[CJKnox]

Imran Jalal the marketing manager for Lincoln was interviewed by Car and Driver and he revealed the the production Continental will debut at the 2016 NAIAS this coming January.

Other interesting points from the article:

1) No Lincoln expansion into Europe. Core markets continue to be US and China. For now. :sleeping:

2) The Continental will be offered with FWD and an AWD option will be available. There will be no hybrid version anytime soon. :banghead:

3) The Continental won't usher in a new naming scheme, Apparently the MK_ nomenclature is here to stay for the Z,C,and X. Only the Navi and the Conti will have actual names. :surprise:

4) There will be no sporty derivatives of the Continental; Lincoln wants to focus mainly on luxury not performance. :banghead:

5) The MKT is here to stay for a few more years as its a popular livery option. No replacement has yet been decided upon. (Aviator?) :lmao::lmao:


No european expansion was expected but honestly I'm surprised the Conti is not AWD only and that there will be no performance version. I wasn't expecting an "AMG:tongue:" Conti or anything but I was hoping to see the 3.5 EB utilized and spun into a "performance" type vehicle; even the stangs 5.0 would be a neat mix although I knew that was less likely to happen. Seeing as they want to go after a younger clientele this would be the perfect way to do it theoretically speaking. I'm also surprised to hear no name change for the rest of the lineup; but I suspect that the names will be changed when the vehicles get completely redesigned. I guess we'll see with the new MKZ/Zephyr if that's true or not. All in all if the production version shares at least 90 percent of the DNA of the concept I think it'll be a success. I think however Lincoln desperately needs to widen it's powertrain options to stay competitive. Of course Ford has the final say but they need to get with it!:banghead:

Link to full article: http://blog.caranddriver.com/luxury-not-performance-at-lincoln-and-the-continental-bows-at-detroit/

 

[2b2]

:thumb: :thumb:

...
3) The Continental won't usher in a new naming scheme, Apparently the MK_ nomenclature is here to stay for the Z,C,and X. Only the Navi and the Conti will have actual names. :surprise:

I approve ...+Aviator +LincStang

...
4) There will be no sporty derivatives of the Continental; Lincoln wants to focus mainly on luxury not performance. :banghead:

there's a LOT of wiggle room in that imho

...
5) The MKT is here to stay for a few more years as its a popular livery option. No replacement has yet been decided upon. (Aviator?) :lmao::lmao:

ditto: define 'replacement'

...I'm surprised the Conti is not AWD only and that there will be no performance version. I wasn't expecting an "AMG:tongue:" Conti or anything but I was hoping to see the 3.5 EB utilized and spun into a "performance" type vehicle; even the stangs 5.0 would be a neat mix although I knew that was less likely to happen. Seeing as they want to go after a younger clientele...

...I think however Lincoln desperately needs to widen it's powertrain options to stay competitive...

imho the Conti isn't aimed at (most) younger people ...at least until cD6 comes along
otoh
2) The Continental ... There will be no hybrid version anytime soon.
this ^ is a BIG mistake ...UNLESS it's FLincMoCo playing word games = all they need is a "Plug-In" until next decade (OR
since whatever a FLincMoCo suit says is only valid the day spoken,
"soon" means BEFORE MIDNITE
:angel


AGREE more drivetrain choice BUT, other than electrification, that need is more Yurpish (Americans are used to lack of choice) unless China *wants* it

 

[nruggiero]

Down the road, Lincoln could team up with fashion and designer brands, as it has in the past. The 1970s Mark V, for instance, was available as a Bill Blass and other designers’ series.

Interesting, but doubtful.

I do believe the MK_ nomenclature will eventually be phased out. Aviator is the next addition. It's a terrible nomenclature, so I hope it dies a much deserved death.

 

[DetroitBORG]

Why are people surprised it's not AWD only? The concept completely spoiled expectations, just remember this is an MKS successor not a Continental Concept successor. Lincoln has not built an S-Class on the bones of a Ford Fusion/Taurus. Continental is very much a classic Lincoln, a little on the affordable posh side of the spectrum and less on the exclusive high-tech performance luxury sedan side. It's still priced around $39K to start and maxes out under $70K. Look at the pricing spread of MKX and you have your Continental, maybe add a few grand to the top tier with some beefier luxury car amenities like 30-way seats, insta-clear windshield, and more.

