U.S. Lincoln Sales Down 12 Percent In January 2021

Comments

1. 

   Why is this a surprise? Customers are not going to buy Lincoln sedans that they know are being discontinued. Lincoln not offering any sedans or coupes but only four (!) SUV’s will prove to be a poor decision. Notice that Cadillac, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, Infiniti, BMW, Jaguar and Acura all offer sedans. This is where Lincoln sedan customers will go, not to a Lincoln SUV. And certainly not to a $50,000 pickup truck!

   Reply
   1. 

      100% agree. Dumb decisions to do what they have done to Lincoln and Ford. They aren’t even also-rans at this time. From my 2027 Ford Fusion Sport to an import next.

      Reply
   2. 

      Absolutely agree. I have a 2020 MKZ Reserve and 2018 Navigator Reserve. Love both vehicles, but I don’t want two SUV’s. This is my second MKZ and if they restyled it again, I would have definitely considered a third MKZ. Foolish decision to eliminate cars from product mix.

      Reply
2. 

   100% agree. Dumb decisions to do what they have done to Lincoln and Ford. They aren’t even also-rans at this time. From my 2017 Ford Fusion Sport to an import next.

   Reply
3. 

   Tom makes the point well….. if you want a sports sedan you will not be in the Lincoln stable and numbers only mean something when compared to the competition. It is curious to wonder how many unit sales Lincoln gave away to Cadillac in particular. AS for the other luxury brands, if Lincoln does not compete…. it reads that they cannot compete. That is not what makes a luxury brand in any country of manufacture. Still calling for a halo sports car that is a Lincoln exclusive in the range of the Acura NSX.

   Reply
4. 

   Agreed on all comments above.
   Lincoln has some really beautiful and terrific vehicles available right now, but should expand the line-up beyond SUVs.
   However, where they really need help is on the car-buying experience. A recent, out of my way visit to TWO Lincoln dealerships (one was a gorgeous! stand alone), left me going to look at and purchase another brand, hence the Lincoln sales decline. The Lincoln purchasing experience needs some serious investment if they are going to compete in the luxury, high-end league.
   Who knows, maybe some of this investment will trickle down to the Ford brand…

   Reply
   1. 

      From what I’ve read they’re helping dealers or giving incentives to dealers for become stand alone dealerships, trying to help the buying experience. But as far as the rest of the comments, this dumb nonsense needs to stop. Sedans are in free fall. Every automaker is cutting back on sedans and coupes. Everyone. Even if Lincoln don’t offered sedans, they’d have to pull a GM and offer 12k on the hood for them to sell….it’s just not smart business. They do however, need to offer more than 4 models. The fact that they killed the rivian collaboration is really disappointing. They need to come up with at least 2 more models. Preferably 1 halo and 1 EV. While the continental didn’t sell well, the buzz for the coach door edition was probably the most press Lincoln got in years.

      Reply
5. 

   Mark, you hit the nail on the head about the sales/purchase experience. Ford and especially Lincoln are not even competitive despite some pretty nice product. Old habits, old culture slow to change. If you are wanting a luxury vehicle, the person on the other side of the experience needs to do better than the same old, same old. Waiting for customers to just show up and give you their money is never going to make an industry leader, domestic or otherwise. Just sayin….

   Reply
6. 

   They should’ve just built a decent sedan that isn’t a extended Ford Fusion and should’ve been fine which I can see them bringing back the Continental within less than 5 years as a electric car and the Nautilus gets a pass since it’s interior been recently refreshed so it makes since that people would want to wait for the new model and we all know that the only reason why Cadillac has any sales (with the exception of the Escalade) is because of its brand. The XT6 would be regarded as a GMC Acadia with more leather and it already has for most part and basically any of the XT series are just rebadged chevys with more leather and a slightly different dash. Same with the Escalade and all of its cheap plastic which I still don’t understand how it’s over 110k but probably with the Navigator refresh I expect it to get more luxuries such as the dynamic package in the aviator, ventilated seats in the back, bigger screen, and this is wishful thinking but heated third row seats. But if Cadillac were to restart their brand today it wouldn’t succeed compared to Audi, Lincoln, Lexus, or definitely upper trimmed Jeeps with the new Wagoneer and Grand Cherokee L. I feel like Lincoln would do ok also since they have a lot of class exclusives that aren’t a $5,000 dollar option and usually the better interiors.

   Reply
7. 

   Why wouldn’t Lincoln, in the same way Cadillac experimented with the Escalade in early 2000’s and found an audience that then expanded the brand, try a Town Car Classic, based off a truck platform, and low tech, with a politically correct acknowledgement that it’s a last hurrah tribute to the internal combustion engine before electric takes over, offered for a limited time……….advertise it as pure nostalgia …….. WHILE HOPING IT’S A PERMANENT ADDITION TO THE BRAND, IF BY CHANCE IT TAKES OFF THE WAY THE AFOREMENTIONED ESCALADE DID TWENTY YEARS AGO? Just a thought to throw out there. Anyone??? This selling only SUV’s (thing) is not going to work out well.

   Reply
8. 

   I considered a new Continental when I purchased a new sedan in February.
   Three things kept me from Lincoln:.
   1) one of the worst initial quality and longe term reliability records in the I industry. Quality matters.
   2) more than half of the available models at the dealership already had at least hundreds of miles on them, and a few had more than a thousand miles on them while being shown online as “zero” miles. If I spend $60 to $75k on a new vehicle, I don’t want something that’s been hard started and thrashed for 3,000 miles during cold weather test drives. Every brand has this situation, but it seems to affect Lincoln more.
   3) The price of a Continental with any decent options put it far into a highly competitive price range of cars that I simply found to be better driving and handling.

   Reply
9. 

   This brand being dead last in reliability according to Consumer Reports might have impacted January 2021 sales, we will see how the rest of the year goes.

   Reply
10. 

    Well since everyone has already said, yes…Lincoln needs sedans like Cadillac with a better model range like Mercedes or BMW. The continental was nice and so was the mkz, but they need some true rear drive sedans that won’t be discontinued.

    Reply