Back in the mid-'90s, Lincoln was riding high. Ford’s
primo brand was actually outselling GM’s Cadillac
division, which at the time was purveyor of stolid starter caskets
to the AARP crowd.
It was Lincoln that birthed the idea of taking a
big SUV from the lower-key Ford line, chroming everything that
wasn’t plastic and then reselling it as a kind of 4x4 McMansion to
go into the garages of actual McMansions.
You know, the Navigator.
On the strength of this monster hit, Lincoln became A
Number One, the Duke of New York (and the rest of America,
too).
Then… nothing.
Well, nothing but miscues and debacles like the Blackwood,
Aviator, and Mark LT. And misfires like the coulda-been-a-contender
LS sedan. That one was genuinely sad. Not because the car was a
stinker, but because it wasn’t — and because of what it
might have been. It was good-looking — and it was
rear-wheel-drive, with a manual transmission available. Instead of
developing it, Lincoln just dropped it.
Lincoln built lemons — while Cadillac built a better
Navigator out of the Chevy Tahoe — and then upped the ante by
revamping its entire passenger car lineup to appeal to people who
have not fallen and can’t get up.
Now Cadillac is A Number One.
But Lincoln is apparently not croaked yet. At the Detroit
Auto Show, Ford CEO Alan Mulally announced a $1 billion commitment
to Lincoln’s revival, and showed the press a new concept car that
bears the “DNA” of seven soon-to-be-here Lincoln models, the first
reportedly based on the show car and scheduled for production circa
2014.
That’s good to hear — but unfortunately, the new car has
an old name: MKZ.
There is already an MKZ in Lincoln showrooms and the
problem is it’s not leaving Lincoln showrooms. At least,
nowhere near enough of them are leaving showrooms. In 2011, about
27,529 MKZs found buyers.
Total Lincoln production for the year — that is, all of
Lincoln’s current models combined — added up to just
85,643 units.
It’s a small number in such a big market.
Part of the reason why is the current MKZ is too obviously
a Ford Fusion with a higher price tag. A much higher price
tag: $34k to start vs. about $20k to start for the mere Ford. Just
as the current MKS is a tarted-up Taurus. And the MKX is a
not-well-disguised Ford Edge.
Cadillac, meanwhile, went clean sheet and renamed
its new models — none of which (other than the Escalade SUV)
shared any “DNA” with mere Chevys. For whatever reason, the public
accepts badge-engineered big SUVs like the Tahoe-Suburban
based Escalade (and the Expedition-Navigator, which Lincoln of
course still sells). But when it comes to cars, not so
much.
Cadillac tried badge-engineering at a distance by
smuggling in a rebadged European GM (Opel), the Catera — calling
it the “Caddy that zigs.”
Except it didn’t sell.
It was only when Cadillac brought out all-new (and
Cadillac-exclusive) models like the CTS that the joint really began
to jump.
Can Lincoln turn things around?
Time will tell, of course — but it’s not going to be easy
or inexpensive. The lux market is even more competitive now than it
was in the '90s — when the big-name Japanese players were still
second-tier players.
The MKZ show car has presence. It looks the
part.
It reminds me of the last Lincoln car I had any interest
in — the '80s-era Mark VII. That car was a looker and a
runner.
And so, it sold.
Then Lincoln screwed the pooch with the Mark VIII - a
bathtub-looking oddity that never caught on and which ended up
killing off what had been a very successful franchise. Arguably,
Lincoln’s demise as a premium car brand can be traced back to the
disastrous redesign of the Mark series — which ended with the
cancellation of the slow-selling Mark VIII after a mediocre
five-year run in 1998. Lincoln never recovered its mojo and other
than the Navigator blip, it’s been a slow-slide into also-ran
status for Ford’s once-proud luxury nameplate.
So, here’s to hoping the 2014 MKS is more than a really
nice next gen Fusion.
And maybe change the name, too.