We likely won't see a systematic renaming of existing nameplates but unpopular products like MKS and MKT likely won't see their names carry on if a suitable alternative can be found. Aviator and Navigator seem to work well together, although there is a 'lesser' quality to the name next to Navigator which is a marketing concern worth considering.

MKT sells in minuscule numbers, but he is right in that it will be here a couple years (end of 2016 into early 2017).

 

[2b2]

The MKT, the large crossover that is so popular with the livery business, will carry on for another few years, but there is no decision yet on a replacement.

I wonder if my MKX-LG could NOT be considered a 'replacement'?
same platform afterall...
OR

if they could keep the existing MKT for livery while also making my rebodied version for retail

 

[gjrip]

Completely as expected other than AWD being "available." This vehicle is already priced at a relatively high price point, it should be standard. This is an MKS replacement, sure, but it's supposed to be an improvement and things like that solidify the new car as distinctly more. I'm not saying this won't be better than the MKS but I am disappointed at FWD standard. Other than that, from the spy pics we've seen, I am thoroughly impressed.

 

[Andrew L]

Europe was a given but weren't they thinking of Australia? I could have sworn they mentioned that at the beginning of their latest rebuild.

 

[Logans Run]

4) There will be no sporty derivatives of the Continental; Lincoln wants to focus mainly on luxury not performance.

This is a pretty somber statement as it appears he is referencing the entire Lincoln brand.
In my opinion, performance; along with comfort, design, and technology, are the key foundations of luxury.

I'll hold off judgment until the car is revealed, but if Lincoln is serious about luxury, the other three foundations better exceed expectations.

 

[joseodiaga4]

Imran Jalal the marketing manager for Lincoln was interviewed by Car and Driver and he revealed the the production Continental will debut at the 2016 NAIAS this coming January.

Other interesting points from the article:

1) No Lincoln expansion into Europe. Core markets continue to be US and China. For now. :sleeping:

2) The Continental will be offered with FWD and an AWD option will be available. There will be no hybrid version anytime soon. :banghead:

3) The Continental won't usher in a new naming scheme, Apparently the MK_ nomenclature is here to stay for the Z,C,and X. Only the Navi and the Conti will have actual names. :surprise:

4) There will be no sporty derivatives of the Continental; Lincoln wants to focus mainly on luxury not performance. :banghead:

5) The MKT is here to stay for a few more years as its a popular livery option. No replacement has yet been decided upon. (Aviator?) :lmao::lmao:


No european expansion was expected but honestly I'm surprised the Conti is not AWD only and that there will be no performance version. I wasn't expecting an "AMG:tongue:" Conti or anything but I was hoping to see the 3.5 EB utilized and spun into a "performance" type vehicle; even the stangs 5.0 would be a neat mix although I knew that was less likely to happen. Seeing as they want to go after a younger clientele this would be the perfect way to do it theoretically speaking. I'm also surprised to hear no name change for the rest of the lineup; but I suspect that the names will be changed when the vehicles get completely redesigned. I guess we'll see with the new MKZ/Zephyr if that's true or not. All in all if the production version shares at least 90 percent of the DNA of the concept I think it'll be a success. I think however Lincoln desperately needs to widen it's powertrain options to stay competitive. Of course Ford has the final say but they need to get with it!:banghead:

Link to full article: http://blog.caranddriver.com/luxury-not-performance-at-lincoln-and-the-continental-bows-at-detroit/

a bit weird that somebody at Lincoln confirms a debut date, they don't usually do that!
I thought the Conti could be AWD Only
They other info is not new but sad to read that they don't plan more Hybrids

 

[falcon lover]

In my opinion, Lincoln needs to change the MK whatever name scheme progressively. Now, Continental replace MKS, later Aviator replace the MKT, after that Zephyr replace the MKZ....

