Lincoln News: Lincoln Dealers Not Happy With Slow Production Ramp-Up For MKZ

[William Maley]

By William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

February 12, 2013

Right now isn't a good time to be Lincoln. Executives recently had to deal with frustrated dealers at National Automobile Dealers Association Convention and Expo in Orlando, FL. The frustrations stem from the lack of the new MKZ on dealer lots. Don Chalmers, a Ford and Lincoln dealer from New Mexico tells The Detroit News that with the lack of inventory, they're losing sales from customers who want to buy.

Lincoln sales in January were to say in the least, abysmal. Total sales was around 4,191 vehicles, an 18% drop when compared to last year. MKZ sales suffered badly; Lincoln only sold 453 vehicles for the month, despite the MKZ having the biggest number of pre-orders in Lincoln history.

The small number of sales is due to the numerous quality checks going on at Ford's Hermosillo, Mexico assembly plant to make sure each MKZ is just right. In fact, Ford is shipping some of the MKZs to a factory in Flat Rock, Michigan for a closer inspection. Analysts believe Ford is going to these measures to to avoid therecall issues that have plagued recent launches including the Escape and Fusion.

Ford executives say Lincoln dealers won't have a full inventory of MKZs till April.

Source: The Detroit News, Bloomberg

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.

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[daves87rs]

Good for the people who don't mind waiting....

[ponchoman49]

Wow people are lined up with pre- orders to buy this homely looking thing? I sure don't want one! There is little to nothing here that even piques my interest. 4 cylinder engines. No shift lever on the overly larger center console. Uber complex dash. Tall plain ungainly styling. They even fitted the test cars with special performance tires that won't make it to production cars to get better skid pad numbers. I'll take a Caddy please.

[G. David Felt]

Clearly this must be all those Tea Party Lemmings who like boring Toyota like auto's. The current product lineup of Lincoln is pathetic to say the least.

[regfootball]

Love the car but not a fan of pushbutton trans

[smk4565]

I sat in the new MKZ, and the interior shape is identical to the Fusion, the center stack just has different buttons and the door panels have leather and wood on them rather than the rubber/plastic stuff on the Ford. It is pathetic.