Suaviloquent

Must be why Aston Martin hasn't grilled Ford too hard. Well, Henrik Fisker was responsible for AM's design language that is being phased out with the DB11. My guess - Ford dodged any concerns from AM because Fisker's core design for Aston Martin itself was very old and being replaced within one product cycle. But, I still think that the Fusion front grille for example, only bears a passing resemblance. The Jaudi XJz however is a blatant riff of other automakers, and it's just by the front end. Everything else is still Lincoln.

This is the last chance Lincoln will ever get, that is for sure. (Devil's advocate mode) Well, maybe being under the radar for this long is a blessing in disguise as a curse. For most lay people, Lincoln only carries the baggage of their decline, not their multiple revivals. Then again, multiple revivals could themselves be indicator of decline. Right, scratch that blessing talk. So basically, they just have to do great, and doing great is by meeting hard arbitrary targets, that account for the future. Give us more horsepower than the rest, have absolutely the best fit and finish and carry a sense of shame in under-serving potential customers from the past. If you're not going for performance sedans, damn well give luxury that stands out. And this demand from picky luxury buyers doesn't mean trying to evoque the same reaction that someone gets by looking at BMW, Cadillac, Mercedes or Lexus or Jaguar or any other brand. It means excellence of execution, excellence of exclusivity (depart from Ford as much as possible). And excellence in advancement in design and excellence in performance of intended function. For example, recent Cadillacs beat comparable BMWs in objective and subjective performance metrics. Lincolns better have outstanding NVH, the softest and yet most durable cow-hide this side of a Maybach, have interior fit and finish of Lexus and Audi, and interior technology rivaling Volvo and Tesla. Heck, Lincoln has to be an American Volvo for all intents and purposes. Anyways, if Lincoln fails, it'll be less a failure on their part, rather a telling sign how brands that are liberated from Ford do much better. The last thing that needs to happen with the Continental and the products that follow, is for someone to say give Lincoln one more chance. The Navigator better trounce the Champion that is the Escalade, not to mention thoroughly crush everyone else that the Escalade defeated. Not in sales. The Escalade has a reputation that took over a decade to build. That's a tall task, but for a brand to be revived, it has never been easy. Cadillac, Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover, have all had a product renaissance to varying degrees. And the disruptive CT6 must force Lincoln to be a price leader by significant margin in the flagship luxury sedan segment.

I really can't take the comment that you are not a driveline kind of guy when you specifically tout driveline flexibility with the new platform, which is NOTHING new in the industry.

The head honcho designers at JaguarLandRover and FordMoCo are brothers. Maybe that explains their willingness to deftly evade intellectual property concerns.

(Opens letter for New Provincial Health Card) (Shows it to brother first) "The only thing that is missing is a joint" "Bro, seriously, how much pot did you smoke that day?" "Can they arrest you for looking like you smoked a sh!t ton of weed when you show up to renew you card?" (I look at my Health Card, ensuing reaction)

It just came to my head. Excellence of exclusivity. And thus another excellence shall be birthed.

It looks good. I think the exterior is a bit conservative, but it'll age very well. Though I think if this was sold in the US people will be hard pressed to pay any significant amount more than what compact hatchbacks already cost. Because this is just a tweaked Opel, a car that VW, Mazda, Honda, and Ford easily compete as comparable vehicles in Europe.

Even MT's description of the Mustang was a very diplomatic way of saying it'd make a great rental. Brutal, and it's my interpretation of it. Benchmarking. Really? This is what they relied on? What about setting hard arbitrary targets like 0-60 in 4 seconds for the GT, curb weights as well, instead of relying on some dumb performance to price ratio? Well the GT350/R are great, but they're not the meat of the pie.

It's almost December and the grass is still green. Alright!! Cycling in the winter is a go. 46 km cycling commute in the dead of winter. No other way to be alive than being at the brink, eh?

The thing is, Lincoln is supposed to be luxury. It's supposed to eke an emotion. That is how luxury cars sell. It's not about reputation or reliability. It's all about what the badge does to you emotions. You can't make rational sense of selling luxury. So this is where the platform on which Lincoln should stand should be apart from Ford. I'm not looking for Lincoln to make a practical four-door sedan for wear and tear by the family. I am not looking for the best fuel-economy or built Ford tough by Lincoln. We're looking for excellence in emotive design, quality and most of all a feeling of being undeniably special by owning one of them. I can't speak volumes as how Lincoln fails to get an emotional reaction from most of us. The MKZ before the update is a finger-licking good looking car by my opinion. The new one, ugh, they forced a styling change on a car that didn't need it.

This suit that Lincoln is now wearing blends in more than it gets noticed. There is no objective perfect look. Designs evolve, get subjectively better or worse. A lot of people on this forum liked the previous look, if not for any particular reason, just because it was so unique. This just won't cut it to discerning buyers. Does Lincoln really want to send customers to Jaguar dealerships by mistake?

The thinking part of my brain equates the car's looks to a succulent, sexy, seductive...Tomato.

It's not the quantity of vehicles derivatives you can make, it's quality. Why would I wait 5 years for Lincoln to catch up, when others already have? Why should I be enthusiastic for a revival of a brand that's been in revival for 15 years.

Damn. You could indulge yourself with a clock atop a dashboard for the price of one whole S-Class. Excellence in engineering of value.

