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Ideas to save the Continental


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I’m a long time american car buyer, mostly Ford. I was pretty amped to see that Ford was bringing the Continental back. When I saw the pics of the first test cars I was impressed. The car in dark blue is just fantastic. Now I’ve seen the car on the road and I still like it. The front fascia needs some rework but all other angles to me look great. I was recently at Gulfstream Race Track in S. Florida and in the valet area they had many beautiful cars parked up front including Ferrari, Mercedes, etc. Right in the middle was a Continental and it looked awesome. It blows my mind that buyers are willing to go buy a Hyundai Genesis but not a Lincoln. I was really dissapointed to hear that Continental production could potentially be ended as early as 2020.

Before Ford eats their over 1B investment, here are my suggestions to implement immediately to see if they can drive more buyers.

1. Increase the warranty to 5 years, 60k miles. This will cover most buyers for the entire period of their financed ownership.

2. Offer ridiculous low lease rates with great support plans. Get more Continentals on the roads as soon as possible.

3. Create a super aggressive trade in program for competitive take outs. Give 5-10k above market.

4. Start seeding the car with social influencers and market it like crazy.

5. Add the 6 cylinder turbo to every level except a fleet car offering. The car needs power, but don’t charge 15k more for it.

6. Add the suicide doors! Every person who watched the Entourage show just loved how iconic the Continental was with its unique doors. This feature will set the continents apart from every other lux sedan. I don’t count rolls which has suicide doors.

7. Revamp the Lincoln dealerships. This has probably already started.

those are my ideas. What are yours?

 

Edited by Woodwardclassics
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22 hours ago, Woodwardclassics said:

1. Increase the warranty to 5 years, 60k miles. This will cover most buyers for the entire period of their financed ownership.

  • Fair, that should be a given for a top-tier flagship.

2. Offer ridiculous low lease rates with great support plans. Get more Continentals on the roads as soon as possible.

  • For a lease, they can only offer the difference on what the car is worth (residual) at the end of the lease.  Anything on top of that cuts into margins. If the car has to be discounted to the point it isn't going to make money, what's the point?

3. Create a super aggressive trade in program for competitive take outs. Give 5-10k above market.

  • Again, if Ford offers 5-10k over market value for a vehicle, that money has to come from somewhere.  Namely, the margin on the vehicle they are selling Again,  if the car isn't going to make money, what's the point?

4. Start seeding the car with social influencers and market it like crazy.

  • OK, though this should be marketing for any car really in this day and age.

5. Add the 6 cylinder turbo to every level except a fleet car offering. The car needs power, but don’t charge 15k more for it.

  • Agreed.

6. Add the suicide doors! Every person who watched the Entourage show just loved how iconic the Continental was with its unique doors. This feature will set the continents apart from every other lux sedan. I don’t count rolls which has suicide doors.

  • Big gamble on a car that isn't selling already. That would not be cheap from a development standpoint.  However, it is one of those things where if Ford decides on a 2nd gen, go big or go home.

7. Revamp the Lincoln dealerships. This has probably already started.

  • This is a bit outside the Continental discussion and the brand as a whole.

 

 

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Does Ford really need to "save" Continental?

I'm guessing the business case being based on CD4 is pretty good as is. Ford may not be making tons of money but I also think it is not losing money like crazy the way Cadillac must be bleeding red ink on all its cars.

Cheap lease is fine but what is the objective? If the goal is the save the current gen Continental, then giving up the margin to move metal accomplishes nothing. If the goal is the save the nameplate, cheap short term fixes (like giving the car away) does more damage than good.

The car that really needs saving is Taurus... Ford kind of whiffed in China with the car and it is treading water. Meanwhile GM is doing much better with Buick Lacrosse. The only reason Ford hasn't pull the plug on Taurus in China is that it is built on the same assembly line as Edge so there is no incremental fixed costs to keep selling it. I wouldn't bet on it coming back, especially if Ford eventually gives up on Mondeo too.

Edited by bzcat
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MKZ Cannet the Continental. Cars with designs nearby, being the MKZ with the best cost benefit with 3.0 TT 400hp. Frankly, I don't see any differences between MKZ and Continental. The name itself should raise more personality. should be CD6 RWD

Edited by RadicalX
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Relatively speaking, Continental is not a terrible seller for the segment, but it's also selling in fewer numbers than vehicles with higher price tags.  The big problem for Continental and CT6 is that they are not sold in significant global volumes like most of their competitors.  They just aren't getting enough total sales to return their investments and to continue funding future investments.  Sales will only continue to go down no matter what they do, even if it's spectacular in every possible way.

