But it's going back into the vault, obviously we'll never see a traditional sedan again but you never know how close they can get with a sleek low-slung EV crossover.
 
#36 · (Edited)
Sadly the new Continental did not last very long in production done on the cheap a low quality FWD beancounter special will join the Ford Fusion & MKZ another Ford tarted up rebadged as a Lincoln done on the cheap in that great scrapheap in the sky.

Ford should have put the put the Lincoln Continetal on a quality RWD platform one day the penny might drop at Ford but l don't hold out much hope, Tesla the worlds most valuable company in the world RWD Tesla Model 3 sedan seems to be going from strength to strength.

Tesla are not having problems selling sedans, not a fallen brand like Mercury, Saturn, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Holden that ended up having to survive making dull FWD junk beancounter specials with no profits very little profit on roof in thier later years all once great brands sadly died recently.

Ford's Q2 Sales

Classic Ford F-Series RWD/4WD 180,825
Classic Ford Mustang niche RWD 15,717

Both the classics have no known any Toyota/Honda/Nissan competition to Ford highly profitable models, l wonder why?

Ford seem to be all about the highly profitable Trucks & Stang not much else that is inspirational.

l can't see Generation Greta aspire to, will have to many posters of uninspiring Focus Avis/Hertz rental special on thier EU bedroom walls. Sad to say Generation Greta seem more into wanting to ban boredom off the streets of Europe. Sadly Ford of Europe brand sales seem to heading to the bottom of the European car sales charts now the Airports car rental outlets are closed and Hertz heading for bankruptcy not buying big batches of highly discounted replacement Focus dull jellymoulds.

Lincoln US Q2 "Car" sales
FWD Continetal 1,012
FWD MKZ 2,985

Highly profitable Mustang 15,717 sales outsells Lincoln brands crap FWD sedan dull drive cars 3997 sales.

Only boredom moves FWD sedan cars at your local Ford/Lincoln dealership, they won't be selling any soon l wonder why, one day the penny will drop? I don't hold out much hope though a fuel efficient quality RWD fun to drive Ford sedan car with a bit more mojo than zero mojo Focus, nope sadly it won't happen at FOE Generation Greta will win the day they find banning the boring car more inspiring than owning uninspiring FWD boredom, Sadly the Focus EV sold by FOE was a total sales failure first time around can see Ford pulling the plug on FOE within the next decade the Transit is all that makes any decent money props them up FOE, like the F-Series profits props up Ford Mo Co globally..
 
#37 ·
Cadillac did a high quality large RWD sedan just like the RWD Continental you suggested
but that didn't save it from extinction in North America.

And for the record, Continental was on a shared platform, not a shared car,
it's a completely different top hat to Chinese Taurus with different wheelbase,
length and width. It was anything but a cheap try, word is that they spent a lot.
 
#43 · (Edited)
There is a fading market for fun sedans, perhaps. Caddy is trying tap into that by prioritizing v-series on their surviving sedans. Large sedans understandably gave way to large utilities because they are better at being large and comfortable. Those customers weren't buying large sedans for their performance. I think there is still a market for alternative vehicles in the luxury space and EV platforms will likely open up avenues for low volume sporting vehicles. But since volume customers will always prefer the vehicles that offer the best comfort and utility for the money, the crossover is pretty much a permanent shift in form factor across every segment and price category. Detroit is extremely good at selling non-sedan vehicles, so they are thriving in this environment and they have to take full advantage.
 
#44 ·
That's an interesting point, I never thought of "sportiness" as part of Detroit's downfall in the 80's. I've always blamed Detroit's problems on quality which allowed the Japanese in, the Japanese took away volume which lead to huge Detroit issues as their labor contracts didn't allow them to lay people off to right size to their new and lower volume. But in the 80's we saw a big swing to fun & sporty cars, which the Japanese and certainly the European's did very well where Detroit's mainstay was always big comfort for the meat of the market. Detroit never came to terms with how to deliver cars in the meat of the market with its image, which helped along its problems. Now the meat of the market is swinging back to big and comfortable but with CUV's and SUV's, something Detroit does well.
 
#49 · (Edited)
I'm a Lincoln customer and the only sedan I'm sorry to see go is the MKZ. It was stylish, fun, and priced right. Continental...couldn't care less the moment it landed. If I'm going to buy a large posh Lincoln, I'm going to start with the Nautilus and move my way up which is exactly what I did. Assuming Lincoln becomes an EV brand, I wouldn't mind seeing something like the MKZ return. I'm not sure exiting the midsize sedan was the best move for Ford. I realize it's not important regardless, it will never be a big money maker, but I think it had some life left to it (similar to the Minivan). I'm sure we'll see opportunities open up with electrification anyway so we are going to see huge transformation regardless.

Continental belongs to a different era. Great storied name, but like Thunderbird, it's hard to bring it back when the genre is dead. They'll have to figure out how to leverage it again on the right product. I think a large stylish flagship EV crossover could have been the trick. Could the sedan come back? It's possible, but it will never be a big segment again and Lincoln will have to be pretty bored and rich before that happens.
 
#55 ·
The Continental needed a premium platform to succeed...it didn't get one so here we are with this sort of predetermined outcome.

Imagine a RWD suicide doored convertible Continental....this would've put Lincoln back on the map.
 
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