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Lincoln Providing Free Pickup/Drop Off On Full Line


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So this only applies to 2017 models? That's what it implies.

 

Yup...you bought your MKX a few months too early. :)

 

 

 

Lincoln adds the luxury segment’s only standard Pickup and Delivery Service across all 2017 nameplates starting with the all-new Lincoln Continental.
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Apparently there are people that find this an attractive benefit. For me, it would be a cold day in H*ll when I let a total stranger drive my car without me in it. Even leaving my car at a dealership would be about as attractive to me as having an internal organ removed. No offense to any auto sales people on the forum!

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Apparently there are people that find this an attractive benefit. For me, it would be a cold day in H*ll when I let a total stranger drive my car without me in it. Even leaving my car at a dealership would be about as attractive to me as having an internal organ removed. No offense to any auto sales people on the forum!

I'm with you man, but it's mostly due to the fact that both of our cars are manuals and I've had a service tech crash one of them before. Im less hesitant to leave it at a dealer since they typically have standards and at my dealer in particular, all of the service managers know how to drive stick even if they don't have any techs that can on that particular day.

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I could probably live with a mature service manager driving my car. My fear would be that it would be the lowest person on the dealer totem pole who would be doing the pick up and delivery and they would likely not be as fussy as I am. The only door ding I ever got was when a tech parked my Lincoln LS too close to another customer's car and they whacked it. Things like that happen and the dealer did a paintless dent removal for free but it wasn't a great experience.

 

Another time I happened to be watching a young dealer employee run a Mustang through their car wash. As he was returning it to the parking area behind the building, he got on it and almost did a complete donut and was laughing his @ss off until he noticed that I saw what he did. He had no idea that I would probably have done the same thing when I was his age. :)

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Well that's "us" but I will say my non-car loving friends find it as a positive. They are at work and do not have the time, and rather have someone take care of it. I usually take my bestfriends cars for service since she lives across the street only because her schedule doesn't allow her to do it (Education slave)....

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I likely wouldn't have them come get it (I don't like others driving my vehicles), but a loaner would be handy. My wife usually just drops our vehicles off at the dealership in the morning, they give her a ride to work, then pick her up after work. Works pretty well and she avoids the long walk from the parking garage. :)

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I can understand Lincoln's motivation for requiring their dealers to provide Lincoln loaner vehicles to their service customers but this is another huge expense for the very low volume franchise. Just think about the initial expense/investment of a Lincoln dealership having to put say 20 Lincoln vehicles into courtesy transportation (loaner) service. Of course, since it's only available to 2017MY Lincoln customers the initial loaner availability will be small yet will increase over time. Ford is already pushing the Ford dealers to purchase and put Ford vehicles into the Ford "loaner" program which is an indication of the sales "bubble" that's looming but that's a different subject. Encourage and push dealerships to buy new vehicles for loaner service, inflating sales artificially, and then take them out of service a few months later with only a few thousand miles and the sell them as used vehicles. Also, Ford/Lincoln dealers are required to have separate service managers and advisors. All while Lincoln continues to tease dealers with the continuous promises of all-new product that is introduced at a trickle's pace.

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I understand your frustration Joey, but not too long ago (back in the early 2000s for sure) Lincoln dealers were required to provide free Lincoln loaners for warranty service. That changed a few years ago to "transportation", so it's not a completely new concept although now it includes maintenance visits.

 

This is the price of competing with Lexus, MB, BMW, Infiniti, Acura, etc. Having Ford and Lincoln loaners is just good business. We had to leave our old Escape at the dealer for 2 weeks to do a 3 day repair (which still wasn't done right but that's another story) so they gave us a free loaner which was an Enterprise rental RAV4. Do you think the Toyota dealer would put you in an Escape?

 

I do think Ford should help subsidize the cost somehow. I also think the Lincoln lineup will be in good shape in 2 more years.

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Mine has always given me a Lincoln loaner, provided I ask for one prior to. He knows I'm a car guy so he will ask what I would like and what better way to get someone to repurchase if they have a good experience with the loaner. I'm very religious on my maintainance so he's aware I'm a good customer in that regard. And they also enjoy my comedy "act" I use to amuse the other employees, (We usually joke that the waiting room at the Lincoln service area looks like the set of the movie "Cocoon").... If you have a positive attitude a leave a good impression, people will make sure to treat you well in return.

 

Thankfully none of their cars have that treaded "Courtney vehicle loaner-blah blah", you see from Infiniti, Benz, Lexus. Usually I see those and I think "No surprise you bought a Benz, its getting fixed". These touches are the cost of doing business and "expected" if they are wanting to separate themselves from Ford.

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I understand your frustration Joey, but not too long ago (back in the early 2000s for sure) Lincoln dealers were required to provide free Lincoln loaners for warranty service. That changed a few years ago to "transportation", so it's not a completely new concept although now it includes maintenance visits.

 

This is the price of competing with Lexus, MB, BMW, Infiniti, Acura, etc. Having Ford and Lincoln loaners is just good business. We had to leave our old Escape at the dealer for 2 weeks to do a 3 day repair (which still wasn't done right but that's another story) so they gave us a free loaner which was an Enterprise rental RAV4. Do you think the Toyota dealer would put you in an Escape?

 

I do think Ford should help subsidize the cost somehow. I also think the Lincoln lineup will be in good shape in 2 more years.

 

Thanks for your reply to my post. It wasn't so much frustration but an observation of the frustration and financial commitment that Lincoln dealers are experiencing while they continue to wait for the all-new Lincoln product that they've been promised for what seems like so many years now. Thankfully for the Lincoln dealerships they're seeing increased sales with the modest vehicle updates so far which has to make the newer Lincoln franchise requirements a bit easier to absorb. And yes, requiring Lincoln dealers to provide Lincoln loaner vehicles is a good and necessary business practice long term. My own dealership was part of the old FRACS (Ford Rent-a-Car System) years ago which was a pain to deal with way back then. The store withdrew from the FRACS program many years ago and started to provide loaners again about 4-5 years ago after using the local Enterprise location for loaners for qualified service customers that qualified via warranty coverage, etc. Unfortunately, our dealership's loaners are older Ford models and there's nothing that I'd actually like to see than our store be able to put customers into new Ford loaner models for the customer experience and potential sales opportunity.

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