Ex-Toyota and current Ford marketing maven Jim Farley tells Automotive News [AN, sub] that The Blue Oval Boyz “expect” to stabilize their U.S. market share– after a 13-year decline. And if that’s not stretching the boundaries of credibility (your call), Jimbo reckons the new Lincoln MKT and, what was it again? MKS “could” increase the luxury brand’s slice of the American pie. “We think we have a really good chance this year. We don’t know what the luxury market is going to look like, but the one thing we’re really focused on is making sure that people see our products as aspirational and they pay the price.” Although Farley fails to provide a plan to achieve this goal, AN reckons it could may maybe perhaps happen. “Lincoln could gain share even as the brand’s total sales fall below 100,000 for the first time since 1982. Lincoln finished 2008 with sales of 107,295, its lowest total since 1983. With forecasts for lower industry sales in 2009, executives acknowledged that new-vehicle entries may not be enough to keep Lincoln sales in six figures.”
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
I guess it could be possible for Ford to increase some market share with Lincoln this year. Going from 1% to 2% of the near-lux-car market while actually selling fewer vehicles is possible this year I guess!
One thing not mentioned is the fate of poor, poor Mercury. Ford seems to have done a good job lately in focusing on the car part of its business, (vs. the financial part, or labor part, or Government subsidy part) but Mercury appears to be out in the cold more than ever. They have some decent re-badges of Ford’s better models right now, but isn’t that Lincoln’s MO as well? Not good for poor Mercury right now, they seem to be on the bubble more than any of GM’s “damaged” brands right now. Too bad, Mercury’s spokesmodel is hot. Maybe she can sell Lincolns.
With the exception of the summer truck collapse when credit and gas prices crushed them they have shown fair stability.
Most months in the last year have been market share stable.
If they don’t get whacked in the back of the head again (say, the Gov’t helping the Dead 1.3 undercut Ford’s financing?), they may just stabilize or improve share.
Bunter
Ford said they were going to keep Mercury alive. Gave it a new Milan, but not a new Sable or any other D-platform vehicle. Seems dead to me.
Bunter1 :
Ford Financial is lining-up for Treasury funds.
The only Ford brand worth saving…. is Ford.
The Lincoln Taurus does NOTHING special over the competition…but yet Ford expects people to pay the same amount as the competition. This will not be a car that does anything for Ford…and it’s lackluster sales numbers have proved that.
As for the Lincoln Flex, well, add that to the D3 fail list. The Flex is way too expensive for what you get…as shown by the terrible sales numbers, no reasonable person would pay a lot more for a Lincoln version…that is actually much uglier than it’s Ford twin.
Why Ford thinks that what America needs right now…is a $55K, seven passenger station wagon is beyond me. Ford needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out what a real Lincoln really is…and stop with the GM-like rebadging.
I have long believed that the only reason Mercury exists is to provide sales volume for a separate Lincoln dealer network. With the exception of some mild sheetmetal differences in the 80s (Taurus/Sable and TBird/Cougar) Mercury has been pure badge-engineering for 30 years. Or maybe 70.
I also believe that if Lincoln can be revived into what it should be (a Lexus for the Ford empire) there will no longer be a reason for Mercury.
We must remember that Mercury’s sole reason for existance is that all through the 1930s, FoMoCo had a monstrous price gap between a Ford DeLuxe and a Lincoln Zepher. They were grooming customers for Chrysler (then No. 2 of the big 3) and GM. The first Mercury was nothing but a slightly restyled Ford, and it has been so almost ever since.
Remember – GM claimed ‘victory’ in 2001-2002 when market share ‘stabilized’ at 28%…
I don’t see how Farley thinks Lincoln is going to gain market share. The Flex sold 14,457 units last year which projects to a 43,371 volume over 12 months. How many of a more expensive, more um, controversially styled version can they expect to sell? If they maintain the MKZ’s 20% of Fusion volume, thats less than 9K vehicles. Also the Lincoln MKS sold 12,982 or 38,946 over 12 months. Again, I’m not seeing a huge rush for a more expensive turbo version driving sales up. Further I expect the MKX, Navigator, and Town car to continue their preciptous decline. Only the refreshed MKZ has a chance to exceed 2008 volumes, but not sufficiently to make up for the models heading the other way. Other luxury brands may also be heading downward but I doubt any is in as bad shape as Lincoln.
