Drew Dowdell

Neither does 400hp RWD-based stuff Infiniti Q60 - Averaging 350 a month sales Infiniti Q70 - Averaging 500 a month sales Kia K900 - Averaging 100 a month sales Eqqus - Averaging 100 a month sales BMW 6-series - Averaging 400 a month sales BMW 7-series - Averaging 875 a month sales MB CLS - Averaging 400 a month sales Lexus GS - Averaging 600 a month sales And yet Cadillac XTS - Averaging 2000 a month sales Lincoln MKS - Averaging 660 a month sales All the Continental has to do is sell at the same rate as the MKS does today and it will be in the same sales league as some of the "best" from Germany.

Spotted a Beetle GSR today

How about a 1960s Fatigue Green Nottingham Raleigh with internal 3 Speed fixed Sturmey Archer? Now you're riding in style my friend! gesundheit

It's going to be AWD only.

The first group isn't even trying to compete with the second group. The S80 is out of date, the ES350 is unimpressive and bland... but neither of those issue have to do with driving wheels. Hell yeah I'll take an XTS (V-sport) over a CTS. I'd take it over a dull and harsh riding 5-series also.

That's because Cadillac is trying to not be quiet luxury. They're trying to be BMW.

Ouch, I bet that smarts.

So how about we refrain from calling a car a failure for being FWD based when we haven't even seen the production version yet.....?

LFX is superior.. and U need to stop quoting the 305HP number as it is a FWD only application that U are comparing to Pentastars that come close with RWD vehicles. The comparison U should be making is the RWD GM vehicles to the RWD FCAs 323HP Camaro vs 305 HP Challenger, the GM engine with a 6% advantage. . before the new one arrives giving it a solid 10% advantage with Start/Stop.. and AFM I am not reading all your GM humping, but that peak HP number doesn't mean much when an auomatic Camaro coupe runs the same times as the heavier CHallenger, oops, and the Camaro gets worse FE, tell me again how the LFX is superior? GM humping? When me and GM get together we do a helluva lot more than Hump.. I leave her loins wet and sticky everytime... Chrysler? That Skanky ass whore. Been passed around more times than a 9 year old boy, being advertised as virgin at an ancient Roman bath house... As for fuel economy... Again 2 extra cogs will do that for u... Not to mention the less amount of HP. V6 Challenger could get taken down by effin Corolla lol Let's tone it down a bit please. and I've been able to get that fantastic fuel economy out of 5-speed auto Chargers and 300.

I want to dust off my bike and go riding again. *looks at my travel schedule* I wonder if US Airways will let me put it in the overhead.....

Oh! So you admit that the cause of a sales dud could be something other than which wheels drive the car!?

