15% Unit Sales Uptick for 12 Months In a Row at Lincoln

[range]

"The Lincoln brand posted its 12th month in a row of higher retail sales.

 

In September, total Lincoln sales were up 33 percent (retail up 40 percent).

 

Year-to-date, total Lincoln sales were up 15 percent (retail up 17 percent).

 

Lincoln’s rebound reflects the new Lincoln MKX crossover, the new Lincoln MKZ sedan (up 25 percent in September) and the redesigned Navigator (up 38 percent in September)."

 

=======================

Looks like another infamous BON prediction has biten the the dust. 12 months in a row of increasing sales improvements, with a 40% retail improvement in September.

 

I thought the MK name change was going to doom Lincoln?

 

I thought dropping the Zephyr name was going to hurt sales, not improve sales 25%?

 

I thought the Navigator was "underpowered", why are sales up 38%.

 

I thought sales were going to go DOWN, not UP 40%?

 

Blah Blah Blah........................

 

How can the BONers be SOOOOO wrong SOOOOOOO often?????

[jpd80]

The big mover in Lincoln has been in SUV/CUVs rather than cars.

Kinda makes owning Land Rover a waste of time.

 

Sorry, TStang,

I know you love L/R and want the J/LR sale paused but I can see Ford going ahead with the sale

and boosting Lincoln -money in the bank plus a suitable division to replace both marques.

At least the market sections Ford wants Lincoln to be in.

Edited October 8, 2007 by jpd80

[DCK]

It is great that Lincolns sales leveled and are starting to rise again, but is it really anything to be proud of, Look at the state Lincoln was in............Ford murdered Lincoln, so much damage has been done that who knows if it is even possible for the public to perceive Lincoln as a luxury automaker anymore.

 

I think it is foolish to act like this is a victory.........you have a brand that was a bandoned for almost a decade, finally product(poor product at best) was thrown at it, so ofcourse sales will increase. Nothing is nothing but a pathetic joke atleast until the MKS comes.

Edited October 8, 2007 by DCK

[2005Explorer]

Over the past year or so Ford has done a lot of improvement to Lincoln. MKZ, MKX and the Navigator are all good products. The MKX could use more distinctive sheet metal and a more upscale engine and the Navigator could also use an exclusive engine, however all 3 products are well executed compared to what Lincoln offered before. The LS was a nice car, but was long forgotten and outdated. The MKS and the new people mover will help Lincoln continue the upward trend. I'd also like to see a more powerful engine in the Navigator and the new 3.7L V6 in the MKX. If Ford can get those things done soon, Lincoln will have an excellent line-up.

[range]

Over the past year or so Ford has done a lot of improvement to Lincoln. MKZ, MKX and the Navigator are all good products. The MKX could use more distinctive sheet metal and a more upscale engine and the Navigator could also use an exclusive engine, however all 3 products are well executed compared to what Lincoln offered before. The LS was a nice car, but was long forgotten and outdated. The MKS and the new people mover will help Lincoln continue the upward trend. I'd also like to see a more powerful engine in the Navigator and the new 3.7L V6 in the MKX. If Ford can get those things done soon, Lincoln will have an excellent line-up.

 

And beyond the new product that is performing well in the marketplace, Lincoln has achieved consistently high JDPower rankings in all the categories.

 

Lincoln is rated in the top tier for long-term dependability and CSI, (beating the likes of Acura, Infiniti, Mercedes, etc) and in IQS (beating just about everyone including Toyota, Honda, Acura, on and on.

 

For example, here's the 2007 Initial Quality results.

 

[rmc523]

Over the past year or so Ford has done a lot of improvement to Lincoln. MKZ, MKX and the Navigator are all good products. The MKX could use more distinctive sheet metal and a more upscale engine and the Navigator could also use an exclusive engine, however all 3 products are well executed compared to what Lincoln offered before. The LS was a nice car, but was long forgotten and outdated. The MKS and the new people mover will help Lincoln continue the upward trend. I'd also like to see a more powerful engine in the Navigator and the new 3.7L V6 in the MKX. If Ford can get those things done soon, Lincoln will have an excellent line-up.

