campbell53

The system won't allow a sale to be punched before a certain time (like before a build date). This is most likely an error. Cmax are hard enough to get that pre reporting one isn't going to help much. That sale is most likely rescinded by now.

I personally drive an Escape and I can drive any Ford Lincoln on my lot. We are pulling people out of the old body style and putting them in the new model faster than I can get product. I am buying loads from other dealers to keep up. From where I sit Escape is a huge success. I think the styling is just fine and I can't honestly recall a customer telling me otherwise. I think that article is BS.

As a dealer I go back and forth. MKZ is a very nice car. Is it a savior car...probably not. The rest of the line up sucks. My year over year sales are down 200+%. At this point I am not even making the assumption that Lincoln sales will help support my bottom line (God bless F150, Fusion and Escape!) I just hope that Lincoln can get it together and produce a desirable line up like Ford was able to do. Essentially the same people in charge. But the future is very rocky at this point in time....and that is on Ford/Lincoln. Not the dealers. Give me good product and I will sell the crap out of it. The future will not be kind to the current Lincoln offerings. MKT is abysmal. Actually an embarrassment .

I saw it a couple months ago and was disappointed in how much it looked like Escape. Maybe can't be helped it but none the less I was hoping for more.

Redesigned won't do it for me, my customers or Lincoln. We need NEW vehicles to compete. The Taurus/MKS platform is too confining for people to love. In addion to being butt ugly the MKT has very poor rear head room and that cannot be fixed with a redesign. Unless you put a bubble on the roof. Those two models are disastrous for Lincoln as a brand. Listen...I am around these models every day. I hear what customers and my sales staff say about them every day. I know what I am talking about. I am hopeful for Lincoln but it is slipping away rapidly at this point.

I would rather have that than the abominations we have now. That I have to sell the MKT is just plain embarrassing . The MKS is not much better. I'd rather have ANYTHING than those two models. Please I am begging.

And should I be using my MKT profits to pay for all of this? Or my Navigator profits? Or my MKS profits? Trick question because there are not any profits to speak of in these lines. Can't shoot for the moon with no ammo.

This hits the nail on the head. Not interested in spending a fortune on my facility when I don't see the same commitment from Lincoln . They will eventually ramp their requirements so high that the smaller Lincoln dealers will be squeezed out. This feels very intentional. Also I disagree that Lincoln is currently building 'class leading' cars. Maybe the new MKZ but nothing yet makes me drool over being a Lincoln dealer.

Saw pic of MKC at Lincoln meeting this week. Less impressed than I was when I saw new MKZ. Less distinction than I had anticipated. But will still fill a volume hole that Lincoln does not compete in currently.

Never underestimate the motivation of the factory. When times are bad we are their 'partners'. When times are good they try to dictate all phases of the game. Every 10 years or so they do something self serving..i.e. Ford owned dealer groups. Imagine if all those wasted millions had been spent on Lincoln vehicles.

I meant Ford-Lincoln dual dealers.

I have serious reservations about the 80% Ford dealers willing to build stand alone Iincoln stores. There was such push back on modifying existing buildings to suit Lincolns new standards that most of it was scrapped. No one from Ford asked me but that the dealer body just suddenly rolled over for a $1m+ investment in Lincoln sounds sketchy. I do, however, have reservations about this so called name change. Is this just an excuse to call it a 'new' franchise and therefore weed out franchise points they don't like? The Lincoln meeting next month in Las Vegas just got a whole lot more interesting.

I brought the lack of a minivan (and losing customers for years to the Odyssey) up at the Ford Dealer meeting in Chicago last week. In front of hundreds of dealers that I suspect secretly agreed with me I got the standard answers 1) sales are / have been shrinking presumably making it not financially prudent to remain in the segment 2) transaction prices were too low and the Flex ramped up those prices 3) pay attention to the next session as they would talk about the Transit as if that would suffice to be anything other than a commercial vehicle. They did however admit that Flex has failed to meet volume expectations. As a dealer I am ready to sell something to my friends, family and customers that I have lost/and will lose to the traditional minivan.

Off lease vehicles are non existant. The few that are out there Ford wants a fortune for. No help there.

I could have sold 20% more if I had them. I am scary short of Escape and Mustang. Future doesnt bode well for fixing these lines.

It resembles the Mondeo only lightly i.e swept back headlights. More Aston Martin/Evos however with the new signature grill. There are ribs running up the hood which, oddly, remind me of a Sebring. It all works though so don't panic. I have seen nothing regarding additional body styles of the Mondeo.

I've seen the new Fusion and I will admit that the front clip has a strong Aston Martin feel to it. The rest of the car not so much (not a bad thing though). It does not resemble the current Fusion in any way. So it is not evolutionary.....it's all new in my book. That can be good or bad. No one who hasnt seen the car will stop and say 'oh what a great looking new Fusion'. They will have to see the badging to know. There will be people who think it's too radical a departure since the current Fusion is selling well and generally highly regarded. I have not seen the new MKZ but I'm told it is also radically different. That's fine with me because the current car doesn't strike anyone as independantly striking or beautiful. Just a nice Fusion upgrade with lots of techy stuff and a good lease payment. A radical departure is needed here for the sake of the car's future. Although I did hear that Job 1 was pushed back because of some styling re-do. We will have 2013 Fusion sitting next to 2012 MKZ. Probably need to blow out the MKZ inventory before that happens.

We still sell a bunch of Escapes but we are losing more and more sales each month to the Kia dealer down the road. The Sorrento (and the other slightly larger one) just look better. The time has come and we need new blood in this segment.

I am up over last year by quite a bit monthly and ytd. But it won't last long with current inventory levels. The cupboards are getting bare. No fix in site either. I appreciate measured growth and all but this is too far in that direction. It is hard to keep up sales numbers when you are only getting 25% allocation in relation to vehicles sold. Every dealer I talk to is in the same boat. So much for taking advantage of Honda and Toyotas challenges.

We were busy this week. Fiesta sales are ramping up (and it's $300 profit...be still my heart). But we are also selling the crap out of Escapes. Also an Expedition today so go figure. We are having our best new month in a long time. Inventory is going to be a problem however as my allocation has not been great. Running out of Fusions, F150s, Escapes and now Fiestas. Don't get me started on Explorers.

As a dealer we aren't told much. I rely on my daily print outs showing ordered unit status. But it doesn't help much when Explorers are showing estimated delivery the week of 2-2 and it's now almost April. Puts me in a tough spot. I learn more online than I do from Ford.

I'm a dealer and I drive an Edge Ltd for a demo. My system totally failed. First the My Touch would boot slowly. Then not at all. The whole screen went blank. Been in service for nearly a week. If I were a customer I would be livid. Parts ordered that didn't fix problem (new screen and new module behind screen). Multiple calls to engineering. This is a very difficult system to repair. If this a trend then I say ditch it and try something else. I don't find it that much better than the old sync/nav combo anyway.

More than they told us at the Lincoln meetings. I still don't know what they will require of me facility-wise. It's a bit comical at this point.

I don't know....looks a little "Crossfire" to me. I was hoping more for the concept C version shown a couple years ago. But the whole MKFocus idea disappeared.