[Ming]

Lincoln Future
by Alex Law
Auto123
April 3, 2004

All of the many marques under the Ford Motor Company umbrella have suffered in the company's cash crisis over the last few years, but perhaps none has been worse served than Lincoln.

Except for the Navigator sport-brute which arrived last year, the second-most famous American luxury brand (behind Cadillac) has had nothing new to offer save an endless array of product promises.

There was for example that long period when the Detroit-based firm had a British designer trying to create cars that would honor Lincoln's classic past designs while driving like American Beemers, or something like that, but nothing really came of that.

Well, that's not quite true, a Ford PR executive told me over dinner at the Geneva Motor Show (without apparent irony) that certain ''aspects'' of the Gerry McGovern design era would be visible in future Lincolns. Oh, yeah, that should turn the division around.

Actually, what Ford hopes will turn the division around are new products using a platform from one of the company's other divisions -- Mazda. That would be the Mazda6, which itself is meeting with success in many other countries but not doing well in Canada primarily because it's too small to serve as a family sedan in this country.

Apparently that won't be a problem when it forms the basis for various Lincoln, Mercury, Ford, Mazda and maybe Volvo and Jaguar models in the future. Apparently, it was designed to stretch wider and longer so it will figuratively as well as literally carry Ford's hopes through the end of the decade at least.

This is the economical way for a struggling car company to create new products today, and it does not impress much of the media. The Wall Street Journal calls Ford's plan the ''auto industry's version of a dime,'' while the industry's primary trade publication, Automotive News, prefers simply ''on the cheap."

This distresses people inside the Dearborn headquarters and probably makes future customers furrow their brow, but the latest guy in charge of new products for North America, Phil Martens, is a lot more optimistic. It probably helps that one of his previous jobs involved creating the very same Mazda6 during a tour of duty in Japan.

The world should get its second clue as to how flexible the platform is when the first Lincoln model to use it -- a sedan -- is unveiled at the NY auto show in early April. The first clue was of course Detroit auto show-debuted Aviator SUV, which is fairly unsuccessful in its current guise. Lincoln hopes its fortunes will be reversed when the new model arrives in 2006

Full Article Here
http://www.olemiss.edu/~badwf/lincoln.html

 

[cyboexpo2002]

Yuck...

 

[gerardo_zg]

Actually I loved the car in the pic... Sweet

 

[GN6]

A Lincoln based on the Mazda 6? Oh, good. I was wondering when the Cimmaron would get some competi...wait...scratch that. The Cimarron's dead, try again Lincoln.

 

[cyboexpo2002]

It's like a CTS gone wrong. h34r:

 

[yoblues]

Lincoln/Mercury and future may be an oxymoron.

 

[Nocturn_Bird]

CTS, no way, that thing says XLR all over it, even the grill design is pretty much the EXACT SAME. God ford really has NO ideas left at all. I kinda wish Toyota would buy them out arleady and put them out of their misery.

 

[jaorobot]

It looks more like a CTS to me as its kinda tall grille, whereas that XLR is so low to the ground and flat..

by the way, the thought of XLR's now gives me a hard on, I love that vehicle so much.. and just to think about how it costs $75,000 and I'll probably never make that much in a year

 

[tgagneguam]

It's funny, my patriotic bias longs for the return of the days when Lincoln and Cadillac were vying for luxury car sales supremacy. They both lost their ways, and for the moment they must be content watching BMW and Lexus battle for #1. Admittedly, Caddy is muscling its way past Mercedes this year to at least make a run for #3.

I recall GMI's running pictures of some Lincoln concepts recently (as demonstrated in the above article), and the thinly-disguised (?), Mazda6-based next generation Aviator concept looked like a winner to me.

And thankfully Toyota has clearly established a pattern over the years of going it alone; there will be no Toyota buying out any large manufacturer. That's fine; there are plenty of talented people at Ford who can save Lincoln... if they're allowed to do so.