 

Here's my educated guesses on the future of Lincoln:

MKZ sheetmetal will be updated w/in the next year (09 model), with more MKR inspired styling, 3.7L V6 added (or standard)

MKS should sell very well, great looking car.

MKX will get updated, and more differentiated from Edge sheetmetal, MKR inspired design, along w/ the 3.7L V6 (I'd assume)

MKFlex I would think would/will get the 3.7L V6 also, and features swoopy styling, different from Flex (from what I've read)

Navigator will get the new BOSS V8 (425hp) same time as the new F-150 early-mid 09 (read that somewhere)

 

The future at Lincoln is looking very bright IMO.

 

It's making the (possible) keeping of JLR look like it's not worth it, b/c as said above, Lincoln can then move upmarket (eventually) and cover both of JLR's markets.

[range]

Here's my educated guesses on the future of Lincoln:

MKZ sheetmetal will be updated w/in the next year (09 model), with more MKR inspired styling, 3.7L V6 added (or standard)

MKS should sell very well, great looking car.

MKX will get updated, and more differentiated from Edge sheetmetal, MKR inspired design, along w/ the 3.7L V6 (I'd assume)

MKFlex I would think would/will get the 3.7L V6 also, and features swoopy styling, different from Flex (from what I've read)

Navigator will get the new BOSS V8 (425hp) same time as the new F-150 early-mid 09 (read that somewhere)

 

The future at Lincoln is looking very bright IMO.

 

It's making the (possible) keeping of JLR look like it's not worth it, b/c as said above, Lincoln can then move upmarket (eventually) and cover both of JLR's markets.

 

 

I think your guesses are spot on.

[wescoent]

Duh.

 

Sell competitive and stylish products, and people will buy them.

 

The more products Lincoln can bring to the dealers, the higher sales will be.

 

However, this in no way relieves Ford of its responsibility to bring Mercury the same: new products.

[NickF1011]

However, this in no way relieves Ford of its responsibility to bring Mercury the same: new products.

 

Ford's responsibility to Mercury is to give it a quick death so they can finally make Ford's products better.

[2005Explorer]

Ford's responsibility to Mercury is to give it a quick death so they can finally make Ford's products better.

 

I am not sure that Mercury is going to be outright "killed" I think the volume will shift to Lincoln and Mercury will just be used on a couple of models to help fill out the line for Lincoln/Mercury dealers.

[laserred02]

My family enjoys Mercury, even though many models are rebadged Ford's. This is because all the Mercury dealerships and service departments have been above par, and really treat you and your car with respect. My parents last two cars were a 03 Mercury Mountaineer and a 04 or 05 Lincoln LS. I think they are considering a Milan or Sable for their next vehicle. Personally I would get a Mercury over a Ford, just for the dealership...yeah I know you can use the Mercury dealership if you have a Ford, but if they get rid of Mercury and merge Ford/Lincoln then you have to use the crappy Ford dealership.

 

My 07 Mustang will be headed into the shop next week for some rattles and squeaks, and I'm going to take it to Mercury because they take better care of the car imo.

[campbell53]

As a FLM dealer I would say the prudent thing to do with Mercury is hang on for a bit. I know things look bad now but 1) I don't think Ford can spend the $$ right now on paying off the dealer body. Probably something in the neighborhood of $100,000,000 or better including legal fees to fight dealers who won't sign willingly. Could be more...

2) Hang around with a couple filler products and wait to see what emerges globally in a few years. It could be the next Saturn by 2012. Offering nitch vehicles to complement the new global offerings.

[danup]

I really think that the only way to differentiate Mercury is to do the Saturn thing but even more than Saturn, turn it into a niche brand and try to sell the European models heretofore deemed unsuitable for America. My ideal Mercury in 2011, attached to a more vital Lincoln, would look something like this:

 

Sable (volume model that dictates the increased luxury of the marque over Ford)

Tracer? (If you don't want to take the extreme chance that would come with taking the Focus as upmarket as it is in Europe, do it as a Mercury)

C-Max

S-Max/Galaxy

Ka? (If you're allowing yourself, as Ford, to take Mercury to a lower volume, why not try some things that you might later do with Ford proper?)

