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Gurgeh

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Gurgeh last won the day on January 17

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  1. Yes, sir. You have that exactly right, sir.
  2. Still, seems a bit odd. As opposed to the recent past, Lincoln actually has some new(ish) product to show off. If they could have shown the 2025 Nav, the 2025 Aviator refresh and the all-new Nautilus, I think it would be a presence that would draw some attention. I guess they figured that people can just go to dealerships now to see the new Nautilus and the Aviator refresh has already debuted, and maybe the Navigator's not ready. But still.
  3. Yes, it is the "Fuel Efficiency" widget you can put up on your panoramic screen. It shows when it is in electric-only mode (mainly at launch and during some easy driving intervals) and when not (doesn't mean there's no electric boost going on, only that it's not electric only). It also shows your overall historical MPG number (resettable on the widget screen) and has a circular gauge of 0-40, with a needle pointing at your current estimated MPG as you're driving along.
  4. That's the thing about online forums for specific vehicles. They tend to contain lots of negativity with posts by folks that have experienced a problem. People don't tend to post when something goes right. I don't mean to deny that vehicles can have problems -- all models can have issues, even the most reliable. The more useful question is one you can't generally find answered on those forums: how reliable is a particular vehicle overall?
  5. The luxury market's just a different beast. Trying to get away with cheaper materials because they last longer is a good way of getting out of the luxury market.
  6. Although, since we are talking about EVs here, it can make more sense than with an ICE product. With EV resale values often being a great unknown and with EV technology moving so fast, many new EV owners are logically choosing to put the resale risk on the manufacturer. In general, however, I agree. I don't particularly like leases -- only did one once, and in the end I ended up buying out the vehicle after 3 years so just should have stuck with a purchase. I like to be able to choose when I want to get into a new car rather than having to rush around worrying about the timing of the expiration of my lease.
  7. True, but this thread is about a Lincoln product, and Lincoln, unlike Ford, has been doing quite well there (except for the covid period, when all car sales in China tanked). Lincoln sells more vehicles in China now than North America. I'm not suggesting more imports, but it just seems odd to me that if the work has already been done to develop a better version of a Lincoln product for the Chinese market, that the same version couldn't be made and available here, assuming that the improvements would also work in the North American market.
  8. Meanwhile, over at Morgan Stanley... https://seekingalpha.com/news/4078912-automotive-stocks-upgraded-at-morgan-stanley-ford-is-top-pick " '...After years of peak spending on electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, auto manufacturers are pivoting to capital efficiency and return,' Adam Jonas, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said in a March 13 report. 'Over the past few months, we have seen auto demand trends strongly support our ICE [internal combustion engine] elongation thesis'... "Ford Motor (NYSE:F) is Morgan Stanley’s top stock pick among U.S. carmakers 'on the opportunity for capital discipline and shareholder return...' "
  9. At Lincoln's show-and-tell event in Palm Springs (the embargo on reviews from that event only got lifted today), the engineers there explained more about the hybrid's operation. This, from Car and Driver: "Much of our time was spent behind the wheel of the new hybrid model, a $1500 option on any trim level, and of the two powertrains, it's the one that suits the Nautilus best. It's the same power-split arrangement Ford's used for decades, in this case combining a more powerful version of the turbo 2.0-liter engine–it gains 50 hp and 15 lb-ft thanks to a larger turbocharger—with two electric motors through a planetary gearset. A dog clutch sends 50 percent of the torque to the rear axle as needed." So the extra power in the hybrid set-up seems to come mostly from changes to the base 2.0 turbo engine. Interesting.
  10. You are right on the shared Ford platform issue. In fact, the Edmunds review goes so far as to say, "Now fully divorced from its Ford Edge underpinnings, the next-gen Nautilus has the room to grow into its own, and it does so in a showstopping fashion.... The Lincoln Nautilus has the potential to singlehandedly transform the luxury brand's image. We hope to see the thoughtful and visually impressive new screen in other Lincolns soon." As for the China issue, only one first-drive review I read (forget which one) mentioned it, but as a positive, noting that the build quality and fit-and-finish seemed as good if not better than other Lincoln products. Not all reviews were fully positive. One reviewer obviously wanted a Lincoln product to drive like a BMW, even though that's not what the brand is all about. Several also mentioned something I have noticed in my own hybrid Nautilus. Before the brakes have fully warmed up you will sometimes feel some roughness in the braking as it transitions from regenerative braking to brake-pad braking. They said that the Lincoln engineers who were at the event mentioned they knew about the issue and were working on it. I think the issue might either be a need for a software update or possibly even just getting the vehicle's brakes past the break-in period. There are two more issues the reviewers didn't mention but are known early-production issues. Some higher-trim vehicles seem to have a rattle sound at a certain speed from the back part of the vehicle. Lincoln sent out a notice to their dealers that they were working on a fix that they hoped to have in another month or two, but that the issue was not a safety issue and did not affect drivability so dealers are not supposed to accept the vehicles that reported the issue in for repair yet as they don't yet have a solution. The other issue is that for some the brand new infotainment system has had stability issues. Some have reported parts of it going off or the sound turning off. These can typically be corrected with a reboot of the system by holding the volume knob down for 10 seconds. Software updates to address the infotainment issues are also in the works (one software update for the vehicle has already been pushed through the Nautilus' OTA software update system).
  11. Yep, tons of them now are up stemming from Lincoln's official show-and-tell drive event for the automotive press in Palm Springs.
  12. Note that even with recent pressure on Tesla stock it still has much higher valuation than other top-line technology companies (the so-called "Magnificent 7"), much less other automakers. https://fortune.com/2024/03/13/elon-musk-tesla-growth-company-no-growth-wells-fargo-downgrade/ "...The electric vehicle maker’s growth in its core markets has moderated, Wells Fargo analyst Colin Langan wrote in a note to clients Wednesday, as he downgraded the stock to the equivalent of a sell rating. Langan expects Tesla’s sales volumes to be flat this year and to fall in 2025. "Elon Musk’s company is a “growth company with no growth,” Langan wrote. He highlighted that sales volumes rose only 3% in the second half of 2023 from the first half, while prices fell 5%... "As a pure-play EV company with an eye-wateringly high valuation, Tesla shares have taken a serious hit. The stock has already fallen 29% this year through Tuesday’s close, placing it among the worst performers on the S&P 500 Index... "Even after the decline, the stock still trades at 55 times its forward earnings, compared to the average of about 31 for the Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Price Return Index..."
  13. Exactly. I still remember the sudden surge of MKT sales in its final few months.
  14. ...and the press embargo gets lifted next Thursday. But yikes, with a 3+ month logistics chain needed to get new product from China, if the demand is strong will Ford be nimble enough to respond to it?
  15. The more I think about it, the more I think that February (and probably March) Nautilus sales might end up being outliers. In addition to the dual impact of great deals on remaining 2023 stock and the arrival of the all-new 2024s with their initial hype, there's the fact that there was a substantial backlog of factory orders for the new Nautilus (some, like mine, going back to months before production even began) that are all arriving in a bunch. I do think this product will have legs if Lincoln promotes it well. It is absolutely stunning, the interior is like no other vehicle on the road, and it drives like a dream (especially the hybrid). I'm losing track of the number of people who I see peering at it in parking lots or who come up to me and ask me about it. The smartest thing Lincoln did in packaging the vehicle was including a ton load of standard features, making the lower more affordable trims highly desirable, and then making the hybrid option an affordable stand-alone that can be gotten with any other trim or package. It might not be until April or June until we see if these kinds of sales have legs -- and if Lincoln will be able to respond quickly enough to demand if it stays high, given the long transportation delay.
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