Mulally Out to Make Lincoln World Class Brand

[Falc'man]

Link to article & Video

Ford's Mulally Out to Make Lincoln World Class Brand




When Ford CEO Alan Mulally joined me on "Squawk Box" Friday for an extended conversation about where the Blue Oval is today and where it's headed, he didn't shy away from proclaiming the Lincoln brand must provide a true world class experience for buyers.Mulally's said this before and he'll say again. But it was clear from talking with him that he not only knows just what Lincoln has to do but the reason why thinks it will eventually get there.

First, Mulally is aware Lincoln is trailing its competition. It's the #7 luxury brand in terms of sales this year.

When I told him that I've talked many in the industry who scoff at the idea of Lincoln becoming every bit as competitive as Lexus and BMW, Mulally gave me his trademark smile that masks what he's truly thinking: Just you wait and see what we're going to build with Lincoln. Using technology and continued refinement in styling and interiors, Mulally expects Lincoln to continue improving.


Mulally told me, "Lincoln has a great brand. It has never been damaged to a place where it cant come back. So again, one more time, when you start seeing these Lincolns come out we absolutely can make them a premium brand."

Just as important, Mulally knows Lincoln has to provide a world class ownership experience. That means Lincoln dealerships that are as refined and that pampers customers as much as Lexus or Cadillac dealerships.

In others words, they need to get with the times. There are many Lincoln dealers who have top notch dealerships. There are also many other that need to pick it up. In short, if Lincoln is gonna win over luxury buyers it will have to do more. A lot more.

Mulally says, ""we absolutely are going to provide a premium experience"

With the job Mulally has done turning around Ford and and the job global product chief Derek Kuzak has done breathing life into Lincoln, they've earned the right for us to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Lincoln can become a hit in the luxury market.

[g220ba]

Very interesting read there Falc'man. Don't wanna tread on your toes but here's a direct link to the full interview with Mullaly which i found to be a very interesting interview.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1519327864&play=1

Interesting how he says he drives a different vehicle every night including competitors to keep on top of what they're doing. It really does continue to look good for ford going into the future.

[Road_Warrior]

Lincoln, your premium RWD sedan is ready.

[Falc'man]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Lincoln, your premium RWD sedan is ready.

Originally Posted by wescoent

Falcon and Mustang cannot share a platform, but they will be sharing many components to bring costs down.

Fields, Kuzak, and Mulally all like the Falcon a lot.

.........

[Road_Warrior]

Falcon and Mustang cannot share a platform, but they will be sharing many components to bring costs down.

I was under the impression that the smarty-pants at FoA had devised a solution to the problem of different rear floor requirements for the two cars...

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

I was under the impression that the smarty-pants at FoA had devised a solution to the problem of different rear floor requirements for the two cars...

Falcon can be share platforms, there is nothing stopping it.

I thought the Commodore/Camaro is the perfect evidence of it, although the falcon probally can't do it with the ease of the Zeta...

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Nikked

Falcon can be share platforms, there is nothing stopping it.

I thought the Commodore/Camaro is the perfect evidence of it, although the falcon probally can't do it with the ease of the Zeta...

Perfect evidence of how it doesn't work you mean - adapting a sedan platform for coupe use has led to a Camaro with compromises.

[Ghiadude]

Originally Posted by Falc'man

.........

That sounds extremely promising. Cant wait to see how a supercharged coyote and ZF might go in the stang.....

[chevypower]

It sounds like outside of North America, people still think of the Lincoln brand as having the "Town Car" image in their heads when they think of Lincoln, or big old luxo-barges with headlight covers and a vinyl roof with a massive V8. The Fairlane/LTD slowed down in sales in Australia for a reason. It's not going to work here in the US either. I think Mulally is trying to make the brand more high tech and current, not bring it back in to the dinosaur age. I think we will see short wheel base cars, AWD and more EcoBoost (perhaps based on the 3.7 and 5.0 engines). I am thinking 8 speed autos will become common in Lincolns very quickly. I wouldn't rule out RWD, but I don't think we will see a LWB, RWD grandpa car. Just my opinion.

[Ghiadude]

Originally Posted by chevypower

I wouldn't rule out RWD, but I don't think we will see a LWB, RWD grandpa car. Just my opinion.

I agree the world has moved on from town cars. The vibe im getting is that they want lincoln to be to ford what lexus is to toyota. Premium product and service in exchange for premium money. Im not sure if itll work here in Aus but UAE, Asia, Russia?????