Part of Lincoln’s problem in recent years was the “Premium Auto Group”. With Jag, Volvo, & Range Rover going after customers at the high end, Lincoln was left with little product and seemed to be headed into a dead end as Ford’s Buick, selling Town Cars to rental fleets and the well-off elderly. Now that the PAG is gone, I think it would be a mistake to write off this market, which can be very lucrative for a good product. Ford has shown that it has the ability to design and build good product. Now it needs to take these skills up-market. The new Taurus variant has proved to be moderately popular (a win for Lincoln). Cars like this can hold the fort until Lincoln does a real flagship to take aim at the big Lexus. This is the heart of the high end market and the place where all the money is. Forget european targets – most customers of euro-iron in the US are too snooty about image, so no matter how good a Lincoln is, it still won’t sell. A good, top quality car that is attractive and a good performer at a reasonable price for the segment is the goal, and I believe that the modern Ford is capable of delivering such a vehicle. Now will they?
I honestly don’t see anything the Lincoln is offering that will attract a younger buyer that in turn can revive the brand. Until they jettison the Town Car, they’ll always have that image. The Navigator and Mark LT are two other vehicles that aren’t helping their image.
Go ahead an tart up a Fusion, Lexus does well with their tarted up Camry, but the Town Car is ages behind the LS sedans. I’d also suggest new entries from the ground up as IS and GS competitors…and of course offer all of them in hybrid. Then let’s talk about increasing market share.
Oh, and Mercury can go the way of Oldsmobile. The car company that is all things to all income levels doesn’t work anymore. See GM for reference.
The LS was Lincoln’s last true car. It has a fantastic chassis, RWD, V8, great styling, and most importantly, IT WAS UNIQUE.
The bad part, is that we will never see a true Lincoln every again…which is one that has RWD. Ford some reason, people and automakers associate RWD with gas guzzling.
Ford has given up on even attempting to build an efficient V8 in favor if the FAR MORE EXPENSIVE Ecoboost engines…which offer no more of an advantage in terms of fuel economy, than a traditional V8.
Part of Lincoln’s problem in recent years was the “Premium Auto Group”. With Jag, Volvo, & Range Rover going after customers at the high end, Lincoln was left with little product and seemed to be headed into a dead end as Ford’s Buick, selling Town Cars to rental fleets and the well-off elderly.
The PAG debacle is the sad end for all the profits Ford made selling SUV’s in the 1990’s. They seemed to have plowed it all into acquiring these brands while letting critical names like the Taurus and Ranger wither on the vine. Its all the more strange why Ford would want something like Land Rover at the exact time they were moving 4×4 Lincolns for the first time in that brand’s history.
That’s been the biggest problem with management of Ford and GM that I can see. That problem is when times are good (or even solvent) they don’t re-invest the gained capital in their operations, and they don’t focus on operational excellence within the outfits they have, instead they try acquiring someone else’s operations. That just leaves two under-capitalized car companies at an operational disadvantage to their competitors…which is death. GM’s misadventures with Fiat, Subaru, and Saab are another example of that.
In a capital-intensive business, you’ve got to keep throwing money at your operation or it will become obsolete in one product generation. It’s like if the guys who ran Exxon spent all their time and money trying to acquire other oil companies instead of investing in their own exploration and properties, which would be doom for Exxon.
“aspirational” (???)- delusional
“and they pay the price” – not as many as they would wish, hope, and pray for.
I agree with P71 Crown Vic. Lincoln needs unique high quality vehicles and unfortunately the current line up is not it. They also need a vision and a direction. What is Lincoln and who does it compete with? It isn’t Cadillac, Mercedes, or BMW. It really isn’t even Lexus. It looks more like Buick, or something to compete with the Avalon. I don’t even know who Lincoln is targeting.
It is a shame but in my opinion, the Jag XF should have went to Lincoln as the new Town Car only with real Lincoln styling. It looks to be an excellent car and the reviews have all been positive. It is also priced reasonably and could have dramatically changed the perception of Lincoln. This is what they needed. The current line up does little to change any one’s mind about the brand.
I suggest Lincoln take a cue from Lexus and introduce a top end RWD luxury sedan and price it under all of its competition. Only after years of refinement and proven reliability will consumers “pay the price.”
No rebadges. No reuse of old Town Car parts. A clean sheet design but name it the Town Car. It’s a name with cachet and I, for one, can’t keep track of their trend of meaningless alphabet soup monikers.
If rear driv?e is as dead as Ford/Lincoln and GM (Zeta is the last says Bob Lutz) say – has anyone told BMW or Daimler? When will they leave the US Market?
Robert Farago:
Ford Financial is lining-up for Treasury funds.
What will that mean to Ford Credit bonds?
Sad for Ford that the review of the MKS in Car and Driver appeared in the same issue as the review of the Hyundai Genesis. Comparing the two articles shows how far Lincoln has fallen – at least until the Eco Boost V-6 engine shows up. I agree that they should be “value pricing” their products relative to the competition, much like Lexus did and Hyundai is doing now. That said, I’ve seen more of the MKS around the Twin Cities than the Genesis.
As for the Taurus, this new model has some potential. I’m interested, especially in the SHO model:
http://www.bringbackthesho.com/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=36
That said, I’ve seen more of the MKS around the Twin Cities than the Genesis.
So have I…but still…I have only seen ONE Lincoln Taurus.
As for the Taurus, this new model has some potential. I’m interested, especially in the SHO model
I wish I could say the same…the new Taurus looks great, but the FWD/V6 ruins the whole car.
And the new SHO is an impostor. No Yamaha engine, no wild intake manifold, no manual = no SHO.
i saw a new mks next to me in traffic the other day. and damn that car was beautiful. i think they will do it
Mark LT is dead. Town Car will continue its normal fleet duty (although I doubt Lincoln will offer it as a 2010 model to retail customers).
Lincoln will, for all purposes, have five cars in 2009: Navigator, MKT, MKX, MKS, MKZ.
And getting 90k units out of those five (even with the MKT’s half-year run) shouldn’t be too difficult. The Town Car will end up 5-10k and make up most of the difference to balance the marketshare and maybe grow it.
What will this do for Lincoln’s long-term viability? Not sure. We’ll find out after the ecoboost hits… see if there’s a hope in hell of attracting someone under 50. The MKZ could have used something a bit more in the powertrain department – then Ford’d have a chance, but alas.
Can Ford hold marketshare this year? I have them projected down only 0.1%, and my projections underestimated their marketshare the last two months by nearly 1% and 0.5%. I think a lot of this lies in: demand for trucks and Ford’s ability to hold/gain share in that segment and whether Ford is playing for brand value or just marketshare.
The Edge and Flex are examples where their discounts are in line or slightly less relative to other offerings in their class from even the Japanese. The Edge’s drop in the last few months is not just Ford losing share because it’s losing share, but fundamentally pricing differently than before and moving far fewer fleet units. That type of effort applied more broadly to the line-up will likely land them with slightly less marketshare again in 2009… but that also means it’s probably the first time in a while that I could say that Ford is in control of their marketshare more or less.
Correct me if I am wrong, but aside from the Fleet sales of the Town Car, I think the majority of Lincoln sales are retail.
As for attracting younger buyers, Lincoln is definitely doing that. The older buyers don’t like the new Lincolns (too small, too swoopy, to expensive, trunk too small etc..), but it seemed like a lot of Acura buyers were defecting to Lincoln – believe it or not. Those Acura buyers really don’t seem to like their rides, but seem to love the new Lincolns. At least at the dealership I worked at.
Ford said they were going to keep Mercury alive. Gave it a new Milan, but not a new Sable or any other D-platform vehicle. Seems dead to me.
Weren’t some of the Euro-Fords on their way over to be badged as Mercurys?
Anyway, Mercury has always been a rebadge – a very cost effective way to expand your offerings. I think it does help to pull traffic in to LM dealers.
They should sell the Euro-Focus as a Mercury and build the 20k rwd coupe everyone wants on a derivitive (decent output v6 and the IRS it had originally) of the Mustang Platform and call it the Cougar. Leave the honkin’ v8 for the Stangs and give the cat a more euro flavor. Keep the Milan and Mariner but maybe throw in a unique motor if one is available from Mazda maybe and give em’ something big, rwd, good, and modern to replace the Grand Marquis.
As for Lincoln, I’d pretty much follow the Lexus mold but without the lesser models. A unique flagship model, A high end coupe off the stang platform (IRS, V8, basically a high end mustang, maybe a longer wheel base, that handles with top notch interior, etc.) Something off the aforementioned new Grand Marquis to replace the town car. Between the two I think a Lincoln Mercury dealership would have a decent line up without them all stepping on each other too much.
The Euro Focus would be cross shopped with the Civic and Carolla…leave the bargain basement to the Ford model. The Cougar would be a segment that doesn’t really exist now as has been pointed out. The other 2 aren’t really changed.
With Lincoln, the market for a distinct Town Car and Grand Marquis exists, or would if the cars were good…the past has shown that. The Lincoln Stang would be compared to the Infinity/Nissan coupes and the flagship would have it’s obvious Foreign competition.