 

[ibechip]

Originally posted by tgagneguam@Apr 5 2004, 01:24 AM
It's funny, my patriotic bias longs for the return of the days when Lincoln and Cadillac were vying for luxury car sales supremacy. They both lost their ways, and for the moment they must be content watching BMW and Lexus battle for #1. Admittedly, Caddy is muscling its way past Mercedes this year to at least make a run for #3.

I recall GMI's running pictures of some Lincoln concepts recently (as demonstrated in the above article), and the thinly-disguised (?), Mazda6-based next generation Aviator concept looked like a winner to me.

And thankfully Toyota has clearly established a pattern over the years of going it alone; there will be no Toyota buying out any large manufacturer. That's fine; there are plenty of talented people at Ford who can save Lincoln... if they're allowed to do so.

I'm not too worried about Cadillac catching Lexus and BMW I can't think of a single other car company creating as much excitement right now.

 

[gmwsag]

Ford is basing everything on the Mazda6. Since the 6 is doing so good, I don't see why not, yet I am still not happy with this 'platform' thing (even though it is never going to go away!).

 

[frenstall]

Nothing wrong with using the 6 platform, it's solid and well built, it's just providing Ford is smart this time and put the right apointments on the drivetrain and interior (read x-type fiasco). Oh and i'm about 99% positive that the car pictured is a concept from 3yrs ago, i bet the new concept will be closer to the aviator as seen in Detroit.

 

[GM_Guy81]

fords that look like jaguars, mazdas that look like lincolns, lincolns that look like jaguars, !!! WTF is going on!!!???

It seems like the technology flow at FoMoCo is going from the bottom up, rather than the top down...

doesnt seem like the best of ideas.

 

[MCGARRETT]

The car shown in the picture is a Lincoln show car called the Mark IX, it was shown about 3 or 4 years ago.


I dont have much doubt that Cadillac and General Motors will do everything that they can to bring Cadillac back to the number #1 position as quickly as can be.


Lincoln and Mercury...and well pretty much all of Ford is sort of wandering around without any direction.

The Mazda 6 based Lincoln sounds like a last ditch effort...which I dont think will help much.

I dont understand why Ford it starving Lincoln and Mercury. I'm guessing that I has decided that Jaguar will carry the luxury car banner for Ford, and Lincoln will continue to make Town Cars for seniors and limo/hearse builders.

Too bad...because Lincoln does have a considerable ammount of heratige..I hate to beat on the RETRO horse again..but Lincoln could use at least a temporary shot in the arm that a retro design can bring. I would replace the Town Car with a semi-retro 1961 Continental inspried design. A "suicide" door Continental, in both hartop and convertible versions. I know that Ford is guilty of retro-abuse, but I cant think of any other way that Lincoln can make anyone interested in their cars again.

Lincoln still has no car based cross-over vehicle, but at least one is on the way, 2 years after the Cadillac SRX, and countless years after cars like Lexus RX300.

The LS has been dead in the water since the CTS came out, it needs a re-style, badly.

Lincoln needs a coupe, something along the lines of that car shown in the photo.

 

[coolcaddy]

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

It pains me to say it because I absolutely dig Lincolns and I long for a big comeback a la Cadillac; but at the moment, Lincoln has no future. Their plans for trying to stay competitive are dismal.

Their concept cars are horribly uninspiring, looking like they were pieced together out of old Lincoln parts from three or four different eras in a hopeless search for an identity.

Their F-150-based luxo truck is such an obvious repeat of the Blackwood blunder. They still haven't figured out that an F-150 knock-off with a Lincoln nameplate isn't quite the same thing as an Avalanche knock-off with a Cadillac logo--if Cadillac were successful with a Silverado-based EXT, then Lincoln would have something to hope for. Don't they get it?

This really really sucks. Lincoln should be undergoing a renaissance of its own, following in the footsteps of Cadillac as it has done historically. Instead, it's looking more and more hopeless for Lincoln as Ford continues to abandon it in favor of its European luxury brand acquisitions. <_<

 

[dawtcalm]

Originally posted by GM_Guy81@Apr 5 2004, 03:44 AM
It seems like the technology flow at FoMoCo is going from the bottom up, rather than the top down...

doesnt seem like the best of ideas.