 

Reworking two or three Ford models a year just isn't going to do it; worse than the simple lack of volume it sets an upper bound for Ford luxury, which is just a bad idea. If you have all these cars that may or may not sell in America, and a marque that may or may not exist in ten years, why not try it?

[ZanatWork]

Ford's responsibility to Mercury is to give it a quick death so they can finally make Ford's products better.

 

 

A truly dumb and worthless idea! Sadder still because it gets repeated so often!

 

 

Mercury needs to be aimed right where it's supposed to be: the kind of people that like Acura, baby Lexi, and entry-lux German cars. These customers will be disinclined toward both Ford and Lincoln: the former seen as too "Blue Collar" and the latter as too "Old School"-something Lincoln's current interiors do much to confirm.

 

Fine. Mercury gets aimed at the people who wouldn't touch the other Ford procucts, the people outside the vision of Nick's silly little remark. A "better" Ford would still be ignored by these people...

 

...but not a Mercury that's allowed to bring in some of those precious Euro/Aussie products we all obsess so much about. I've said it before: isn't a Mercury version of the C1 Cabrio a PERFECT car for Jill Wagner to be shilling? How about the S-Max? The Kuga (which would be a FAR better Mercury than a Lincoln)?

 

Those are the people Ford WANTS Mercury to go after, but up-chroming Fords isn't enough anymore. Even if Mercuries were differentiated the way Torinos and Montegos were differentiated in the 70's, it'd be an improvement over the obvious facelifts done now.

[NickF1011]

A truly dumb and worthless idea! Sadder still because it gets repeated so often!

 

 

Mercury needs to be aimed right where it's supposed to be: the kind of people that like Acura, baby Lexi, and entry-lux German cars. These customers will be disinclined toward both Ford and Lincoln: the former seen as too "Blue Collar" and the latter as too "Old School"-something Lincoln's current interiors do much to confirm.

 

Fine. Mercury gets aimed at the people who wouldn't touch the other Ford procucts, the people outside the vision of Nick's silly little remark. A "better" Ford would still be ignored by these people...

 

...but not a Mercury that's allowed to bring in some of those precious Euro/Aussie products we all obsess so much about. I've said it before: isn't a Mercury version of the C1 Cabrio a PERFECT car for Jill Wagner to be shilling? How about the S-Max? The Kuga (which would be a FAR better Mercury than a Lincoln)?

 

Those are the people Ford WANTS Mercury to go after, but up-chroming Fords isn't enough anymore. Even if Mercuries were differentiated the way Torinos and Montegos were differentiated in the 70's, it'd be an improvement over the obvious facelifts done now.

 

Mercury can't even dream about being Ford's "Acura"-type brand as long as Lincoln is taking up that market. And it IS taking up that market. Nobody cross-shops a Milan and Acura TL. People probably do occasionally cross-shop the TL and MKZ though. If Ford wants Mercury to stick around, that's fine. But continuing to sell Mercurys that are nothing but (barely) tarted up Fords is ludicrous. Mercury at this point is nothing more than a trim level of Ford, and that is a complete waste of money. That money would be much better spent simply making the Ford version better.

 

The whole idea of "Euro Ford" becoming Mercury is also ridiculous, as we ALL know by now that Mullaly is on a mission to make all of the "Euro Fords" into the "American Fords" anyway. Where does that leave Mercury in a couple years? Exactly where it is now: a trim level of Ford.

[sranger]

And beyond the new product that is performing well in the marketplace, Lincoln has achieved consistently high JDPower rankings in all the categories.

 

Lincoln is rated in the top tier for long-term dependability and CSI, (beating the likes of Acura, Infiniti, Mercedes, etc) and in IQS (beating just about everyone including Toyota, Honda, Acura, on and on.

 

For example, here's the 2007 Initial Quality results.

 

 

 

You nailed it. Lincoln has to improve quality to make the brand stand alone. The reason that Toyota and Honda are what they are today is consistant quality. There was a time when the US brands were poor quality and reliability and the imports made that weakness their 100% focus and it worked. While I personally think that the current Fords are BETTER quality now than the imports, it will take many years for the public in general to believe it.

