campbell53

The system won't allow a sale to be punched before a certain time (like before a build date). This is most likely an error. Cmax are hard enough to get that pre reporting one isn't going to help much. That sale is most likely rescinded by now.

I personally drive an Escape and I can drive any Ford Lincoln on my lot. We are pulling people out of the old body style and putting them in the new model faster than I can get product. I am buying loads from other dealers to keep up. From where I sit Escape is a huge success. I think the styling is just fine and I can't honestly recall a customer telling me otherwise. I think that article is BS.

As a dealer I go back and forth. MKZ is a very nice car. Is it a savior car...probably not. The rest of the line up sucks. My year over year sales are down 200+%. At this point I am not even making the assumption that Lincoln sales will help support my bottom line (God bless F150, Fusion and Escape!) I just hope that Lincoln can get it together and produce a desirable line up like Ford was able to do. Essentially the same people in charge. But the future is very rocky at this point in time....and that is on Ford/Lincoln. Not the dealers. Give me good product and I will sell the crap out of it. The future will not be kind to the current Lincoln offerings. MKT is abysmal. Actually an embarrassment .

I saw it a couple months ago and was disappointed in how much it looked like Escape. Maybe can't be helped it but none the less I was hoping for more.

Redesigned won't do it for me, my customers or Lincoln. We need NEW vehicles to compete. The Taurus/MKS platform is too confining for people to love. In addion to being butt ugly the MKT has very poor rear head room and that cannot be fixed with a redesign. Unless you put a bubble on the roof. Those two models are disastrous for Lincoln as a brand. Listen...I am around these models every day. I hear what customers and my sales staff say about them every day. I know what I am talking about. I am hopeful for Lincoln but it is slipping away rapidly at this point.

I would rather have that than the abominations we have now. That I have to sell the MKT is just plain embarrassing . The MKS is not much better. I'd rather have ANYTHING than those two models. Please I am begging.

And should I be using my MKT profits to pay for all of this? Or my Navigator profits? Or my MKS profits? Trick question because there are not any profits to speak of in these lines. Can't shoot for the moon with no ammo.

This hits the nail on the head. Not interested in spending a fortune on my facility when I don't see the same commitment from Lincoln . They will eventually ramp their requirements so high that the smaller Lincoln dealers will be squeezed out. This feels very intentional. Also I disagree that Lincoln is currently building 'class leading' cars. Maybe the new MKZ but nothing yet makes me drool over being a Lincoln dealer.

Saw pic of MKC at Lincoln meeting this week. Less impressed than I was when I saw new MKZ. Less distinction than I had anticipated. But will still fill a volume hole that Lincoln does not compete in currently.

Never underestimate the motivation of the factory. When times are bad we are their 'partners'. When times are good they try to dictate all phases of the game. Every 10 years or so they do something self serving..i.e. Ford owned dealer groups. Imagine if all those wasted millions had been spent on Lincoln vehicles.

I meant Ford-Lincoln dual dealers.

I have serious reservations about the 80% Ford dealers willing to build stand alone Iincoln stores. There was such push back on modifying existing buildings to suit Lincolns new standards that most of it was scrapped. No one from Ford asked me but that the dealer body just suddenly rolled over for a $1m+ investment in Lincoln sounds sketchy. I do, however, have reservations about this so called name change. Is this just an excuse to call it a 'new' franchise and therefore weed out franchise points they don't like? The Lincoln meeting next month in Las Vegas just got a whole lot more interesting.

I brought the lack of a minivan (and losing customers for years to the Odyssey) up at the Ford Dealer meeting in Chicago last week. In front of hundreds of dealers that I suspect secretly agreed with me I got the standard answers 1) sales are / have been shrinking presumably making it not financially prudent to remain in the segment 2) transaction prices were too low and the Flex ramped up those prices 3) pay attention to the next session as they would talk about the Transit as if that would suffice to be anything other than a commercial vehicle. They did however admit that Flex has failed to meet volume expectations. As a dealer I am ready to sell something to my friends, family and customers that I have lost/and will lose to the traditional minivan.

Off lease vehicles are non existant. The few that are out there Ford wants a fortune for. No help there.