There's no other way I can to explain this:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classi...5672986.column

I guess Ford hasn't realized that people are turning away from FWD luxury cars costing over $35,000. I know DeVilles are selling well, but it's still in a horserace with RWD CTSs, and Lexus & Infinity's best selling cars are RWD sedans if I'm not mistaken.

The last thread on Lincoln going to the 500 chassis centered around an interview from the director of Ford's large FWD-AWD programs, so it could be dismissed as wishful thinking by an ambitions department head. But this is from Philp Martens, the VP of product! This guy would be 2nd to Bob Lutz if this were GM, so NOW I'm concerned about Lincoln!

Seems Cadillac will be the only 100% US luxury brand before long & that Chrysler division will soon be outselling Lincolns... and Mercurys. Combined.

 

Reading between the lines, Ford doesn't want Lincoln hurting Jaguar sales, which spells doom for Lincoln. Globalization at work again, or to paraphrase from Patton, "That's what happens when your #2 automaker quits being an American car maker and starts being a global transportation company." And to think, this is the same company that built the incredible Lincoln Mk II.

 

"It took the population some time to become sophisticated to front-drive and now the public has become very sophisticated with all-wheel-drive"

Become sophisticated to?

What language is this guy speaking? Is that like becoming sophisticated to/with tofu and bean sprouts?

Whatever. So Mercury will be where you go to pay 5% more than for a Ford, and Lincoln will be where you go to pay 25% more than for a Ford. Or Volvo.

So if you want a Volvo S60/S80, you can buy the Ford 500, the Mercury <forget-the-name>, the Lincoln LS replacement, or, a Volvo S60. If you want a RWD car, or an AWD car with RWD bias, you spend the big bucks for a Jaguar, or you shop at your neighborhood Chrysler/GM (in a couple of years)/Infiniti/Lexus (etc.) store.

Meanwhile, the excellent Falcon languishes in Australia.

Either these guys are planning on surprising us, or they're not planning on selling to me.

 

Well, I agree....Lincoln doesn't need a version of the GT. Beyond that, not quite sure what to say.

Nothing necessarily wrong with Lincoln sticking to the $30-$50,000 range, I guess......eventhough Lincoln has traditionally been direct competition to Cadillac. But that's alot of money for cars based on Mazda or Volvo FWD platforms.

I am just completely dumfounded by his comments about Lincoln NOT needing RWD though.

I have a prediction, Mr. Martens:

Stick to your lame plan....and very soon, people will become "sophisticated" to the fact that their $45,000 premium Lincoln is based off of a $22,000 Mazda.

 

gah, and after how hopeful ive gotten in the past week (up till the 500 TC rumors, but i dismissed them)
dammit.

 

Lincoln doesnt really have all that much in there line up anyway, how are they supposed to compete with caddy? All they have is a towncar=caprice, but there inst a caprice anymore so now what are they going after? cts? sts? devile? I mean i like lincoln and i would be very sad to see yet another AMERICAN automaker go the way of oldsmobile even if it is a ford product. Then lincoln has the navigato/aviator which competes with caddy, then they have that flashy 4 door car i forget its name..but i would buy one. Other then that lincoln doesnt have much. Mercury is even worse what do they have the cougar? dont even have the Marauder anymore. Tracer? Sable? all crap fwd cars. I think merc was on the right track with a performance oriented 4 door sedan, just needed more power. I woulda bought one if i could afford the payments and if it came with the cobra motor.

If lincoln is supposed to be the luxury version then for GODS SAKE give them updated platforms not friggen tauras chassis and all second grade platforms to work off of. This is how i see fords lineup should be

Ford-Chevy
Mercury-pontiac
Lincoln-Buick
Jaguar-caddy
ashton martin-Hummer

 

That sounded very GM-ish of Ford, right there (not giving customers what they want)

 

What do you mean?

Once you become sophisticated with the Ford 500 and its Lincoln LS-replacement offshoot, you'll be singing a different tune.

I'm looking forward to becoming sophisticated to the Lincoln 6 .. er Fusion .. er, I mean Zephyr, with its powerful 3.0 Litre V6 and safe FWD. I'll enjoy lording it over the lesser people in their Ford Fusions and Mazda 6s, because, well, I'll have a vinyl roof and Cartier upholstery.

Lincoln will surely be successful with this thing and it's Lincoln 500 big brother. Oh yeah, and the pickup truck and Lincoln Escape.

At least it's all good for a laugh.

 

"Lincoln doesn't need a big RWD car." Uhhh the Town Car is there best selling car right now. I think they need it.

 

I think Lincoln should do the luxury thang, American style. Big V8, big weight, huge interiors. Let the European luxury divisions sell smaller, OMG more European luxury models.

Full-size convertible: Room for four golf clubs in the trunk, and plenty of comfort for four people. Plenty of low-end grunt from a V8, and have a suspension that absorbs bumps well, but doesn't lean like the cars of yore. Have the sports package optional (less chrome, more power, slightly firmer suspension, bigger brakes, etc...)

Town Car: Same chassis as covertible above. Make it look modern, but keep a good-sized grill and fairly conservative lines. Offer it with a sports package, but also a luxury package with tufted seating, softer suspension... a modern version of the land yacht.

Repeat for other models in line-up. In other words, instead of following Cadillac to compete with the Europeans, make Lincoln the 'American' luxury brand with enough sportiness to satify most of the people looking for large, powerful cars. GM really only has Buick for that now, and it will take a while for them (if ever) to roll out larger, RWD/AWD vehicles that compete in terms of luxury.

If you wanna do a European fighting but a step below Jaguar, do it with Mercury.

-B

 

As someone else mentioned, sounds like Jaguar and Aston Martin are playing "Corvette rule" over in Ford land. Lincoln cant go ultra luxury because Ford has two British divisions that already are. Whether thats a good thing or not who knows, time and sales will tell but the quote of Lincoln not needing RWD is a big mistake IMO.

 

I think the reason for this Lincoln strategy is that the LS is not doing very well. You can buy V6 models around here for around $24000 (sometimes a little less). There are several reasons for this, I think. One is that the engines in the LS are a little underwhelming. While a V6 LS matches up well against a BMW 525i, it's not as quick as a 530i. One of the big selling points of the G35 is that it's very quick for a $30K luxury car. You have the buy a V8 LS to keep up with it, and that's in the high $30Ks.

Power isn't the only problem, but it is symptomatic of another problem. It doesn't stand out in any way. The CTS had its unusual looks, the G35 had a powerful V6, the LS has only its RWD, and that isn't enough. I think the LS should have had the Ford 4.0 V6 and 4.6V8 in the LS at a somewhat lower price. Both engines are refined enough and should be cheaper to produce as well as being torquier than the 3.0 and 3.9l engines. They should also adapt the new Lincoln styling to it.

 

thing is the modular motor would not tuck between those wheelwells, hence why they used jag designed motors to fit the jag designed platform. Definitely would have been an all new beast had it come with the 4.6 modular (single or double cam) in mustang tune, but smoothed out a bit.
To fit those motors previously using existing architecture would have put it either on panther, or a modified fox platform, either of which would have caused an UNBELIEVABLE amount of crap about for being behind the times...
though it could have kicked some ***

 

Why did they design a new platform that wouldn't take the mod motor? It never made sense to me. And also why not increase the displacement of the 3.9 V8? It seems like they need the LS to be slower than the Jag S-type, which is the slowest in its category. Now, I know that power isn't everything, but when you're slower than everyone else, that's a difficult hole to climb out of.

 

Its not an all new platform, but based off of the Jag platform. therefor, the mod motors would not fit in in factory installments.