Do you think Ford would ever get rid of the Lincoln brand?

[rusty813]

I as customer think Lincoln is nice, but at the same time way over priced. You pay close to 60k for a fully loaded navigator, but you can get a fully loaded expedition for 50k with exact same options. If I was to dump that much on money on a lincoln that doesn't have anything special and using the exact same parts as the expedition. I would rather get a porsche cayman. What do you guys think?

 

[Boomyal]

Ford already had that debate and Lincoln stayed. With Mercury gone, if Ford were to let the Lincoln brand go away, Ford would be pretty skinny.

My wife has a 2005 LS. It is really a nice car. Underneath it looks like a Mercedes or a BMW and it drives like one too. Too bad it never fully caught on even though I see quite a few of them up here in the PNW.

Her car is now almost nine years old with close to 60K mixed miles on it. It is still like a new car and the only problem it had was one COP that Ford replaced for free under the 50k emissions warranty. The first set of tires lasted 50k and the front brake pads lasted 55K. It is still on it's original plugs and it is the 3.9L V8. She averages a little over 17 mpg and it will get about 27 mpg on the fwy.

 

[rusty813]

I agree with you on the 2005-2010 models, ford owned great brands such as jaguar, aston martin, volvo. That what made lincoln ls a great. They incorporated parts into the lincoln from higher end luxury vehicles, made the lincoln name marketable. Now when you buy a lincoln your just buying the a ford vehicle with different logo, and paying twice as much for it.

 

[Flag Gibby]

Don't know about the whole pricing/quality thing now, shoot the bodies don't even look the same on the front end now with the redesign. The order guide for the newly redesigned navigator just came out last week and a Ford Expedition King Ranch series is priced higher than a Navigator and the other thing to keep in mind is that options wise the Navigator does have a better luxury build to it now than an Expedition (not including KR model) and no such thing as a bare bones model so of course it is going to cost on average 10K more.
As far as getting rid of the Lincoln brand, no, not going to happen since ford doesn't own any other luxury brands anymore (as mentioned above).

 

[thebrakeman]

I think they are actually doing a pretty good job making the Lincoln sheet metal look different from Fords using the same platform. Expedition/Navigator isn't exactly a new beast, and there's only so much you can do with 2 SUV's using the F150 bits.

But look at the Fusion compared to the MKZ, or the Taurus compared to the MKS. Side profiles are quite similar, but coming/going, each are very distinguishable. I also think you end up with certain things in a Lincoln that you won't get in a Ford. Leather is likely of higher quality. Glass thickness and other sound-proofing. No matter how you option the Ford, you won't get certain think like that.

 

[rusty813]

I think they are actually doing a pretty good job making the Lincoln sheet metal look different from Fords using the same platform. Expedition/Navigator isn't exactly a new beast, and there's only so much you can do with 2 SUV's using the F150 bits.

But look at the Fusion compared to the MKZ, or the Taurus compared to the MKS. Side profiles are quite similar, but coming/going, each are very distinguishable. I also think you end up with certain things in a Lincoln that you won't get in a Ford. Leather is likely of higher quality. Glass thickness and other sound-proofing. No matter how you option the Ford, you won't get certain think like that.

I don't care about the leather or glass proofing which is nice to have, but the engine is important to me as a buyer. You don't want to pay for 60k for the same engine that you are getting in the expedition. What company actually does a good job distinguishing between their brands is nissan and infinity. Before ford and lincoln used to be like that, you are buying a lincoln because it has a high performance engine.

 

[thebrakeman]

I as customer think Lincoln is nice, but at the same time way over priced. You pay close to 60k for a fully loaded navigator, but you can get a fully loaded expedition for 50k with exact same options. If I was to dump that much on money on a lincoln that doesn't have anything special and using the exact same parts as the expedition. I would rather get a porsche cayman. What do you guys think?

I was only responding to your comments. You may not care about thicker glass and such things, but in many cases, Lincolns & Fords do not have "exact same options/parts".

 

[thebrakeman]

I don't care about the leather or glass proofing which is nice to have, but the engine is important to me as a buyer. You don't want to pay for 60k for the same engine that you are getting in the expedition. What company actually does a good job distinguishing between their brands is nissan and infinity. Before ford and lincoln used to be like that, you are buying a lincoln because it has a high performance engine.

I understand your point. And perhaps (perhaps!) that is part of the plan behind Ford creating (resurrecting?) the "Lincoln Motor Company". Perhaps things currently in the pipeline will diverge from the Ford platforms. I doubt it. A large corporation like Ford will always play the cost game of shared platforms and major components.

I have heard that Ford wants to make Lincoln exclusively use the Ecoboost motors, which (until the 2015 Expedition) are always optional on the Ford brands.

Also consider CAFE and other requirements. Putting the Ecoboost V6 in all Expeditions/Navigators in 2015 (and dropping the V8 option completely) is going to be a huge boost to fleet-average fuel economy. Not a good thing for those like you that want a premium brand to have the premium engine exclusively. But it's understandable. They have the best of both worlds with these turbo motors....performance and economy.

I salute them!