FWD based and transverse mounting have nothing to do with the luxury of the car... and when 80% of BWW 1-Series owners think their car is FWD that should really tell you something. Your blame is misdirected. You want to pin the failure of certain Lincoln models on the fact that they were front wheel drive, but in fact it was neglect on the rest of the car by Lincoln that caused the demise. When the Continental switched from RWD to FWD in 1988 it went from Zero to Hero. I owned an '85 Continental and really liked the car, but they were an absolute sales dud. When the FWD '88 Continental came on the scene, it was a huge sales surge and success for Lincoln. What happened? Lincoln neglected the car. They left it without refreshes for too long and didn't offer an option of a V8 for the entirety of the first FWD generation. A 140hp V6 in 1988 was questionable and a 160hp V6 in 1994 was suicide. Even the Ford Tempo and Chevrolet Cavalier came with a 140hp V6 in 1994. Also, Lincoln let the interiors of these cars age ungracefully. That, along with wide spread issues with the air suspension turned off a lot of buyers when the 1995 model came around. The MKS is an embarrassment to the brand, not because of which wheels drive the car, but because of the so-called luxury appointments. The second FWD generation ran for 7 years... again neglected by Lincoln with only minor updates and a decidedly unluxury-like interior that could have served duty in the Windstar better than the Continental, the Continental name was put to rest in favor of the Lincoln LS. The switch to RWD couldn't save that car from Lincoln's neglect and it was canceled after 6 years with basically zero updates. The same story repeats itself, nearly verbatim, over at Cadillac. Though Cadillac had the sense to use 8-cylinder engines, the HT4100 was a reliability disaster on top of being low on power. The downsized models in 1986 were not well received, but when the '92 Eldorado and '92 Seville came out, Cadillac was really back in the game. Again sales soared. Again Cadillac ignored. They let the Eldorado go for 10 years with only minor updates. Imagine driving into a Cadillac dealership in 2002 in your 1992 Eldorado and driving out in basically the same car but with zero miles!! The Seville fared better with a redesign and platform change in 1998, but by that time beat the drum beat for Cadillac to become the American BMW was too strong to overcome. The reasons these cars eventually failed has nothing to do with which wheels drove the car. The Catera, the LS, the Mark VIII, the S-Type, the STS, the first SRX, the Q45, the M35/45, the J35, the GS, the K900, and I'm sure more that I'm not remembering, all have failed hard.... and they're all RWD. What matters most is the experience. If the Continental can deliver the luxury Lincoln is promising with AWD and sufficient performance. Buyers will come and not care which way the engine is facing. The 1-Series is BMW overreaching because they need the extra sales volume to remain viable as a large automaker. If it sells it sells because of the badge on the hood. The Lincoln does not have that, uh... luxury. Like Cadillac it has to work harder just to tread water in the eyes of a buying public that is sceptical about Detroit iron. It isn't rational, but neither are the 80 percent of 1-Series buyers, right? Bottom Line: if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, Lincoln is the Joker. Actually, that's the problem for the 1-Series... it doesn't sell. BMW struggles to move just 12,000 1-series and 2-series each year... so much so that the 1-series itself is actually dead in the US and BMW is only selling the 2-series here. So much for that saviour of RWD. You're right about the definition of insanity.... that's why Lincoln is saying they are going with a real luxury interior in the Continental instead of the low-rent MKS interior they're doing now. You seem set on blaming the drive wheels of the car while ignoring the whole host of other issues MKS has. I think you're wrong. I think the reason for Lincoln's failures have been 60% interior appointments and 40% exterior styling.

Oh, and I'm also curious how going unibody will help the Navigator drop 1,000 lbs. when the difference in that test between the GL and the Navigator is only 500lbs and the GL is a good bit smaller (6 inches shorter in height and length, 2 inches narrower in girth).

What a steaming pile of fanboyism. I'm sure Cadillac will miss all 11 of those GL600 sales. Again, they can't even make enough Escalades to meet demand. Cadillac is getting known for their supercharged V8s... so IF Cadillac were to do a V-series Escalade to go up against the AMG G-Class they could go that route... My guess, if they feel the need for a GL550 competitor, they'll use a version of the TTV8... 4.0 liters at around 500 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque.

Cadillac is about to launch the CTS-V.... I'm sure she has some pull with Johan.

