Drew Dowdell

Naturally, I'll drive them all.... I'll even consider the 'Nox diesel. I'm not super concerned about MPGs... I primarily work from home now and Albert just got a new job with a much shorter commute. When I do take a road trip, power getting over the mountains with the inlaws and luggage in back is more important to me than mpg. And again... even a JGC V6 does pretty well in that regard. I was rushing around in the Encore yesterday and the lack of power (after driving a 300C V6 all week) was annoying me to no end. Chrysler will be down to one vehicle. Dodge is probably going to lose Durango. Already lost the Dart. Probably going to lose the Challenger and possibly Charger.... And it is all Sergios doing as he tries to rebuild the failed brands of Alfa and Fiat. If you need any more proof... it's right there in the name.... Fiat-Chrysler-Automotive.... Fiat comes first.

Indeed... I would like to see the 3.0TT in the Lacrosse at least. I don't think the Impala needs it while SS is around.

It was hinted to me at LA that the next Terrain would be smaller than the new Equinox. Don't know how true that is.... but then you'd have and Even/Odd situation on sizes at GMC Buick Dealerships... Going up in size... - Encore/Terrain/Envision/Acadia/Enclave/Yukon/Yukon XL That doesn't sound like a bad situation for them.

SUV/CUV doesn't matter.... Cadillac has 3.... period. You can't say that Benz has X number while counting the GLS and then turn around and say the Escalade doesn't count because it is body on frame.

I wouldn't call an Impala premium, but I would call it one of the best large family cars in the segment. I'd say that possibly only the Avalon challenges it in that regard. The Avalon is so good that I think it is probably a better overall value buy than an ES, but that says more about the ES than the Avalon, I really dislike the current ES and it is a complete letdown as a Lexus. Still... there are cheap bits in the Impala that aren't there in a Lacrosse or XTS..... I notice them because it is my job to.

This is a very good point. This is why they kept cranking out Cavaliers even when no one was buying them because they had to pay the Union workers basically full pay regardless..... the question is, why didn't they cut back on shifts, etc, before the inventory got this large?

You don't seem to recognize that there is a middle. That middle is where Buick, some Lexus, some Toyota, some Acura, some VW, some Nissan, some Hyundai that Ford, at the moment, does not. $37k is the MSRP for a Fusion Platinum, and as good as the platinum is, there are a lot of fantastic players at that price. $37k gets you into a Regal GS or a nicely appointed Lacrosse Preferred, or Lexus IS, or VW CC, or Toyota Avalon, or Hyundai Azera, Kia Amanti, or Maxmia SR, or a heck of a lot of Acura TLX. The primary difference between these cars and the Fusion Platinum is that they aren't cars that start at $22k and as such the bones of their interior and overall build is built to a higher standard. For the moment, Lincoln addresses that by pricing the MKZ just at the very top of Fusion territory.... but if Lincoln wants to move up, as they should, eventually they'll need to abandon this practice and move the base Lincolns higher than the top end Fords. The Taurus SHO is $42k and the base Continental is $44k. I'd like to see the MKZ, MKX, and Continental move up significantly in price and drop the current base configurations to help add some prestige to the brand, but then that leaves gaps in the Ford lineup.

And I actually disagree that GM can't handle two luxury brands. Buick can take the sumptuous soft luxury route with sexy cars like Avenier and Avista which have no pretense on ultimate sportiness but still provide swift acceleration, Cadillac can take on the Germans with hard edge performance luxury. I don't think that's what GM intends though. Buick is going to be catering to the tastes of China with the US only as an afterthought. Then the Europeans get their say...... If it's what the Chinese and Europeans like, that's what we'll get in the US.

And Ford can only move so far due to Lincoln. The Fusion Platinum is a fantastic upgrade for a family car, but there are still lots of base Fusion parts on the interior. Quilted leather is very nice, but then the carpet was still the rental grade stuff, door panels are still the same as a base fusion except for the quilted parts.... stuff like that.