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by chevypower

It sounds like outside of North America, people still think of the Lincoln brand as having the "Town Car" image in their heads when they think of Lincoln, or big old luxo-barges with headlight covers and a vinyl roof with a massive V8.

certainly top gear's impression of 'luxury' usa made cars is that they are big (american's idea of luxury is bigness), but use yucky cheap plastics, so don't have a luxury feel that europeans expect. if lincoln don't overcome that, they will fail rest-of-world.

Does Ford NA have a performance brand like FPV? maybe that's where we could get falcon into the states?
When can we start sending falcons to the UK?

[csv8]

Next Fairlane..LTD ?????????????????????????????

[Chilliman]

If ever there was an opportunity to leverage off the RWD expertise of Ford Australia - this is it!

[jpd80]

All too slow, unless Ford NA has been secretly working on a RWD up until now,
a minimum of three years is needed to get an engineered vehicle like Fairlane to the USA....

[vztrt]

Originally Posted by jpd80

All too slow, unless Ford NA has been secretly working on a RWD up until now,
a minimum of three years is needed to get an engineered vehicle like Fairlane to the USA....

haha, where's the picture of the Falcon(from the proving grounds) with lincoln written on the rear quarter.

[chevypower]

I wonder if world-class also means global? Hopefully that's the long-term plan.

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by jpd80

All too slow, unless Ford NA has been secretly working on a RWD up until now,
a minimum of three years is needed to get an engineered vehicle like Fairlane to the USA....

No where in that article does it gave a time line! So, nothing is "too" slow..

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

No where in that article does it gave a time line! So, nothing is "too" slow..

You don't understand the time line, Town car production is finished by September next year
and Mulally halted all work continuing on RWD sedans for North America in favor of D3 Taurus FWD/AWD.
And since no engineering has been done on a Lincoln RWD or Fairlane, it will take at least three years to happen, E8 will be nearing the end of it's product cycle by then so launching a vehicle so late isn't practical.

And also I was responding to the four posts above mine:

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Lincoln, your premium RWD sedan is ready.

Originally Posted by csv8

Next Fairlane..LTD ?????????????????????????????

Originally Posted by Chilliman

If ever there was an opportunity to leverage off the RWD expertise of Ford Australia - this is it!

[Iggypoppin']

This will be another genuine mullaly gem, I can tell. They must have something up their sleeves, and it must be good, for it to apparently be enough to rival a BMW or Lexus.
Let's see what they've got eh...

[tranquilized]

I just spent a few weeks in the US and saw a few Lincolns on the roads. For the most part they look great, but too obviously based on their Ford counterpart.

On that theme, this is an interesting article;

http://blogs.motortrend.com/6656935/...ght/index.html

Right now Lincoln doesn't have a car based model with RWD or V8 , but Cadillac, and any other luxury make worth mentioning, do. Surely that would have to change for them to be truely competitive.

[ltd]

Lincoln is very well respected in the USA.
It has topped the satisfied owners list for years, and is revered as a top of the line brand, even more than Cadillac is now.
The reason for this, is that lincoln has stayed straight and true, Cadillac on the others have had real clangers like the "Cimarron", and the one where they made a V8 petrol into a Diesel which had the EPA at your door everytime you started it. Then there's been the other models which started off nice, but the rear looked as though it had melted.

Nope, Lincoln has one hell of a future and watch this space, Mulally is the genuine article. What he's done to ford is beyond amazing; this guy just keeps getting better and better. Methinks what GM and Chrysler really need is a Mulally in their respective head offices. For those in doubt just remember one other Mulally creation - the Boeing 777. Nuff said?

[LeadFoot81]

Hmmm Lincoln G8E sounds nice

[Road_Warrior]

The only thing they could do with the Falcon at this point in time is copy the tooling and make them in the US. And of course do all the arsing around to make it LHD, but by the time they have finished, it will be closer to the 2014 deadline than you think, and one would imagine that an 'answer' to the 'RWD question' has been given by that time making the interim RWD Lincoln a bit redundant.

[Romulus]

Hopefully it will be powered by General Electric ;)

[vztrt]

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/02/r...the-end-of-20/

Report: Lincoln MKT, Ford Flex to be phased out at end of 2013?

by Jonathon Ramsey (RSS feed) on Aug 2nd 2010 at 10:31AM



Doesn't it seem like only yesterday that Ford was in charge of seven different brands? Now The Blue Oval is down to two, Ford and Lincoln, after today's sale of Volvo to Chinese automaker Geely and the pending execution of Mercury. This means more energy and money will be available to plot success for Ford and Lincoln, and according to a report in Automotive News, that means Lincoln could get "a compact, front-drive car or crossover" (Lincoln Concept C, anyone?) and perhaps a model based on the next Ford Mondeo. Not exactly what we would have expected from Ford's luxury brand, but times change.