FWD based and transverse mounting have nothing to do with the luxury of the car... and when 80% of BWW 1-Series owners think their car is FWD that should really tell you something. Your blame is misdirected. You want to pin the failure of certain Lincoln models on the fact that they were front wheel drive, but in fact it was neglect on the rest of the car by Lincoln that caused the demise. When the Continental switched from RWD to FWD in 1988 it went from Zero to Hero. I owned an '85 Continental and really liked the car, but they were an absolute sales dud. When the FWD '88 Continental came on the scene, it was a huge sales surge and success for Lincoln. What happened? Lincoln neglected the car. They left it without refreshes for too long and didn't offer an option of a V8 for the entirety of the first FWD generation. A 140hp V6 in 1988 was questionable and a 160hp V6 in 1994 was suicide. Even the Ford Tempo and Chevrolet Cavalier came with a 140hp V6 in 1994. Also, Lincoln let the interiors of these cars age ungracefully. That, along with wide spread issues with the air suspension turned off a lot of buyers when the 1995 model came around. The second FWD generation ran for 7 years... again neglected by Lincoln with only minor updates and a decidedly unluxury-like interior that could have served duty in the Windstar better than the Continental, the Continental name was put to rest in favor of the Lincoln LS. The switch to RWD couldn't save that car from Lincoln's neglect and it was canceled after 6 years with basically zero updates. The MKS is an embarrassment to the brand, not because of which wheels drive the car, but because of the so-called luxury appointments. The same story repeats itself, nearly verbatim, over at Cadillac. Though Cadillac had the sense to use 8-cylinder engines, the HT4100 was a reliability disaster on top of being low on power. The downsized models in 1986 were not well received, but when the '92 Eldorado and '92 Seville came out, Cadillac was really back in the game. Again sales soared. Again Cadillac ignored. They let the Eldorado go for 10 years with only minor updates. Imagine driving into a Cadillac dealership in 2002 in your 1992 Eldorado and driving out in basically the same car but with zero miles!! The Seville fared better with a redesign and platform change in 1998, but by that time the drum beat for Cadillac to become the American BMW was too strong to overcome. The reasons these cars eventually failed has nothing to do with which wheels drove the car. The Catera, the LS, the Mark VIII, the S-Type, the STS, the first SRX, the Q45, the M35/45, the J35, the GS, the K900, and I'm sure more that I'm not remembering, all have failed hard.... and they're all RWD. What matters most is the experience. If the Continental can deliver the luxury Lincoln is promising with AWD and sufficient performance. Buyers will come and not care which way the engine is facing.

not that there's anything wrong with that....

Driving a car without active cruise control after logging 700+ miles in a car with it.... is difficult.

I believe it is selling on both aspects. If it was a crappy truck, it wouldn't sell despite price and size. i loved the Z71 I rove and it had basically everything I would want plus some. Well... no... I feel that the GM trucks are rather expensive for their size. As some have pointed out, full-size trucks aren't much more expensive. The GMers are selling in-spite of their price... not because they are cheap.

I'm one of those who doesn't care what metal the block is made of or how it goes about making its power as long as it makes its power in a way that is satisfactory to me. No direct injection or VVT? Don't care as long as it returns the power I want with competitive fuel economy. In that regard, the Hemi still has it. They can add direct injection to the Pentastar, but it is already getting fantastic fuel economy and usually better than the LFX... and it did even when it was running a 5-speed auto. The Hemi and the Pentastar are two bright spots at FCA. FCA needs to concentrate on an all-new 4-cylinder family and do it now.

The GM trucks aren't selling on price, they are selling on smaller size. There are plenty of people who would like to have a truck but don't want to wheel around the behemoths the 1/2-ton models have become.

I feel the same way! This kind of car(unless I plan on competing in it) should be a manual transmission car. I understand how superior the auto is but that doesn't make it a more fun car. It makes it less fun. Even if I'm on a track I want a manual. The only time I want the auto would be is I was seriously competing and every tenth counted, for whatever reason. ..also coming from a man in a mommy-mobile.. Also, the 8spd is only faster than the Porsche DCT at full throttle upshifts(I know that is when it counts the most) not all of the time, just pointing that out. I guess..... in such a car I would just pick the version that got me the best performance regardless.... As if you(or me) could extract all 650hp correctly anyway..lol If one transmission lets me get closer than the other... then sure.

And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon. More power doesn't always mean better results.... and with the GLs FloatMatic suspension, the only performance metric a 550 version might win is in the straight line.

Clearly not. There are currently plenty that are still failing in spite of it.

The lumps under the camouflage mules that are running around suggest that the exterior will be almost spot on with the concept in shape.