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Well the way I look a Lincoln, they are more of a premium make like Acura and Infiniti than a true luxury Tier 1 make like BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus. However, I don't think having a global presence is a pre-requisite though to competing in the luxury segment. Look at Lexus. Only recently has Toyota even brought the Lexus nameplate to Japan and Lexus still hasn't made much inroads into Europe. It certainly can help but alot of it is still within the product. I think perception plays such a huge role and unfortunately for Ford, the historic badge engineering of the Big 3 is seen so negatively yet the Asian makes can get away with it. The MKZ is the perfect example. The press pretty much consider the MKZ a tarted up Fusion yet the Lexus ES and Acura TL aren't seen as spruced up Camry's and Accord's. The MKX also looks way too similar to an Edge in shape. People don't look at the Acura MDX and Pilot or Lexus RX and Highlander in the same way and rightfully so. Toyota and Honda have done a better job distinguishing their product and brand. Lack of RWD and V8's doesn't help. Granted Lincoln had a solid product in the LS, but IMO the styling was so bland. That's what holds Acura back, well, that and hideous styling. AWD doesn't matter. AWD is great as an option, but in many parts of the country, AWD isn't that necessary and ends up killing performance and impacting fuel efficiency.

Great December showing by Ford. Very good numbers all around especially for the Ford brand. I'm happy to see Fusion sales just eek out over Altima sales, placing the Fusion as 3rd best seller in its class. The mid-sized family sedan is still dominated by the Camry and the Accord, with the Accord a very distant 2nd behind the Camry. Taurus sales are climbing nicely as well. The MKZ is still such an afterthought though in the entry level luxury group. The MKS says well enough in the mid-sized luxury outselling easily the Lexus GS, Infiniti M, Audi A6, and the laughable Acura RL. Being 3rd is good as it's unlikely any of the others can unseat the E-class and 5-series. There's so much upside still to come with Ford with new products, new engines, and MCE refreshes. Would love to see full year profitability in 2010 for Ford.

That it did but also keep in mind, if a parent buys a Scion for their kid, which they do (look at all those TC drivers), the average buying age is higher, although the actual driving age is lower.

I don't see the resemblance either.

Here's a full year's worth of sales data (Aug 2008 - July 2009) for the mid-sized luxury class of cars. So depending how you classify the Hyundai Genesis, the MKS has been #3 since its release, which is pretty impressive as the 5-series and E-class are the mainstay of mid-sized luxury. Genesis MKS M GS A6 S80 STS RL E-Class 5-Series July 2,015 1,205 726 551 511 602 358 131 5,556 2,486 June 1,838 1,365 682 454 571 1,098 1,220 135 2,781 2,757 May 2,079 1,321 658 516 516 1,088 637 169 2,275 3,904 Apr. 2,076 1,178 441 468 388 681 711 202 1,795 4,319 Mar. 1,626 1,716 886 625 403 778 575 161 1,978 4,040 Feb. 1,263 1,346 1,107 595 445 671 357 186 2,104 3,191 Jan. 1,056 1,535 1,176 898 776 473 413 208 1,768 2,596 Dec. 1,040 2,100 1,194 1,200 1,218 959 907 245 3,464 3,699 Nov. 1,151 1,958 1,186 721 717 844 630 234 2,264 2,927 Oct. 1,121 2,072 1,193 819 758 424 632 272 2,098 3,958 Sep. 1,029 1,814 1,077 977 1,090 578 856 259 2,968 2,423 Aug. 1,177 2,374 1,221 1,686 1,520 576 975 316 2,681 5,287 Total 17,471 19,984 11,547 9,510 8,913 8,772 8,271 2,518 31,732 41,587

C4C definitely would be a factor considering the F-150 was one of the top clunkers turned in, I'm sure some of those F-150 owners upgraded to a new F-150.

You forgot the ridiculous numbers of Civic - 43,294 (outsold Corolla) CR-V - 30,284 Fusion, Focus, and Escape still have a long ways to go to get to those stratespheric numbers. Even Altima posted like 26,833.

F-series - 45,590 +12.8% (Outsold Silverado + Sierra) Silverado - 32,421 -41.9% Ram - 17,514 -29.9% Sierra - 11,657 -42.6% Tundra - 7,872 -54.8% Titan - 1,534 -73.9% Very impressive. The rest of the pickup competition got creamed while the F-series posted a double digit gain.

But don't forget last August, Ford was in a sales death spiral while Toyota was still posting pretty big numbers in June, July, August of 2008. The fact that Toyota is able to post a gain is rather incredible. Ford in August 2008 sold 155,690 vehicles (All divisions) compared with Toyota's 211,533 (All divisions.) If we are looking at the Ford brand and Toyota brand than Ford sold 133,088 vs Toyota's 182,252 last August. Still, glad to see Ford picking up even more market share.

Probably driving dynamics. Escape having a higher center of gravity.

TheCarConnection: MKT vs MDX Big seven-seat crossovers with near-luxury nameplates: who can keep track of them all? TheCarConnection.com, that's who. In the past few weeks, we've spent time in nearly all the vehicles in this niche promising lots of personal space, lots of longing stares and lots of passenger-distracting gadgets. There's the Volvo XC90, the Buick Enclave, the Audi Q7, and the latest edition of the 2010 Acura MDX--one of TheCarConnection's favorite big crossover utes, this year freshened with new features and a new grille, which we reviewed for you last week. Sidling up to all of them is the voluptuous 2010 Lincoln MKT, a sensual remix of the ultimate two-box carryall, the Ford Flex. With the Flex's strengths in passenger room and all-wheel drive intact, the new 2010 MKT ladles on glamorous, engaging sheetmetal and even more techno-geeky features along with a new turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 with 355 horsepower. At its core, the MKT is a Flex for those less attracted to the GE Monogram aesthetic. It's upgraded, for sure, but is the MKT upgraded enough to carry the Flex's top ranking to the top of the luxury crossover class? Or does the refreshed Acura MDX have the momentum to walk away from the pack again?

The previous SRX was not bad at all. My mom had a leased SRX for a couple of years. It handled and drove significantly better than my wife's Lexus RX. The RWD setup on it set it apart from the pedestrian FWD RX. However, the style, much like the previous gen CTS, dates itself quickly and the interior prior to the refresh was cheap as hell. But it was roomy and drove and handled nice. At lease end she replaced her SRX with an MKZ.

Well tomorrow Ford will release their Q2 earnings. I'm hopeful Ford will beat analyst expectations.

Maybe their focus groups were largely Tacoma buyers. I think it's the same thing with the Honda Ridgeline. They probably did focus groups on the core Honda buyers. So maybe Tundra and Ridgeline buyers are mostly Toyota/Honda loyalist and the products have little appeal elsewhere. Neither company did themselves a favor with the exterior styling.

So to recap the big six: (All straight calculations, no DSR %, includes all divisions) Ford -10.9% Nissan -23.1% Honda -29.5% Toyota - 31.9% GM -33.6% Chrysler - 41.9% Ford easily outperformed their counterparts in June. Looking specifically at the luxury/premium makes: (Audi has yet to report their numbers.) Volvo +0.6% Lexus -16.7% BMW -20.3% MB -22.6% Lincoln -26.6% Infiniti -32.3% Acura -33.5% Cadillac -40.9% (Thanks for the edit Nick. I just spotted my error.) The Euro's are still dominating the luxury market.