What's with the Mustang inspired slatted headlight elements?! However good this vehicle may be, I can't stomach the front-end anymore. I really liked the split-wing design. I don't see this as an upgrade.

Bounded rationality or incompetence. They should have done some guesswork on which platform GM was going to use for the next Camaro. They made the mistake of thinking that GM wouldn't move forward, continued usage of Zeta. Erroneous. As soon as Australian manufacturing got the boot they should have figured that Zeta's days were numbered. Speaking of benchmarking Europeans, they can't beat the Europeans in performance aside from the epic GT350/R yet the Camaro can. So they aren't superior to the benchmarks, and they didn't consider the future of Camaro, so they can't beat the Camaro.

We can only compare Lincoln to other brands. Seriously, Ford really needs to give Lincoln autonomy. Okay, let's hold Lincoln at their word. D6 better be so frickin' revolutionary that it's going to be everything learned from Ford GT, GT 350 and F150 aluminum technology, all into one robust package. We've got 5 years for the rest of the industry to thwart Lincoln and its plans. That's one entire generation cycle for the rest of them. So Lincoln is already one generation of products behind because they just changed the styling direction, neutering whatever goodwill the split-wing design might have had. Lincoln, and by that I mean D6 has to move AHEAD by 3 generations of platforms to be competitive when it goes online, because by then every other automaker will be launching their second generation products on their own scalable platforms. I'm not putting any money in the pot for Lincoln.

Holy crap. Now that looks good. It looks really eff'n good. Maybe it's another lickable car?

The better Continental, from another continent? I'm just saying, all my hopes for Lincoln's Continental is their ability to retain as much from concept as possible. But Volvo just has to beat Lincoln in terms of interior quality and overall vehicle concept execution. Which the XC90 already did to the MKX.

You gotta love the essay style defence of Cadillac. Very good sirs, very good.

I think Drew mentioned this before. There are core vehicle platforms. Then there are body styles. Then there are variants of the body styles. Variants are the last step in defining a product lineup. It's not so simple to say that GM is just building cars off of Chevys and Buicks. If anything, it looks like all of the recent platforms are using trickle-down from Cadillac. It's evident, not always everywhere, but you do get consistent themes. Weight-reduction is among them. All of GM carmaking is getting lessons learned from state-of-art Corvette and new generation Volt development programs. And styling is really maturing, and GM is one of the few automakers that still makes great, original designs. Your concerns are valid though. I have been adamant as always, the El Miraj was begging to be built when they unveiled it. It was the best 50-50 chance to glory I'd ever seen for Cadillac recently. They missed a big one, and they will regret it, because opportunities like that will only come again when something they make suggests a radical departure from Art and Science and still resonates with fans and critics. Cadillac very recently did do parity in pricing, like for like in options and they were trounced. So they had to increase standard equipment. Even the old CTS Wagon and its departure were a sign then as it is now, Cadillac cannot be reasonably expected to have exactly equivalent counterparts to the German competition within the decade. The market does not want extreme Cadillac crossovers just yet. They're not out of the realm of possibility though, They cannot intentionally build vehicles that are not profit-centres. The ELR I think of now as the cross between an i8 and an Audi TT. A car that with any other German make as its creator could have been easily justified among a very large portfolio. I'm not going to excuse them for not being ahead of the curve, but I do say, build up your core vehicle platforms. Then get the right power-trains to power the vehicles based on those platforms. Get each brand styling formula right. Make the body styles you can sell. Then, at the very end see if it aligns with core competencies to make variants. The things with BMW and Mercedes is that they are just one core brand. They don't have other complete brands that aren't restricted to a niche. So they have to make variants as their filler for showrooms. It's different, but it aligns with core competencies. Cadillac could over-stuff its showrooms, but the rest of GM certainly can't. It'd be an utter waste. There are glaring holes right now at Cadillac - heck even Lincoln is ahead by default. What Cadillac has to do, is to make sure their future crossovers are revolutionary in their own right, in a way that pushes them ahead of the league. They are capable of doing it. Being ahead for once in one area, will bide them time to build variants to complete the brand. Heck, some vehicles might just be lost in the process too. And the Germans makes are not immune to this either.

That epitomizes my biggest criticism of Lincoln. Ford just isn't allowing any ambition for Lincoln to be great. They gotta get on the bandwagon and dare greatly. The promises that Ford made about Lincoln for years and years have not been satisfied. Even CD6, and Lincoln exclusive powerrtrains were made on shaky agreements. It's not that there's glaring issues with sharing engines. I totally understand how Cadillac product plan-nerds/fans must have gritted their teeth how the ATS-V would not end up getting a V8 as an option, a world class V8 from a Corvette, not from a Camaro as some try to spin it as.

Ye

Cadillac got money at their disposal and a whiteboard open to anything that will ensure success. That means they can make the products they need and the ones they want. Commitment. It isn't easy to make when the going isn't so easy, but Cadillac has real commitment. I mean seriously, Cadillac is entrenched as being American. This is on top of everything sedan being redesigned, and 2 new halo sedans. That's up to 8 new products. Nice.

It seems for a moment I was having a conversation with many in different threads and all of a sudden everyone just disappeared. (Scratch, scratch, glance at recent memorable and funny post) Somewhat like, what, well oh allright... Testicular Solitude Heavy emphasis on solitude. Solitude sold separately.