The Continental with FWD? Is Ok. The best seller sedan in Cadillac line up is the FWD XTS...

No performance version of the new sedan?. It doesnt need that. I hope the top engine option will be a 2,7 ecoboost with much more than 300 HP...

NYAS debut means the car will be launched by autumn.... Oh My God... I hope Lincoln can do it flawless

MKT here for some years? I hope for 2 years only... and then will be replaced by a new Explorer based (Aviator) vehicle...

 

[DetroitBORG]

MKT and Flex can stick around until CLOSE to the next-gen Explorer and you can build quite an inventory ahead of a discontinuation, but they can't push them much farther without making key updates to the hardware which they are not going to do. The next-gen Explorer will be a pretty big deal for both Ford and Lincoln, probably a bigger deal to Lincoln than the Continental. I'm pretty excited to see what they do.

As for MKX, TONs of backseat room now and it's lower to the ground so it's actually an option, but headroom and hip-room isn't as spacious as MKT. The Livery market hasn't really embraced the MKT in any significant quantity like the Town Car it replaces so I really doubt that's a reason to keep it. The MKT and Flex are likely still here because there are no planned replacements and they share very busy lines which makes production sustainable.

 

[SP1966]

1. Nobody should be surprised by FWD being standard. Lincoln wasn't going to join the ranks of the elite overnight and standard AWD just raises the base price, they would be better adding that additional cost to the interior quality/amenities than standard AWD.

2. The Continental is a big FWD based car, even if it has AWD it's NOT the starting point for a high performance sedan, not today, not ever.

Now given FWD is standard I'm thinking the AWD system is going to be the same old front biased system they use elsewhere, nothing quite like what the RS gets which could change the driving dynamics for the better. None of this surprises really, but it does put greater importance on appearance, the production Continental absolutely has to be drop dead gorgeous! If the production car loses the concepts sexy, while proving to be a big, soft Fusion then they should have left it a MKS.

 

[wingsnut]

I too don’t understand the mindset, that you throw everything at a product, and make it all standard, best in class and affordable.

Those are very divergent tasks, and although not insurmountable (GT-350 comes pretty close), they are very exclusionary. You basically then cater to a niche demographic, because not everyone wants the raw track performance of a GT-350 in a base GT Mustang……and not everyone wants a 400 hp AWD luxury car that is packed with every luxury feature known to man. Some just want a capable V8 coupe, or a soft luxury car that looks great. Kudos to Ford for making variations in between.

I think we get a bit to mired in our role as internet forum jockeys.
I am someone who might actually buy one of the above, and I want choice….not best in class standard features, with worst in class price.

 

[SP1966]

The Livery market hasn't really embraced the MKT in any significant quantity like the Town Car it replaces so I really doubt that's a reason to keep it.

Living in Vegas I can see clearly every day what vehicle the livery market has embraced in place of the TC, and its largely GM SUVs. You'll see the occasional lengthened XTS, but mostly Escalades and Suburbans.

 

[Dds010]

Rs derived AWD should be standard, and there's no excuse why it isnt other than bean counters and Ford's ineptness to run/ manage/ produce anything even REMOTELY considered luxury . Only delusional Ford fan boys don't see this a problem. Yes it's a MKS replacement, but a replacement that's suppose to be going so much further than the current model. And no, while the interview didnt provide that much information, it did however give an incite to Ford's ambitions with the Contiental. One can talk about their price constraints all they want BUT cars have been produced many times before well under the price that they should have been sold (Lexus LS, first couple years of current Gen Godzilla), and both of those companies efforts extremely ambitious. A fully loaded Contiental may put up a fight, but how good of a fight, when the bottom rung model is a rides on a elongated mainstream sedan

 

[wingsnut]

Rs derived AWD should be standard, and there's no excuse why it isnt other than bean counters and Ford's ineptness to run/ manage/ produce anything even REMOTELY considered luxury . Yes it's a MKS replacement, but a replacement that's suppose to be going so much further than the current model. And no, while the interview didn't provide that much information, it didn't however give an incite to Ford's ambitions with the Contiental. One can talk about their experiences price constraints all they want BUT cars have been produced many times before well under the price that they should have been sold (Lexus LS, first couple years of current Gen Godzilla)

Bean counters?
You mean a person, typically an accountant or bureaucrat, perceived as placing excessive emphasis on controlling expenditure and budgets?

