Update, strategy, and a no-no for Lincoln

I am still working on my vehicle lineup posts. March has just been an unfortunately hella busy month. First will come the Ford lineup, followed shortly by Mercury, and then Lincoln. As a preview, here's how I see each brand fitting into the USDM landscape:

Ford

The brand is the volume lineup with the broadest reach within the FoMoCo family. Everything from entry-level economy subcompacts to full-size sedans with luxury pretensions to legitimate sports cars to large trucks and SUVs. Styling would be a hybrid of the current "Bold" flavor and the European "kinetic" design language, with a version of the current grille evolved into more of a narrow billet-style, like this one. While there will be some specific comparisons among specific vehicles, generally Ford would be positioned against Chevrolet, Dodge, Honda, Jeep, Nissan, Toyota, and other mainstream brands.

Mercury

Mercury is being positioned as a combination entry-lux brand and a European competitor. The lineup is obviously not as comprehensive as that of Ford, but it does cover the high volume market segments with vehicles that aspire towards the higher-end of the segment, with sportier, European pretensions. Styling would mainly incorporate the "Kinetic" design language, with waterfall grilles, HID headlights, LED taillights, and other minor tweaks to fit the USDM. As with Ford, certain vehicles would be targeted at specific competitors, but generally the brand would be positioned against Saturn, Volkswagen, Saab, Acura, Buick, Chrysler, and other near-luxury brands.

Lincoln

Lincoln is the moon-shot brand, the aspirational brand that will be aimed at the best in the world. Styling would incorporate the current design language of the split grille with a chiseled, look more consistent with the current "Bold" design language. Luxury cues would obviously abound, including HID/LED headlights, thin, wide LED taillight clusters, etc. Lincoln would be aimed at the best brands, including Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes, etc. As with Cadillac, it is expected that pricing against competing vehicles would be likely 10 to 15 percent lower, due to the ability to amortize platform and powertrain costs across several vehicle lineups.

In any respect, the lineup posts should be coming soon. One Lincoln vehicle that will have no place in my lineup is this:Lincoln is envisioning the MKT, which would be based on the Ford Flex (which is another vehicle I want no part of) as their competitor to Buick's Enclave. I have two issues with this. First, the MKX is already in place for this...and to enlarge it to add a third row would help to differentiate it from the Edge. Besides, with its new Limited package, the Edge treads very closely to the current MKX. But more importantly, THIS THING IS FREAKING UGLY!! Pontiac Aztek ugly!! This vehicle has no future in my world, and even if Ford did move forward with it, there's no way it's going to sell in any quantity, with looks like these!

Posts coming soon!

Welcome to how I would do it

Because I have zero extra time on my hands and not enough blogs in my life, I decided to start another. The idea behind this is one specific topic, and I will likely devote many posts to this one idea. I may expand into other topics where I have a compulsion to share how I would do it. But for now, this blog will focus on one idea...how would I create a competitive model lineup for Ford Motor Company's North American operations. Specifically, Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln. While owned or partially owned for the time being, I will not focus (no pun intended) on Mazda, Volvo, Land Rover, or Jaguar. Some componentry will likely be shared from these companies where appropriate, as is current practice.

But the idea behind this is my passion for all things automotive, a general love of the Blue Oval, and the shared dismay that many enthusiasts in North American (not just Ford, but GM, Honda, Toyota, and others, too) share when we see vehicles sold in other parts of the world by subsidiaries of said companies that are really cool and would likely sell well here, but aren't brought here. The two most obvious examples are the Holden Commodore and the Ford Falcon, both of which are native Australian vehicles sold respectively by GM and Ford's Australian divisions. In their respective mild, family vehicle configurations, both are attractive, comfortable, and relatively affordable competitors to the mainstream Accord/Camry/Altima trifecta. When done up in their performance guise, they can each run toe to toe with the BMW 5 series and other such luminaries. Yet only until recently has there been any progress made in bringing them here. GM is actually getting its act together, with such fine product as the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu, the 2008 Cadillac CTS, the 2008 Pontiac G8, and the 2008 Buick Enclave. The G8 is particularly interesting because it is a mildly reworked version of the aforementioned Holden Commodore. Right down to its small block V8 and rear wheel drive chassis. Now it's Ford's turn. Over the next several posts, I'll lay out a complete vehicle lineup for Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln, lineups that will identify styling cues, platforms, powertrains, pricing info, and likely competitors. These will be full-range lineups that attempt to further define the individual brands, amortize development costs thru platform/powertrain sharing, while attempting to individualize the styling amongst the brands. Where I think it makes sense, an entire vehicle from an international Ford division would be brought to North America, federalized while preserving as much of its current styling as possible, and inserted directly into the lineups.

My photochop skillz are far from mad, so I don't know what I'll be able to present in terms of renderings, but I'll do what I can. Maybe someone from Ford will listen.

Oh, one more thing. I thought of this idea myself, but I am drawing further inspiration from a website I discovered courtesy of posts on either Jalopnik or Autoblog: GM Inside News' Revitalization In Action. I can only dream of having those types of skills to produce a website as utterly cool as that one, but for now the passion will have to carry it.