The Investor SA

Ford revives the Lincoln continental,aims at U.S and China

 

30 March, 2015

by Reuters

 

No comeback for the  trademark  fins or the rear - hinged ‘suicide doors’ of the 1960s, but Ford thinks the

name recognition alone will be enough to make it a hit.

 

Ford  Motor Co  F - 0.19%  is resurrecting  the  Lincoln  Continental  as  its top - of - the line luxury sedan,

betting that the classic name will help rebuild the brand’s image in the United States and China.

 

Ford’s Lincoln will unveil a prototype of the future Continental sedan on Monday ahead of the  April 3 - 12

New  York  auto  show, which  will  also  feature  many  of  the  Continental’s  future  rivals,  including  the

Cadillac  CT6  sedan from General Motors Co  GM - 0.11% , a  new  Jaguar XF sedan from Jaguar Land

Rover and a bevy of super-premium models from Daimler AG’s  DDAIY 0.02%  Mercedes Benz.

 

Ford  retired  the  Continental name in  2002, after over  40 years and nine generations of cars, including,

most famously, the adapted convertible in which President John F. Kennedy was shot in  Dallas  in  1963.

Ford  has long since  joined its rivals in using  letter and number codes  for  most  models. But  memories

lived on in China, where Continentals had been the car of political  leaders and  celebrities. China now  is

the main  market  for premium  sedans such as the Audi  A6 or  A8, the Mercedes S-class or the BMW 7-

series.

 

Ford executives say they were surprised to learn that the  Continental  name also had  legs  in  the  U.S.,

where grandly-proportioned Continentals from the 1960s had prominent cameo roles  in  movies such as

the popular “Matrix” science fiction series.

 

What clinched it, said Ford Chief Executive Mark Fields, was that early designs for the next large Lincoln

sedan  “weren’t  as  good  as  we  wanted  them to be.” About 18  months  ago, Fields said he and other

senior executives decided to call the car the Continental based on the positive research.

 

“Immediately, people’s eyes lit up,” Fields said. The show car debuts a new look for Lincoln, with  a  grille

and stance that lean more toward Jaguar or Maserati than Cadillac or BMW. When it launches next  year,

the production Continental will be the latest salvo in a $2.5 billion renovation  of  Lincoln.  In the U.S.,  the

brand lags well behind BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Cadillac and Lexus. Lincoln’s  U.S. sales  are up  1.2%  for

the first two months of 2015, lagging the 9.2% increase in the overall market.

 

By  2020, Ford  wants  to  expand  Lincoln  sales globally to 300,000 vehicles a year, about triple current

sales, Fields said.Ford is in the early stages of relaunching Lincoln in China, with 11 dealerships and 25 planned by the end of 2015. Ford has not announced plans to build Lincoln vehicles there. GM says it plans to build the CT6 in China and at its factory in Hamtramck, Michigan.