A small taste of what's in store for Lincoln: the MKX will get a redesign next year, the same year that the venerable Town Car dies, and, according to AN, a brand-new MKX with a design less like the Edge will appear in 2014. The MKZ gets a new look in 2013, which could be the last year for the controversial Ford Flex/Lincoln MKT and Navigator, perhaps replaced by an Explorer-based crossover or an SUV with more chops for rough terrain. Hopefully, they'll also rework that whole MK-Random-Letter approach to nomenclature as well.

The more germane revelation is this: Ford apparently believes Lincoln's success is contingent on putting lots of daylight between Ford and Lincoln engineering. Lincoln models need to be more distinct from their Ford counterparts in everything from engines to styling to feature sets. That might mean a lot more luxury features and refinement could be making their way into Lincolns soon – and that's something increasingly anxious Lincoln dealers ought to be able to get behind.

[Road_Warrior]

I doubt very much any RWD product from Australia based on the Falcon or Territory will ever go to America.

Seems to me the markets Ford has its eyes on for Lincoln are China, the Middle East, and Europe.

Whether or not the products in mind for these markets will include RWD remains to be seen. I can totally see a premium RWD Lincoln car (or cars) taking off in the Middle East, maybe Europe, particularly if economical engines are offered. I guess the question that needs to be answered is: are RWD vehicles still important to Ford?

[Falc'man]

Well said chevypower. I was once given a tip about SVT and FPV; it was a while ago and I'm not sure consolidation is still in the pipeline. There's also the RS division in Europe.


And regarding your question as to what extent they're willing to go with Lincoln...


Plans for Lincoln are growing, too. “It could go worldwide,” Mulally said.

.......
Ford has other challenges too. The decision to sell all of its luxury brands puts the spotlight on Lincoln, whose year-to-date sales are behind seven other luxury brands

“We bought all those other premium brands, right? So we invested less in Lincoln,” Mulally said. “But now with those other brands gone… I think it could go worldwide.”


http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11268076





Another little (very recent) tip was the new 5 litre in a Lincoln....

[FPV]

Originally Posted by Falc'man

Well said chevypower. I was once given a tip about SVT and FPV; it was a while ago and I'm not sure consolidation is still in the pipeline. There's also the RS division in Europe.


And regarding your question as to what extent they're willing to go with Lincoln...


Plans for Lincoln are growing, too. “It could go worldwide,” Mulally said.

.......
Ford has other challenges too. The decision to sell all of its luxury brands puts the spotlight on Lincoln, whose year-to-date sales are behind seven other luxury brands

“We bought all those other premium brands, right? So we invested less in Lincoln,” Mulally said. “But now with those other brands gone… I think it could go worldwide.”


http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11268076





Another little (very recent) tip was the new 5 litre in a Lincoln....

Jost Capito has been put in charge with amalgamating the performance brands, the following article clarifies what is going to happen:

http://blogs.automobilemag.com/66240...les/index.html

From the sounds of it, global performance vehicles will fall under a global badge (e.g. Focus RS will be Focus RS across the globe), if the GT was to go abroad, it would also keep its designation. However the performance brands themselves don't appear to be changing, which to me sounds good especially since each brand (FPV, SVT and Team RS) is well established in its market. So I would think that if a performance variant Focus was launched, it may be called Focus ST globally, but each market will have it badged under a particular performance brand (SVT, FPV or Team RS). It may not sound like much difference, but the current XR5 badged vehicles would be replaced by the global ST badges. Focus ST is rumoured to debut at the Paris Motor Show within the next month or so.

Our Falcons would fall under the 'Regional' performance vehicles as per the article. If the MKS/MKR were to be placed onto a GRWD platform with Falcon in the future, what are the possibilities of FPV being tasked with the performance variants? It could be sold under the SVT or a specific Lincoln performance brand globally.

In terms of Ford/Lincoln's plans:

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2010...NEWS/100809987

This article came out this week, highlights the expected changes in the vehicle lineups. MKS, Mustang, Taurus are all due to 're-engineering' around 2015-16. Note mention of a SVT Focus.

Finally Ford have clarified the MKT/Flex situation:

http://wot.motortrend.com/6670699/au...ere/index.html

[Road_Warrior]

It makes sense, the 5L is a premium engine. But for Lincoln to play on the same level as BMW and Lexus and be taken seriously by consumers, it will need to reconsider its reliance on FWD core vehicles from Ford.

[TUF_302]

A world wide Premium brand cannot have FWD cars in its line up, the big luxo brands like Merc, Audi and BMW all might over the odd FWD but there main big sedans are always RWD sedans, if Lincoln wants to play with the Germans they will have to really show there capable of making a top car RWD car