mercurymichael

The only thing wrong with the MKS is it's name--should be Continental. The Mondeo is okay, but I don't think it is anything spectacular. I think every one is hot and bothered because it was in the last Bond film. Every one keeps talking about rwd and big engines and American. The Mondeo is none of these things. I think people are missing the point that time and things have changed. America has changed, Lincoln has changed, Ford has changed and unfortunately not all for the better. If Lincoln needs to build a Lexus to survive or revive, then by all means do it!

Mondeo is okay, but it is not all that. The last time they tried that, Contour/Mystique, it wasn't all that in terms of sales. I hardly think it would be a saving grace for Ford to bring it over here. There is already too much invested in the Fusion trios and Edge duet along with what ever else may be spun off soon. It is my understanding that the next go arounf for Mondeo and Fusion will be a shared platform and hopefully more successful than the last try at a world car.

Alpha Numeric names make no sence on any car. I can except them on Mercedes and BMW because that was always their thing. But they make no sence to me. They stir no passion or emotion or even an image of what their car is supposed to be and certainly no heritage. I thought it was a mistake when Cadillac switched to it and an even bigger, copy cat, can't think for ourselves decision for Lincoln to do it. Continental is an awesome name and should come back. However the car that wears that badge needs to live up to it. Something the last Continental struggled to do. Zepher was a much better name than mkz or ls. Same with Aviator. When and if there is ever a coupe or sports model it should Mark IX. Someone mentioned using MK as a high performace insigna--good idea.

I may be a minority and a bit old school, but I do not think Ford needs a small sports car (I'm speaking of interior dementions). The Mustang is basically a two-seater-why they bother with the package shelf with seatbelts that they call a backseat is beyond me. They need a real personal luxury coupe again aka Thunderbird/Cougar. The last Thunderbird was beautiful, but overpriced and extremely cramped. At 6'2" it was uncomfortable getting in the car to begin with and once in my head was against the roof. The most ideal, would be taking the Interceptor concept or a stretched Mustang as the base for the car. I would prefer a true 2 door but would be happy w/ a 4 door coupe a la Mercedes. Make it elegant, but with cutting edge modern styling like the 'birds were in the sixties. Make it quick and powerful--it does not have to have a stupid number of horsepower or crazy 0-60 that is not what this consumer would want, however there could and should be a SHO or SVT version of the car for enthusiests. Before anyone points out the decline and eminent death of the Monte Carlo and Camery coupes, remember I said cutting edge modern styling. It was modern styling that saved the Thunderbird/Cougar in 1983 and kept them selling for serveral years after. Unfortunatly, the cars got the Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis/Town Car/Continental/Ranger/Taurus/Sable/Windstar/Freestar/LS/Contour/Mystique/Escort/Tracer treatment and were igonored --never restyled or updated or upgraded and eventually dropped due to poor sales. I think they sad reality is that we will be lucky if we get a Fusion coupe.

Actually, the way I understand it, was that Mercedes needed Chrysler's bank account. They aledgedly had quite a bit of cash at the time of the merger.