VW vs Lincoln

[BobinCols]

My first car was a 1970 VW Beetle and my wife and I have owned two Jettas which were all great cars but I'd never thought the day would come that a VW dealership would be worth more than a Lincoln-Mercury dealership. But that's what is happening in southwest Columbus where a dealer closed up his Lincoln-Mercury franchise and is remodeling and putting his VW franchise in its place. Times change. It's sad to say but if it weren't for the Big Threes pickup lines, they would be in worse shape than they are in.

 

[BigDave]

Lincoln sales have been soft for few years, but they are now selling trucks: Navigator, Blackwood & Aviator - just dressed-up Fords. I have 2001 Lincoln LS V8, and I am very happy with the car. It is comfortable, well balanced, stable at high speeds and in the corners. I have 25K miles and no problems. I believe the LS is a transformational car for Lincoln, but it might be too late to shed the old-fogey image. I'm tempted to trade my car in on a 2003 LS next summer: improved interior materials & 28 more hp. With 252hp my car has plenty of get-up & go, but think what you could do with 280hp.../w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Ford killed the Blackwood because of poor sales. Last I knew they only sold about 4000 of them. Navigator is doing quite well though and you are right, the LS is a nice car. If I had a purpose for a car I would strongly consider the LS or Mustang Cobra. However, everything I do requires a truck so I have a truck. But when I retire in about 30 years........

 

[rationalizer]

What do you think of VW selling a $40K W8 (yes W8, not V8) Passat? How about the coming $60K Phaeton and the $50K Taureg (an SUV on the same hardware as the Porsche Cayenne). VW is moving disctinctly upmarket. Not sure what they are going to do with Audi... Lots of people are trying to elbow into the luxury market which means that margins will be slimmer and the profits harder and harder to come by.


It is good for the consumer however - there are lots of very nice cars and trucks out there.

 

[Muhammad]

(rambling)

Audi is moving more and more into the sport luxury market (to rival BMW), while VW isn't going to be so quick to jump in with super-high performance cars... and is going to be more along the lines of a less-expensive alternative to Mercedes-Benz.

Obviously, VW's brand image in America means it's going to take forever for a typical MB buyer to look at a VW and make a decision based on something other than brand image.

That said, in Europe VW is already a very highly regarded brand, so the W8 and W12-powered cars will do a lot better there than they will here (initially, anyway). For example, the Audi A8 W12 was held back from the American market because the market just couldn't support four engine/trim versions of one high-priced German luxo sedan. This is true across almost every European brand that comes to America.

 

[frank_f15]

sorry robert: u ain't going to be able to retire in 30 years. the federal goverment is going to make sure of that!/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif i think i better not go on or i will tick off a lot of folks

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I doubt I could afford to retire anyways with my spending habits. But I can still dream/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[BigDave]

Instead of trading in my truck, I kept it. This allowed me to buy my very first car AND my very first automatic. I get to drive a car to work and to take on long trips. I get to drive the truck to Home Depot & the dump. Basically, I drive the car on the weekdays & the truck on the weekends. There's some extra auto insurance to pay, but it's worth it.

BTW, I also hope to retire someday...30 yrs sounds about right.

 

[Robert_in_NY]

Except in my case I need the truck during the week as well as the weekend. I don't get to go many places where I can take a car and when I do get the time to go to such places I actually like to take the truck because it is usually snowing and icy so I have 4wd if I need it. One of these days though/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif