Ford reverts back to "Lincoln Motor Company" name.

[fatherdoug]

http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/12/03/4456655/lincoln-announces-its-new-2013.html

 

[O'Rattlecan]

I saw one of these ads on tv just last night.

Ryan

 

[DNFXDLI]

That is great, I think Ford is on the right track with that brand.

 

[polarbear]

I remember the first time Ford relaunched and redefined the Lincoln brand.

 

[fatherdoug]

Now THAT'S a car!

 

[DNFXDLI]

I remember the first time Ford relaunched and redefined the Lincoln brand.

That was a masterpiece

 

[GrassRoots150]

Its about time!

 

[1970Custom]

That is a masterpiece

More better....


Who knew Lincoln and Cadillac could be so close yet so far apart.. explains why I've always liked their old cars...

 

[m78]

I remember the first time Ford relaunched and redefined the Lincoln brand.

I saw one of these the other day, at harbor freight.

 

[polarbear]

That was a masterpiece

It was. Twenty years later, rich folks were still driving those cars. Lincoln had a few other solid hits too. The original Continental and the Mark II were styling successes, but they weren't a commercial success. Too expensive, too limited a market. That all changed in 1968, when the Mark III arrived on showroom floors.

At the time that car arrived, the suicide-door Continental had already proven Lincoln was a serious competitor with Cadillac. The Mark III came one year after Cadillacs dramatic (and breath-taking) first Gen Eldorado.

The Eldorado was a revolutionary design- one that obviously has a strong influence on current Cadillac designs. But it also was a bit too... out there... for traditional luxury car buyers. The Cadillac was edgy, sporty... the Lincoln was tasteful and elegant, more in keeping with what this market was looking for. In 1971, GM restyled the Eldorado, giving it a more formal look. What they also gave it was an enormous body, soft springs, very little useable interior space, and a build quality that could charitably be called "indifferent." The 500 CID V8 could easily overpower the suspension, the FWD layout in a 5,000 lb car redefined the term "nose heavy," and the brakes weren't up to stopping this much mass in anything resembling a reasonable distance.

Lincoln responded with the stunning 1972 Continental Mark IV.

Customer's loved the Mark IV. Anecdotally, in our fairly affluent neighborhood in So Cal, there were folks with names on waiting lists for these cars. One test driver noted the car was so quiet, he could "hear himself breathe" as he went down the road. The Continental set one sales record after another, and Cadillac's Eldorado never caught back up until the early 80's.

 

[Blue Goose]

I remember the first time Ford relaunched and redefined the Lincoln brand.

My Dad had a '63 Continental, metalic charcoal gray with dark red leather interior...

The only pictures I have...

 

[smokey]

That was the days before color photography.

 

[LEB Ben]

I really want to see a 4 door sports car in Lincoln clothing. That's what I'm waiting for, that's the niche I want to Lincoln competing with against Cadillac. I'd be the first in line to buy a 4 second 0-60, 400hp, rwd, full size sedan. Caddy does it, the Europeans do it, so there's a market. A guy can dream, right???

 

[Austin]

Right there with ya Ben, build a RWD 5.0 powered sedan and matching coupe an you're good!

 

[1970Custom]

I really want to see a 4 door sports car in Lincoln clothing. That's what I'm waiting for, that's the niche I want to Lincoln competing with against Cadillac. I'd be the first in line to buy a 4 second 0-60, 400hp, rwd, full size sedan. Caddy does it, the Europeans do it, so there's a market. A guy can dream, right???

You stated the problem, GM and the Euros have a high end sedan tough market to get into.

And FoMoCo has a high speed sedan, its called the Falcon...

 

[LEB Ben]

Right there with ya Ben, build a RWD 5.0 powered sedan and matching coupe an you're good!

And if they dive in to the 8spd auto craze, you can get 30mpg's out of it too.

 

[LEB Ben]

You stated the problem, GM and the Euros have a high end sedan tough market to get into.

And FoMoCo has a high speed sedan, its called the Falcon...

I just don't see what would be so difficult with dropping another powerplant in the MkS...even if they wanted to retain the AWD performance thing they have going on, that would be fine. Markets are easy to get in to, the difficulty is outproducing your amount of the pie.

 

[LEB Paul]

They've already got the 3.5 ecoboost in the mks, 355hp. Problem is the platform it's on is so damn heavy and even with awd it is still a fwd platform with a transaxle and the engine facing the wrong way. So there is a bunch of weight over the front end of the car and it handles like poo despite all the bandaids they put on it.

Lincoln is taking a bottom up approach and starting with the entry level cars with fancied up ford platforms (fusion, taurus, escape). Not what the enthusiasts want to see, but it is what makes most of the money for the luxury brands. Some articles I've read seem to suggest that Ford/Lincoln is waiting to see how well the MKZ does before investing heavily in the "halo" offerings.

There is a smaller line of "nano" v6's coming for the mkz and other Lincolns as well, around 2.7L and over 350hp. Next gen ecoboost. If any of the rumors going around are true it could get very interesting for Lincoln in the coming years. I've also heard some rumors about the coyote v8 (5.0) getting ecoboost.. which would be absolute insanity for output, considering the n/a version makes over 400hp as is.

 

[DNFXDLI]

I agree with that Paul...everything except the crappy handling.
The OL's MKZ amazes me with the way it handles and drives.

 

[LEB Ben]

They've already got the 3.5 ecoboost in the mks, 355hp. Problem is the platform it's on is so damn heavy and even with awd it is still a fwd platform with a transaxle and the engine facing the wrong way. So there is a bunch of weight over the front end of the car and it handles like poo despite all the bandaids they put on it.

Lincoln is taking a bottom up approach and starting with the entry level cars with fancied up ford platforms (fusion, taurus, escape). Not what the enthusiasts want to see, but it is what makes most of the money for the luxury brands. Some articles I've read seem to suggest that Ford/Lincoln is waiting to see how well the MKZ does before investing heavily in the "halo" offerings.

There is a smaller line of "nano" v6's coming for the mkz and other Lincolns as well, around 2.7L and over 350hp. Next gen ecoboost. If any of the rumors going around are true it could get very interesting for Lincoln in the coming years. I've also heard some rumors about the coyote v8 (5.0) getting ecoboost.. which would be absolute insanity for output, considering the n/a version makes over 400hp as is.

That's awesome news. I know the EB is in the MkS, but I wasn't very impressed for premium being paid, and like you said...essentially a fwd car some engineer decided 'lets make the back 2 go too'.

I agree with that Paul...everything except the crappy handling.
The OL's MKZ amazes me with the way it handles and drives.

Now that mine isn't in the shop once a month, I'm liking it more and more. Just rolled 70k in it as a matter of fact, 44,000 miles in 16 months. It is by far the most comfortable car I've ever driven, earning constraints kept me from going with the MkS, but after more than a year, I'm definitely going with the extra cubic feet next go round. And for the simple fact that I always want more throttle, I want more...but realistically, I'd bet it takes down it's red light opponents 70-75% of the time.