{"id":19452,"date":"2016-10-28T11:10:18","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T15:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=19452"},"modified":"2016-10-28T11:11:34","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T15:11:34","slug":"rolling-out-the-red-carpet-for-lincolns-continental","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/rolling-out-the-red-carpet-for-lincolns-continental","title":{"rendered":"Rolling out the red carpet for Lincoln\u2019s Continental"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"conti_fr\"<\/p>\n<\/div>

Los Angeles<\/i> \u2014 With anticipation surrounding the introduction of its dramatic, flagship Continental sedan at Detroit\u2019s North American International Auto Show in January, Lincoln has promised a brand reinvention centered around \u201cquiet luxury\u201d \u2014 a premium experience that\u2019s less about performance numbers and more about a personally-tailored, customer experience.<\/p>\n

But when the Lincoln finally, stealthily, rolled off the Flat Rock assembly line in late August to little fanfare, the \u201cquiet luxury\u201d mantra took on a different meaning.<\/p>\n

But now quiet luxury is about to get a lot noisier.<\/p>\n

The stunning Continental debuted to reporters from across the globe here this week at the posh Bel Air Hotel. The resulting stream of reviews, pictures and video comes as print ads shot by renowned photographer Annie Leibowitz are popping up in high-end publications. That will be followed by a year-end TV campaign featuring Lincoln\u2019s mumbling, finger-rubbing spokesman Matthew McConaughey<\/a>. Saturday Night Live parodies are sure to follow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe McConaughey ad is shot and in the can,\u201d smiled a Lincoln spokesman.<\/p>\n

Lincoln says the unusually hushed introduction of a brand flagship is part coordination of product shipping to some 30 markets around the globe, and partly to avoid the election campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to have critical mass at the dealerships so, when we gain messaging, people can go to the dealerships and experience it,\u201d said Continental chief program engineer Mike Celantino, 57. \u201cThere\u2019s a big political season going on. Getting the message out in the middle of that is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Continental is the latest headliner in a resurgence of American large luxury sedans. At the top of the polls is the expensive, battery-powered Tesla Model S<\/a>, which leads the class in sales, eclipsing even the mighty Mercedes S-class and BMW 7-series. Built in Silicon Valley, the Tesla is the pride of California, where it\u2019s as common as Cadillacs in Michigan. For its part, Cadillac has launched the acclaimed CT-6 sedan<\/a>. Benchmarked to BMW, the lightweight, powerful Caddy uses state-of-the-art bonding technology to create perhaps the best-handling big sedan made today.<\/p>\n

Lincoln\u2019s quiet luxury aims for a third way.<\/p>\n

Though Ford Chairman Bill Ford Jr. is as outspoken about weening autos from the internal combustion engine as Tesla\u2019s Elon Musk, the luxury brand at Ford\u2019s company has eschewed the high-cost, high-risk strategy pursued by Musk\u2019s electric startup. Rather than Tesla\u2019s macro-ambitions to save the planet, Lincoln is micro-focused on delivering \u201cgreat brand value and service\u201d to each individual customer, says Celentino.<\/p>\n

That includes services such as having dealers like dealer pick-up of Lincolns for all maintenance needs \u2014 and providing a Lincoln loaner. That commitment has already been put to the test when 1,900 Continentals were recalled<\/a> this month for a minor LED headlight fault.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what you would expect from a boutique hotel, which is where we\u2019re taking a page for the service aspect,\u201d Celentino said.<\/p>\n

The Continental, with three available V-6 engines, features state-of-the-art electronics, an industry-leading 30-way seat, and the same high-performance, torque-vectoring, all-wheel-drive system as the rally-racing star Ford Focus RS. But Lincoln has intentionally avoided a costly, ground-up, rear-wheel-drive platform revolution in order to compete against German sedans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very different from Cadillac,\u201d says Celentino. \u201cThe engineering is more about how does the car go through a corner more effortlessly, and less about how quickly can I get around a course like the Nurburgring\u201d \u2014 a reference to the legendary German race track where many sports sedans are tested.<\/p>\n

Instead, says Continental marketing chief Eric Turner, the Lincoln (based on a stretched version of Ford\u2019s front-wheel-drive Fusion) challenges the Mercedes E-Class and BMW 5-series in the meat of the mid-sized luxury market ($55,0000-$65,000) \u2014 but with full-size sedan interior room, stylish design and comparable amenities. Starting at $44,560, the Continental is $9,000 cheaper than Cadillac\u2019s CT-6.<\/p>\n

The Continental\u2019s Jaguar-like grille and headlights are the \u201cnew face of Lincoln,\u201d said Celentino. Those features will be adopted by every Lincoln from the 2017 MKZ sedan to future versions of Lincoln\u2019s elegant MKX and MKC crossover vehicles.<\/p>\n

The Continental marks the rebirth \u2014 not just of Lincoln\u2019s image \u2014 but of the Continental as the brand\u2019s flagship. The Continental name was retired in 2002. This week\u2019s media rollout featured more Chinese journalists than American, because Lincoln is launching a major expansion in China, where the business culture covets the big back seats of lux sedans. Lincoln plans to have 65 dealerships in China by the end of this year and has already more than doubled sales from 2015 to more than 20,000 cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen the amount of support at the highest level for the Lincoln Continental,\u201d says Ford\/Lincoln veteran Celentino. \u201cEveryone is fully invested in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. <\/span><\/p>\n

Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles \u2014 With anticipation surrounding the introduction of its dramatic, flagship Continental sedan at Detroit\u2019s North American International Auto Show in January, Lincoln has promised a brand reinvention centered around \u201cquiet luxury\u201d \u2014 a premium experience that\u2019s less about performance numbers and more about a personally-tailored, customer experience. But when the Lincoln finally, stealthily, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19452"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19452"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19454,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19452\/revisions\/19454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}