The solution for Continental certainly isn't boosting sales at any cost, that's not how business works.  People will either pay what they are worth, or they won't.  They don't need their business otherwise and exclusivity is still very valuable.

Continental may continue on in some other product that's hard to imagine right now, but presumably appropriate.  Lincoln still needs an EV flagship, that could be an interesting place for Continental branding.  

Edited by Assimilator
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It would help, but we can't ignore the fairly big technological gaps between Mercedes and Lincoln.  Continental is based on a Ford Fusion which is engineered for cost and scale, not the high tolerances of performance and luxury.   I'm not sure closing the gaps will make the Continental sell any better, but you have to earn a reputation some way and it's really hard to do it against established competition without wasting a ton of money spinning your wheels before you get traction.  I don't think Ford can tolerate loss-leaders at Lincoln, Caddy has been doing it for decades now.   That's where SUVs might help Lincoln find some traction, it's not so established and there is an opportunity to define new customers and innovate freely.  Even if Continental was conspicously under-developed, it did a fairly good job helping to define Lincoln's brand image.

Edited by Assimilator
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16 hours ago, Assimilator said:

Relatively speaking, Continental is not a terrible seller for the segment, but it's also selling in fewer numbers than vehicles with higher price tags.  The big problem for Continental and CT6 is that they are not sold in significant global volumes like most of their competitors.  They just aren't getting enough total sales to return their investments and to continue funding future investments.  Sales will only continue to go down no matter what they do, even if it's spectacular in every possible way.

The solution for Continental certainly isn't boosting sales at any cost, that's not how business works.  People will either pay what they are worth, or they won't.  They don't need their business otherwise and exclusivity is still very valuable.

Continental may continue on in some other product that's hard to imagine right now, but presumably appropriate.  Lincoln still needs an EV flagship, that could be an interesting place for Continental branding.  

I wonder if it'd be worth it to make a flagship SUV in the form of a Cullinan - big, 2 row RWD/PHEV executive type crossover, and call it Conti.   I guess an easy way to look at it would be the Range Rover itself.  Have it be Black Label levels standard - no base models/trims - it comes how it comes, just choose the colors.  Slots in between Aviator and Navigator size wise, but 2 row only, with a price at or above Navigator.

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1 hour ago, rmc523 said:

I wonder if it'd be worth it to make a flagship SUV in the form of a Cullinan - big, 2 row RWD/PHEV executive type crossover, and call it Conti.   I guess an easy way to look at it would be the Range Rover itself.  Have it be Black Label levels standard - no base models/trims - it comes how it comes, just choose the colors.  Slots in between Aviator and Navigator size wise, but 2 row only, with a price at or above Navigator.

Another alternative is to start with the Aviator, shorten it slightly (or not, depending on what the market calls for), take out the 3rd row, make the back seat roomier, have it ride a bit lower and rake the roof a bit more. Then you have something like the Range Rover Velar (relative to the Range Rover Sport or Full Fat Range Rover) or Audi Q8 (relative to the Audi Q7), more an executive car than a family crossover. A number of folks have noted that the Aviator already appears to sit lower than your usual 3-row crossover, giving it more of a car look -- and presumably handling.

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I'm thinking a something like an Audi Q8, but the Mach E is actually strikingly similar to that type of form factor...just smaller and curvier.  I could see a Continental taking on that type of profile, not sure if should be on CD6 or the EV architecture but with the death of sedans at Lincoln, there has to be some space for vehicles lower to the ground with striking profiles.

Edited by Assimilator
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55 minutes ago, Assimilator said:

I'm thinking a something like an Audi Q8, but the Mach E is actually strikingly similar to that type of form factor...just smaller and curvier.  I could see a Continental taking on that type of profile, not sure if should be on CD6 or the EV architecture but with the death of sedans at Lincoln, there has to be some space for vehicles lower to the ground with striking profiles.

If they'd want to get attention and look like they're looking forward, they'd make it an EV (I still find it hard to believe Lincoln wouldn't get a version).

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