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Is it me or does that back end look a lot like a stubby version of the old Buick Riviera?
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Ford polishes its U.S. luxury brand
Lincoln crossover under way; Mark LT to end
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Ford Motor Co. is moving ahead with plans to build the Lincoln MKT, a stylish crossover that turned heads at the Detroit auto show in January.
A Ford engineer who is working on the program, known internally as D472, said the design work is well under way but, officially, the company says it has not made a final decision on whether to green-light the MKT. On Friday, Ford told The Detroit News it planned to show a production prototype to a consumer panel the following day to further refine the design and figure out where to position the vehicle in the market.
"We're showing it in front of customers," Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer said. "The company is actively pursuing a luxury crossover for Lincoln."
At the same time, The News has learned from a dealer source that Ford sent a letter to Lincoln franchise owners last month informing them that the company plans to stop production of the Lincoln Mark LT pickup at the end of this model year. Ford confirmed the authenticity of the letter and said it is eliminating the luxury pickup to make room for a new high-end version of the F-150 called the Platinum Edition.
Both moves are part of an effort to refocus the Lincoln brand and make it a serious contender again in the luxury space -- first in the United States, then in select global markets.
Fixing Lincoln is a big part of CEO Alan Mulally's strategy for turning Ford around. While he has decided to sell off foreign luxury brands like Jaguar and Land Rover to focus the company's resources on rebuilding its core Blue Oval brand, Mulally said he believes Lincoln remains an important part of the Ford equation.
Lincoln sales were up more than 9 percent last year, bucking the trend at a company that has been unable to halt a decade-long decline in U.S. market share.
"Lincoln has some momentum now," Schirmer said. "The future has to be a broad lineup of luxury products -- the right products in the right segments."
For many years, Lincolns were dismissed as rebadged Fords. The automaker began reviving the brand with vehicles like the MKZ and MKX, but they still bore a strong similarity to the Ford products on which they were based, the Fusion and the Edge. Later this year, Ford will begin shipping the first Lincoln in years that stands out as a distinctively different automobile: the MKS, its new flagship sedan.
The MKT is based on the same underlying architecture as the new Ford Flex, but the two bear no resemblance.
"It's a very important vehicle for getting Ford back into that luxury segment and making Lincoln credible again," said analyst Erich Merkle of IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids. "They haven't really had the right product for the market."
He tracks production plans for all of the major automakers and expects Ford to introduce the MKT in May 2009.
Jim Hall of 2935 Analytics LLP in Birmingham does not expect the MKT to be a major volume vehicle for Lincoln, but he said it is important because it is part of a segment that is still being defined. "It's a high-image niche vehicle that shows off the Lincoln face," he said. "The best thing that could happen for them is if they could pull buyers from areas they don't expect."
Ford is benchmarking the MKT against luxury three-row crossovers from brands like BMW and Infiniti. That is significant, because the concept Ford showed in Detroit was a spacious two-row crossover. Hall said the production version was always going to offer three rows of seating, which he said it needs to be competitive.
Lincoln crossover under way; Mark LT to end
Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Ford Motor Co. is moving ahead with plans to build the Lincoln MKT, a stylish crossover that turned heads at the Detroit auto show in January.
A Ford engineer who is working on the program, known internally as D472, said the design work is well under way but, officially, the company says it has not made a final decision on whether to green-light the MKT. On Friday, Ford told The Detroit News it planned to show a production prototype to a consumer panel the following day to further refine the design and figure out where to position the vehicle in the market.
"We're showing it in front of customers," Ford spokesman Mark Schirmer said. "The company is actively pursuing a luxury crossover for Lincoln."
At the same time, The News has learned from a dealer source that Ford sent a letter to Lincoln franchise owners last month informing them that the company plans to stop production of the Lincoln Mark LT pickup at the end of this model year. Ford confirmed the authenticity of the letter and said it is eliminating the luxury pickup to make room for a new high-end version of the F-150 called the Platinum Edition.
Both moves are part of an effort to refocus the Lincoln brand and make it a serious contender again in the luxury space -- first in the United States, then in select global markets.
Fixing Lincoln is a big part of CEO Alan Mulally's strategy for turning Ford around. While he has decided to sell off foreign luxury brands like Jaguar and Land Rover to focus the company's resources on rebuilding its core Blue Oval brand, Mulally said he believes Lincoln remains an important part of the Ford equation.
Lincoln sales were up more than 9 percent last year, bucking the trend at a company that has been unable to halt a decade-long decline in U.S. market share.
"Lincoln has some momentum now," Schirmer said. "The future has to be a broad lineup of luxury products -- the right products in the right segments."
For many years, Lincolns were dismissed as rebadged Fords. The automaker began reviving the brand with vehicles like the MKZ and MKX, but they still bore a strong similarity to the Ford products on which they were based, the Fusion and the Edge. Later this year, Ford will begin shipping the first Lincoln in years that stands out as a distinctively different automobile: the MKS, its new flagship sedan.
The MKT is based on the same underlying architecture as the new Ford Flex, but the two bear no resemblance.
"It's a very important vehicle for getting Ford back into that luxury segment and making Lincoln credible again," said analyst Erich Merkle of IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids. "They haven't really had the right product for the market."
He tracks production plans for all of the major automakers and expects Ford to introduce the MKT in May 2009.
Jim Hall of 2935 Analytics LLP in Birmingham does not expect the MKT to be a major volume vehicle for Lincoln, but he said it is important because it is part of a segment that is still being defined. "It's a high-image niche vehicle that shows off the Lincoln face," he said. "The best thing that could happen for them is if they could pull buyers from areas they don't expect."
Ford is benchmarking the MKT against luxury three-row crossovers from brands like BMW and Infiniti. That is significant, because the concept Ford showed in Detroit was a spacious two-row crossover. Hall said the production version was always going to offer three rows of seating, which he said it needs to be competitive.
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