Past performance is no indicator of future performance. We're talking about where Lincoln and Buick are today. Is Lincoln on the move? Absolutely. Are they there yet? No. There will be a time, I hope, that Lincoln is back to its former glory and well above Buick in "premiumness"..... that day is not today. Of the Ford premium vehicles, only the F-150 and Explorer really bring it to Buick. The Buick Enclave is about to be refreshed to bring it even higher. The Lacrosse is a much more luxurious place to spend time than a Fusion Platinum.... even the previous Lacrosse was.

It looks like it is at least as big as the current model, so it's not downsized like the Acadia.

Actually, I'm using your own argument to support mine. If Continental competes with the $10k more expensive CT6 directly, then most of the Buick brand competes with all of the Lincoln brand under that same logic. So basically, if you want to insist that $10k price difference doesn't matter, fine, but then that brings Buick and Denali into the argument too.

it's fine... it took me a while to type that on my phone

Buick sells more Regals globally (not even counting Insignia which adds another ~75k to the total) than Lincoln sells vehicles. And generally, Buick sells more vehicles globally in one month than Lincoln does in an entire year. Yes there is a price difference on those global cars... But even in just the US, Enclave sales alone (which is inside of Lincoln's price range) are 50% of the Lincoln brand total for the year. Even if you take out Encore and Verano, count only Regal, LaCrosse, Cascada, Envision, and Enclave.... Buick is ahead by about 10,000 units.

As I said. I know more than you think I do.

That's not how ATP by brand works. Total transaction $ amount for all sales divided by total number of transactions. It doesn't matter is ESV is counted separately or not.

I think you'd have more of a problem with Ford's social media policy than me. With regards to the rest, I already know more than you think I do and I haven't done anything with it.

One SUV sells that high, and while Escalade sales are good, there aren't enough of them to pull the ATP that high on its own. We already know XTS is dead man walking at this point. It gets one small refresh and that's it.

Good luck with everything. I certainly know the pressure. I'll be back a lot more over the next few weeks @Frisky Dingo, so hopefully I can perk things up for you.

Wouldn't you get in on a manufacturer badge? Unfortunately, there is a conflict of interest that I would need to consider when editing your submissions.... and you might not be happy about my editing.

No, the XTS is only $800 more than the Continental... that's not a significant enough difference to matter in this segment.... for the purposes's of argument the Continental and XTS are base priced the same.

I don't have stats by model, but Cadillac has one of the highest ATPs in the entire segment, beating even BMW and Audi.. so I'm betting that they're beating Lincoln too. JDN is on record saying that he's fine with lower volume as long as profits and ATP are up. Selling "the most" isn't as important to him as selling "the most profitable". It's exactly the opposite of MB which is now whoring out the Benz name for $275 a month with zero down just to chase volume. The Continental is likely to be the highest contributor to Lincoln's ATP increase since Navigator sales are so low (just 677 units last month). I've stated before, I don't mind if Lincoln or Cadillac have lower sales as long as they have premium priced sales. I don't want everyone on the block having a Cadillac or Lincoln because then if I buy one, it isn't as special. It's the same reason I didn't buy a 3-series back in 2004... you can't drift a Mustang in Pittsburgh without hitting a pack of 323xi. Back in 2004 they were as common as a Civic or Grand Am.

With this latest ice storm, even our AWD vehicles struggled to get up our driveway. Whatever we get next time, I'm going back to a V6 or better for the Encore replacement. Even a Grand Cherokee 4x4 V6 can maintain 27mpg highway.... and the Encore is 32ish.. The CR-V tops out at 27mpg if I'm gentle on it. The CR-V will be replaced with a truck and the GM full-sizers can get into the low 20s.. That's not a big enough increase in MPGs for me to be satisfied with the lack of power.

It does appear to be a success so far. I certainly wouldn't refuse a Continental out of my driveway.

Not hard to do at a $10,000 discount to the Cadillac.