A Horse With No Name

Registered and looked at the car, that is a MUCH more flattering photograph of the Conti. Noticed that it seemed to have outsold the Audi flagship, Fantastic start and my congrats to Ford! These also seem to be conquest sales, as the passenger car total for Lincoln is up almost the exact amount of Conti sales.

Excellent. One reason that they are at the top of the luxury car game.

He is in the minority.

Leasing is up across the board. Also, compacts are much nicer and much more highly contented.

...and it seems to be a decent car.

Love the art deco styling on the Studebaker also.

Would love to go back to the fifties in many ways. Actually more interested in tried cars than I ever have been.

Love the list. And I learned something...never knew an actual Pontiac beat the Ferrari GTO in sanctioned Motorsports.

Ohhh don't be sorry at all. Fond memories of 962 from vintage races at Mid Ohio, R8 R is gorgeous indeed. Keep them coming.

The Lexus SUV sales were very, very good this month.

Yes, but Tesla bleeds cash on a daily basis. GM is in a much better shape, as is Ford, to take advantage of the market for Hybrids and electrics. VW/Audi technology si weak here, the E- Golf is not a terribly good product, nor is the Leaf.

This is why my thinking is just the opposite of yours on the Conti. Rather than a giant bomb that drops on everyone in the market I think that it is better that it is an evolutionary step forward. Look at the BRZ/Toyota 86/FRS. Fantastic car, and we are lucky to have it. But there was so much hype surrounding it, no car on the planet could match the hype. When it didn't match the hype and people were disappointed, sales tanked. The Conti is too critical for the future of Lincoln for that to happen. And even if I do not like particular elements of this car, Ford Motor Company builds a whole host of fantastic vehicles. The selfish future car buyer in me wants them to be around and thriving for a long effing time to come. In other words, it should hopefully be a car like the Challenger, one that gains sales year in and year out five years after it is introduced...

Indeed....it would be good for the market. Competition would keep cars like the Fiesta St around also. In an ideal world, VW would send us a POLO GTI and Sirroco to bolster their small performance lineup....

...and this is the issue...if we sleep on Hybirid development, the rest of the world will pass us by.

They understand the technology and incorporate it in a rational way into their vehicles. Taking a rabbit trail to Lincoln, the MKZ would be a reasonable and affordable way to get into a luxury hybrid.

Think of the target demographics and the real issues Lincoln marketing people face. Rather than be worried about black chrome, methinks they need to work on raising the bar with company image. Nobody benchmarks themselves against Lincoln, not even Buick. Google Luxury car comparison or recommended Luxury cars and Lincoln is for the most part all but invisible. Most Luxury car buyers will not over analyze the small details of the car the way we do. It is actually probably harder to get a car guy trained as a salesman on a sales floor because they are passionate enough about cars that they get lost in the details and over analyze things. People buy cars based on image and features, not details like black chrome. Not that it wouldn't look fantastic! The eighty thousand dollar part is scary...at that price their are a lot of options. This car makes a lot more sense at the bottom of its price range, not the top.

The other issue to me is one of visual proportion-a larger screen would look a bit out of place in the Conti IMHO.

Agree that it would help their image. I do not trust them to pull it off well though. Back in 2003 one of my best friends and I looked at an SER-Spec V Sentra, Mazdaspeed protege, Focus SVT, and Neon SRT-4. Sentra SER-Spec V was easily the worst of the lot, and not by a small margin. I can't imagine this one being better in terms of actual execution. just being honest. My friend Dave still has the SVT Focus. Highlight of the test drive is when Dave took the entrance ramp to I-270 at a relatively elevated speed and the salesman's face turned a color I had never seen before. Salesman was cool about it....he said "I told you guys to push the car and test it out...." I wonder how much of the younger target demographic would be into a small performance car? I have an 18 and 23 year old sons, most of their friends are not into cars the way people once were. Were they to put a proper effort into pulling that off though....the 90's Nissan small lightweight performance cars were just utterly wonderful. However, the Nissan boys seem to have lost their touch back in the first Clinton presidency....

On the contrary they are doing pretty well for themselves. Lincoln has the oldest buyer demographic by far, at something like 61 or 62 years. Buick has dropped their average buyer age by more than any other premium brand.

Mercedes is doing a lot of impressive work.

Agree completely here.

We can agree there, neither company builds anything I really wish to drive.

Indeed. Before I looked at this thread, i was telling Cmicassa that Chevrolet needed to do more with the Trax....over in the GM sales ticker thread..... I like it also. This is what GM needs to do, have fun with this vehicle in a MINI Cooperish sort of way...before MINI acted goofy and like they were stoned. Would not hurt a bit.

I think this will probably be addressed with the first refresh of the car.