EXACTLY what I was thinking... and it's sooo true over at Ford....

I liked some of the show cars the past couple yrs from Ford, but everyone knows you'll never get to see them....

 

[cyboexpo2002]

It's almost as if the Mazda6 platform will become Ford's version of Chrysler's K-car. Base a million different cars off of one platform!

 

[Hudson]

You can base successful products off of a single platform. As much abuse as Chrysler gets for the K-car, it worked. Nearly all of the K-car based products sold successfully and, I'm sure, they all made money. Chrysler's problem (as GM and Ford shared at the time) was the lack of differentiation between related products (or overuse of common parts). Nearly all K/E-body Chrysler products shared windhields, front doors, and front clips as well as taillights and assorted other bits. GM and Ford had a little more money to differentiate their products but suffered with similar family traits.

As long as the invisible parts are shared, I don't see a problem with using a good platform for many different products. Sure, Ford might want to use the Mazda6's platform for up to 10 products in the next few years...but as long as they don't share too many visible parts (look at the Lincoln Aviator concept and compare that to the Mazda6), I don't see the problem.

As for the new Lincoln Zephyr (the name apparently planned for the Mazda6-based Lincoln), it could be a good car. The Mazda6 is a great product in its segment and a larger, more luxury/sport oriented model could carry the Lincoln badge properlyl.

Lincoln has more (yet unannounced) products coming to replace the LS and Town Car. In the next three or four years, the entire Lincoln lineup should be properly revamped. I, personally, would like to see a more agressive overhaul, but Lincoln's getting some sort of update, so I can't complain too loud.

When all is said and done, Lincoln will have the Zephyr, an LS replacement, a Town Car replacement, and possibly a "flagship" sedan, all with the possibility of AWD. On the "truck" side, there will be the car-based Aviator, the successful Navigator, and the Mark LT (pickup).

As much as I dislike the idea of the Mark LT, I don't see the complaint about it being a "new Blackwood." The Cadillac "Avalanche" has worked for GM, why couldn't Lincoln do a similar thing with a very successful Ford pickup? The Blackwood's problems included (aside from the production delays and quality issues) the fact that it was neither fish nor fowl...it was a pickup, but the bed had a permanent lid, preventing any actual pickup usage.

Lincoln's styling should become as radical as the CTS was from previous Cadillacs. I don't, however, like their modern interpretation of the 1961 Continental. The Aviator concept just looked too much like an AMC Concord in the front and not enough like the classic Connie. The Mark IX concept and, to a lesser degree, the Navicross concept should provide a better sense of where Lincoln should be headed, in my opinion. The styling of Aviator concept and the Mark X just didn't do anything for the Lincoln brand.

 

[39255]

Lincoln will be vearing off from competing with Cadylacks... Instead, Lexus will be the prime target Lincoln will compete against.I am also one who is afraid Lincoln is headed down death row and if they don't get it right this time around it may be the end. I think Lincoln should keep the Bling image in mind, that may them help out right?

 

[Smilingoat]

Originally posted by xellow@Apr 5 2004, 04:20 PM
Lincoln will be vearing off from competing with Cadylacks... Instead, Lexus will be the prime target Lincoln will compete against.I am also one who is afraid Lincoln is headed down death row and if they don't get it right this time around it may be the end. I think Lincoln should keep the Bling image in mind, that may them help out right?

i used to love lincons, now, well not so much, still love the old ones but these new ones all seem short of where they should be, it seems like the company is better compitition for buick now, and if buick starts getting cars simular to the Velite then lincon may even fall behind them. another thing, with lincon and buick being in the same class, where does that leave murcury? they were always a buick like car, what now? with the murander it seemed almost pontiac, maybe thats where they will head, although i cant help but think they will be competing with oldsmobile here shortly... ain: