Drew Dowdell

Sept. Chevrolet Volt sales - 2,031 And that's a single model against an entire model lineup.

I like the Lincoln more.

You've got your timeline out of wack. One corporation was in financial distress well before the financial crash hit, that's why they took the steps they did. Three ships were sailing along. The seas were calm and the skies were clear. In spite of the fair weather, one ship had a leak and was taking on water at an alarming rate. Someone in the chain of command recognized this and ordered damage repair teams to address the issue. It would take a lot of work, a lot of reinforcing, and while the repairs were expected to be successful, it would be months or years before the damage was repaired. The other two ships, though decades since being overhauled, nonetheless were operating within acceptable parameters and picking up speed. All three ships kept sailing. A few months later, a massive hurricane entered the three ships' path. On the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale of 1 - 5, this Hurricane was an 8. All three ships took a massive beating in the storm and had their hulls ruptured and were beginning to sink.... two started sink far faster than the first ship was sinking back in the calm days. All three ships sent out distress calls. Due to the severity of the storm, none of the privately run maritime rescue operators were willing or able to come to the rescue. Fortunately, the US Navy also heard the calls and heard the refusal of the private maritime operators to help, so the Navy dispatched a Carrier group. Once the Navy arrived, they found two of the ships so badly damaged that they had to be tied to the Navy vessels to keep them afloat. The Navy provided pumps and some relief crew to both of the badly damaged ships. For one ship, the Navy provided a new captain, a guy with years of experience on the USS American Telephone And Telegraph. For the other, being in international waters, the Navy relied on its Nato Allies and an Italian Cruiser came to help. Allowing the Italian Cruiser to help seems to have been a mistake as it had no rudder, no fuel, and only baloney for supplies. The third ship, while it was not sinking as fast as the others, it already had its damage control teams in place from the damage it has sustained during the time of the calm seas. And while it didn't need to be strapped to the side of a Navy vessel, nor did it need water pumps, the Captain did take on emergency rations from the Navy and specifically asked the Navy to stick around in case things got worse. You see, the Navy was getting antsy; They didn't want to be in this storm any more than the three ships did. As the Navy worked on the biggest of the three ships, they found that during the storm more than half of the supplies had been so badly damaged they could no longer be used. The Navy ordered the captain of that ship to toss them overboard. Of the eight, three of them promptly were tossed. The forth, when tossed overboard, hit a small exotic sailing craft and sunk it. The Navy, convinced that the only way to save the largest ship was to lighten its load, ordered it to continue to shed weight. The captain of middle ship, the one with only moderate damage, was still nervous. He had good reason to be. You see, even though these ships operated independently, they shared a lot of the same suppliers. If the largest ship and the smallest ship both sank, the companies that sell fuel, food, uniforms, etc to all three would all probably go out of business. If that happened, even if only the middle ship survived the storm, where would it then be able to buy its supplies once the storm had cleared? In the end, the US Navy stabilized the largest ship. The rip in the hull has been repaired better and lighter than new, the water is pumped out, the fuel has been refilled, and it is riding high and steaming forward again. The Italian Cruiser's Captain took over operations of the smallest ship, ate its crew, and is still in the process of sending all of the USDA Grade A Beef back to his Cruiser while loading the smallest ship up with baloney. What crew is left on the smallest ship is hoping the Captain takes a lifeboat soon and takes his baloney with him because it has really stunk up the place. The third ship though, the one that didn't get the same level of assistance from the Navy and preferring to try and go it alone still has issues. Though the hull has been repaired, without the Navy's pumps it is still heavy and low in the water. The crew is still trying to bail the water out of the lower deck by hand and it is slow work. All of the extra reinforcement to the hull makes the ship slow to change speed, slow to react to rudder changes, and really degrades the fuel economy of the ship. Some say it is noble that the middle ship didn't use the Navy's pumps or repair teams. Some say it was smart of the captain to start repairs before the storm ever hit... but it was more self preservation on his part before the storm ever even appeared... and by declining assistance he is still weighted down by stuff from before the storm and a number of stale supplies.

a 1 through 8 naming scheme.... ground breaking....

GM's story is quite different. They were profitable right up till the quarter prior to Bear Stearns collapsing. They didn't go for the financing because at the time they were on a good trajectory. The economy collapsed and everyone tried to survive in their own ways. It wasn't GM or Chrysler's fault.

Chris is generally not "just a person taking pictures". But anyway, he said he was not there for any track or instrumented tests but that nearly everything that passes through C&Ds hands gets evaluated that way.

You don't know Chris, so don't make any assumptions.

Yeah, I know that dealerships swap out wheels often . The photographer in the article, @Chris_Doane is long time member here and I'm friends with him on Facebook. I'll just ask him.

Ah that makes sense. I didn't look at the two cars to look at an apples to apples comparison. $10k is a much more reasonable difference.

City dwellers

Over a Fusion Sport? What else would add to the cost besides interior materials and engine block metal type? They both use a CCD suspension, same AWD system (I see nothing about the MKZ getting the twinster).

Actually, no, everyone does not do it... At least not for on road evaluation drives which is what this car appears to be. When a manufacturer does do it, they often get caught. Furthermore, if this was meant for a track evaluation, why would Lincoln use a car *without* the sports suspension tuning?

No Turbo 3.0 in that. The 3.6 is excellent, but no way it will stand up to the power of the 3.0tt. Though, GM does have a 3.0tt in house that could fit.

Better sound deadening... better leathers... better carpet. It does start to add up. As for the $18k, it all depends on where you're coming from. If Lincoln wants to coax peoples' ES350s out of their cold dead hands, then they need the interior materials do to it. Though I find the interior of the ES so bad these days that even a Fusion Platinum could do it if those same people would get over the badge.

Mags generally test Mustangs and Camaros in every available powertrain configuration. While most people do opt of the lesser models... there is a point to reviews of the ZL-1 and GT350 reviews even though only a small percentage of either will be sold. When you buy a ZL-1 or GT350, you're buying more than just a set of wheels and tires... there are a whole host of upgrades that come with it. Furthermore, journalists know they are testing some high performance machine. As for this MKZ, sure it's got 19s on it, but unless you make a habit of noting the sidewall before you get in and drive, there is no reason to expect the car to be any different than what you'll find on a typical dealer's lot. In this case with the MKZ, Lincoln supplied a car in a configuration that virtually no one will buy and attempted to pass it off as normal. Furthermore, the build sticker on the door jam indicated that the car was originally configured with 18s but whoever manages their press fleet decided to swap out the wheels. When you select the high performance tires though, the suspension gets recalibrated to handle it. This test car didn't have the recalibration...meaning that technically, no, you can't buy this configuration from Lincoln without someone pulling a switcharoo at the dealership. And yet... even configured properly, it is highly unlikely that you will find one of these MKZs at a Lincoln dealership. Lincoln is only building about 300 of these cars per year with this tire package. There are about 325 Lincoln dealerships, so less than one per dealer per year with these tires.

The $18k is primarily in the interior materials. The Fusion sport doesn't feel all that different from a regular old base fusion on the inside. If your only goal is speed, then go with the Fusion Sport... but if you actually want some luxury materials in your over $33k car, then go with the MKZ.

Because as journalists, our job is to report our findings on cars as people would actually use them. It's precisely why I got into this business. I would see stupid comparisons of Lincoln Continentals and BMW 5-series in slalom runs... as if 1) Any Lincoln buyer 15 years ago cared about slalom times and 2) Any 5-series buyer was cross shopping a Continental. Years ago I got mad at Cadillac for sending me an SRX in a configuration that had already been canceled... what's the point of writing a review on a product that people were no longer going to be able to buy? In the case of this MKZ, what's the point of writing a review (except perhaps as a sidebar) of a vehicle that virtually no one will buy?

Remember when they rated the Hummer poor because people complained about fuel economy? I'm not saying that Hummers were bastions of reliability... but come on... to rate a Hummer poor based on fuel economy is to miss the point entirely.

Talk about cars not people.

On the tire thing. This is what I was referencing. Edmunds accused Ford of a "ringer" in 2012 by putting .... wait for it.... Michelin Pilot Super Sports on an MKZ for the Press Fleet... an addition that allowed the MKZ to beat an M5 through the slalom. However, while it is correct that the MKZ is technically available with them, less than 1% of MKZs came so equipped. So rather than give a realistic view of the car, Lincoln hands the press a Ringer that isn't one based on a technicality. Based on that percentage... it means about 300 MKZs out of the ~34k sold per year are equipped with these tires. So really, the review should have the disclaimer "Results not typical".

Fine, I stand corrected on that irrelevant point. See how easy that is? Do you still try to maintain that Ford got and needed no help?

No... saying that Ford did it on it's own is ignoring evidence to the contrary. I'm not concerned with how many cars Honda sold in C4C... only that Ford got a huge boost from selling 90,000 cars, which is diametrically opposed to "weathered the financial crash on their own". As is the thousands of Focii and Fusions that Uncle Sam bought at basically full price not the same as "Ford got through on their own". Ford weathered the storm because they were actually in enough financial trouble before the meltdown that they mortgaged everything up to and including the name on the door. Not the same as "doing it on their own". Just admit that Ford did require some help and we have no argument here. Irrelevant to my point.

There are three people who are ruining this site for everyone.... making it miserable for even me to visit..... For years I've had a policy of not banning people unless they built up a certain amount of warning points. I am rethinking that policy now.

The government screwed the American tax payer by deciding to sell GM stock when they did. Ford benefited hugely by selling cars to the government that they couldn't sell to the public for MSRP. When is the last time someone paid sticker price for a Focus? Oh... sometime in 2008 and his name was Uncle Sam and he bought many thousands of them. A bailout by any other name is still a bad deal on a Focus. Also... 90,000 Fords were purchased under Cash for Clunkers... second only to Toyota. Sure helps to move cars when Uncle Sam is paying for your incentive program.

Again... that is exactly my point. I'm not saying that there isn't a cost increase to do multiple variations of trucks.... I'm saying that the big three all have roughly the same number of variations. Where GM has to stamp 2 extra fenders, Ford has multiple different bumper setups and actually a greater number of grilles than GM. On the GM's, the interiors are identical with only the trim material (not the trim shape) being different. So even with all of the variants available from all of the above, in GM's case... there is just an extra badge in the mix that sells at a premium.