 

They also HAVE to offer more performance than the Ford equivlant. The MKX is nice but not worth the extra money over a loaded Edge in my opinion. The MKZ offers more than the Fusion or Milan and will probably sell well. Also Lincoln has to advertise IN A BIG WAY to the younger generation. Most people still think of Lincoln as an "old fart car"... The good news is that younger people respond well to good advertising...

 

As for Mercury, I hope Ford keeps it. I like to buy well optioned cars. Often a Mercury offers a higher end option package that makes the Merc less expensive than ( or the same price as ) the "loaded" Ford. I also think that the waterfall grill looks much better than the new three bar thing that Ford is slapping on evertyhing. It just screams "LOOK AT ME I AM TRYING WAY TOO HARD TO GET NOTICED". Even though I do not really like the silly three bar chrome grill on my Edge, but it is 100% better than the ugly grill in the MKX... In other words, I see Mercury simply as a well optioned Ford with a little more class and elegance, but not as over priced as the Lincolns...

[NickF1011]

In other words, I see Mercury simply as a well optioned Ford with a little more class and elegance, but not as over priced as the Lincolns...

 

Which is a complete waste of resources in my opinion. If Ford is going to keep Mercury, it needs to become more than "just a nicer Ford". In order for that to happen though, Lincoln needs to move up further than they are...and I don't see that happening too quickly.

[TStag]

The big mover in Lincoln has been in SUV/CUVs rather than cars.

Kinda makes owning Land Rover a waste of time.

 

Sorry, TStang,

I know you love L/R and want the J/LR sale paused but I can see Ford going ahead with the sale

and boosting Lincoln -money in the bank plus a suitable division to replace both marques.

At least the market sections Ford wants Lincoln to be in.

 

Why does it make owning Land Rover a waste of time? Land Rover is an international brand. It sells in practically every country on the planet, has much higher profit margins than Lincoln. Unlike Lincoln it doesn't just rebadge Ford's. It has a much bigger SUV range than Lincoln. Is now one of the most wanted Dealer franchises in the world and has a reputation off making SUV's that are untouchable offroad. Compare the RRP of a Range Rover to a Navigator.

 

Picking on Land Rover at the moment is stupid. It's very sucessfull and very profitable, especially when you consider they are spending over 2 billion dollars on environmentally friendly technology and making a profit at present. Come on, get real what is Lincoln doing to compete? What is Lincoln doing to make more fuel efficient cars? How much are they spending out of their own profits?

 

Why is it that Land Rover get's attacked for every screw up at Ford? Land Rover hasn't diverted cash away from anything. When Ford bought it they knew what needed to be done and how much money to spend (unlike Jaguar). Just because Land Rover is British it get's blamed for everything that's gone wrong at Jaguar. It's turnaround has gone well and exceeded expectations.

 

But here's something to cheer you up. A dealer near me recently announced that he's sold out his first 2 month's worth of XF stock already. JLR is looking good all of a sudden. The real question to ask is why sell JLR off cheap (i.e. sell of two proper premium brands) when Volvo's sales figures are dropping and the crucial new C30 is bombing badly already? Remember Land Rover sells about half as many cars as Volvo but for a lot more money. Land Rover is comparable to BMW. But Volvo and Lincoln are not.

 

So sell Volvo, make a big profit and wait for the good times to roll at JLR AND Lincoln. Also combine JLR and Lincoln dealers in the USA. Let Lincoln slot in under JLR but above Ford. Then scrap Mercury.

[NickF1011]

Why does it make owning Land Rover a waste of time? Land Rover is an international brand. It sells in practically every country on the planet, has much higher profit margins than Lincoln. Unlike Lincoln it doesn't just rebadge Ford's. It has a much bigger SUV range than Lincoln. Is now one of the most wanted Dealer franchises in the world and has a reputation off making SUV's that are untouchable offroad. Compare the RRP of a Range Rover to a Navigator.