Well, since adding AWD as standard raises the price, which raises ATP's....your theory makes zero sense. They stand to MAKE more money, not less.

 

[Dds010]

Bean counters?
You mean a person, typically an accountant or bureaucrat, perceived as placing excessive emphasis on controlling expenditure and budgets?

Well, since adding AWD as standard raises the price, which raises ATP's....your theory makes zero sense. They stand to MAKE more money, not less.

Well since it would raise ATPs, and a you "say" bean counters would love the raised ATPs, why ol why would AWD not be standard???...lemme guess everyone doesn't want or need AWD or some other excuse in Ford's favor when in reality there is no excuse for this. Me like so many thought that since they were going to take the cheap approach and use a pedestrian sedan platform, that they were at least going to go all out in every imaginable way with the vehicle in its entirety, not just the loaded up version (not meaning options) but clearly Ford, it's bean counters, and the ford fan boy brethren had different ideas

 

[wingsnut]

Well since it would raise ATPs, and a you "say" bean counters would love the raised ATPs, why ol why would AWD not be standard???...lemme guess everyone doesn't want or need AWD or some other excuse in Ford's favor when in reality there is no excuse for this. Me like so many thought that since they were going to take the cheap approach and use a pedestrian sedan platform, that they were at least going to go all out in every imaginable way with the vehicle in its entirety, not just the loaded up version (not meaning options) but clearly Ford, it's bean counters, and the ford fan boy brethren had different ideas

I am trying to understand the very simple business model, of selling more volume, and I agree with it. You don't have to.

Why on earth would you resort to insults?

 

[DetroitBORG]

Continental will probably move up significantly in price at the top end and I'm sure there will be plenty of customers interested in those high margin models (aided by the expectations of the Continental Concept and the name cache). It will be tremendous success for Lincoln with or without volume, but they still want an entry model with the best FE possible as well.

 

[2b2]

1. Nobody should be surprised by FWD being standard. Lincoln wasn't going to join the ranks of the elite overnight and standard AWD just raises the base price, they would be better adding that additional cost to the interior quality/amenities than standard AWD.

2. The Continental is a big FWD based car, even if it has AWD it's NOT the starting point for a high performance sedan, not today, not ever.

Now given FWD is standard I'm thinking the AWD system is going to be the same old front biased system they use elsewhere, nothing quite like what the RS gets which could change the driving dynamics for the better. None of this surprises really, but it does put greater importance on appearance, the production Continental absolutely has to be drop dead gorgeous! If the production car loses the concepts sexy, while proving to be a big, soft Fusion then they should have left it a MKS.

( not exactly a reply but continuing from^... )
3. what I've been posting 'around' with my 3rd-middle sedan stuff is that if FLincMoCo did what many of us want for the Conti,
there'd be a HOLE between the Z & Conti's price ranges big enough to drive an MKS thru
which is not a good way to consolidate one's demographic or perception
so since-apparently there's no middle sedan (nor LongWlb-Z?), the Conti HAD to "Reach-LOW" enough that Fwd was nec.

4. the other thing on my mind is HP - not at the top-performance-end but
how much can they reasonably put on 2 front wheels?
It seems like most(?) EBs make (at least) like 120-125 hp-per-liter now
so
even a 2.7EB oughta make over 300hp (& could make close to 400hp)
............3.0EB >> 360 to 450hp :eek:
Thus
will this BASE-Version have a NON-EB?? re-:eek:
or a 4cyl??? :eek::eek::eek:

5. if cD6 wasN'T coming &thus THIS Conti wasN'T temporary
( if cD6 wasN'T coming &thus THIS Conti wasN'T temporary...
...repeated to let it sink in )
I could see 2 (TWO) Awd systems, normie & RS + FWD
cuz
the C-platform has that (if you include the EsKuga)