 

You have no idea what Land Rover's profit margins are compared to Lincoln's. Ford doesn't break them down in their earnings reports. The fact that Land Rover ISN'T using common Ford architecture for the most part is going to eat into the profit margins they DO get since it will require a heck of a lot more R&D to maintain. And using "a much bigger SUV range" as a BENEFIT in a time when fewer and fewer people are buying SUVs is about the most laughable argument I've heard for keeping Land Rover yet.

Edited October 8, 2007 by NickF1011

[TStag]

You have no idea what Land Rover's profit margins are compared to Lincoln's. Ford doesn't break them down in their earnings reports. The fact that Land Rover ISN'T using common Ford architecture for the most part is going to eat into the profit margins they DO get since it will require a heck of a lot more R&D to maintain. And using "a much bigger SUV range" as a BENEFIT in a time when fewer and fewer people are buying SUVs is about the most laughable argument I've heard for keeping Land Rover yet.

 

Land Rover's Gerry Mcgovern has already said that Land Rover's profit margins are high and that as a result they are the most wanted dealer franchise in the UK. They told Autocar that the next Range Rover can afford $5000 electric power packs because their profit margins can stand it (especially as they can also put the price up) The fact that Land Rover isn't yet using common Ford architecture is actually an arguement for keeping Land Rover, because it indicates future efficiency gains.

 

Land Rover is able to grow it's range, because in the UK, Italy, Russia and the USA it is one of the fastest growing brands in the business. In the UK alone sales are up 30% YTD. Kind of makes Lincolns growth look like a puny effort!

 

Finally there is one crucial point that you forget. In the USA, in it's own back yard Lincoln is not seen as a top Premium brand like BMW. In the UK (a key Premium car market) Range Rover is the top SUV premium brand! In that sense it's Ford only TRUELY SUCESSFULL premium brand.

[LincolnFan]

Also combine JLR and Lincoln dealers in the USA. Let Lincoln slot in under JLR but above Ford. Then scrap Mercury.

 

 

And let the money pit (Jaguar) and the brand that CANNOT AFFORD REDESIGNS (LR) Slot above THE PROFITABLE AND EXPANDING (Lincoln)?!

 

That doesn't make sense at all.

[Edstock]

and the brand that CANNOT AFFORD REDESIGNS (LR)

 

And your proof is?

[NickF1011]

Land Rover's Gerry Mcgovern has already said that Land Rover's profit margins are high and that as a result they are the most wanted dealer franchise in the UK. They told Autocar that the next Range Rover can afford $5000 electric power packs because their profit margins can stand it (especially as they can also put the price up) The fact that Land Rover isn't yet using common Ford architecture is actually an arguement for keeping Land Rover, because it indicates future efficiency gains.

 

Land Rover is able to grow it's range, because in the UK, Italy, Russia and the USA it is one of the fastest growing brands in the business. In the UK alone sales are up 30% YTD. Kind of makes Lincolns growth look like a puny effort!

 

Finally there is one crucial point that you forget. In the USA, in it's own back yard Lincoln is not seen as a top Premium brand like BMW. In the UK (a key Premium car market) Range Rover is the top SUV premium brand! In that sense it's Ford only TRUELY SUCESSFULL premium brand.

 

Land Rover's unique platforms are going to bite them in the ass sooner rather than later.

 

Land Rover is growing rapidly only because they were ridiculously TINY before. Would you rather have a company that sells 10 vehicles one year and sells 20 the next for a 100% increase in sales, or a company that sold 10,000 vehicles one year and 11,000 the next for a 10% increase? The one that moved 11,000 ended up moving 990 more units overall. Land Rover could be expanding more quickly, but the overall potential is far smaller.

 

As for Lincoln's image -- It will likely end up being much cheaper to get Lincoln's image to where it should be than it will be keeping Land Rover's image where it currently is. Not to mention Land Rover's reputation for quality is still downright abyssmal (for good reason).

[LincolnFan]

And your proof is?

 

Don't have it, so get that pic ready son.

 

It was posted in BOF (some time ago) and there was a link, but I am lazy and I am not going to try and find it.

[NickF1011]

And your proof is?

 

Look at their average span of time between Range Rover (and every other model for that matter, but Range Rover in particular) redesigns. And even with those great spans of time between refreshes they still can't get a handle on their quality control.