2014 Lincoln MKC Spied With Improved MyLincoln Touch System
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Ford’s luxury brand Lincoln isn’t doing that well. In fact, it’s not well at all. In an environment where other automotive luxury brands are winning new buyers and expanding into new segments, sales of Lincoln vehicles are down 5% so far this year through September. So it should’t come as a surprise that Lincoln has been hard at work to bring a new model with an entirely new nameplate to its portfolio to boost sales, attract a new set of customers, and possibly change its image. That vehicle is a compact crossover based on Ford’s Global C platform (Ford Focus, C-MAX, Escape, Transit Connect) that will be called MKC, and Ford-Lincoln is fast-tracking the CUV to market. A prototype of the vehicle was recently photographed undergoing testing.
Lincoln’s new signature split-wing grille from the MKC concept that first debuted at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit seems to be destined for production, but the headlights and squinty side mirrors have been replaced with regular-sized units commonly found in production vehicles.
Enthusiasts closely following Ford news may remember that The Blue Oval revealed plans to use more physical buttons and knobs in the MyFord Touch (MFT) system after waves of customer complaints about the capacitive touch controls found in the current system. The automaker, however, never mentioned plans to bring the elements to MyLincoln Touch (MLT). Notably, the MKC Concept unveiled in Detroit in January 2013 featured a center stack with capacitive touch controls. But this round of spy photos confirms that a return to physical buttons is also in the cards for MLT, as the MKC prototype does away with capacitive touch controls typically found in the the MyFord and MyLincoln Touch infotainment systems, replacing them instead with the more traditional knobs (two of them) and physical buttons.
When it launches sometime in 2014, the MKC will battle compact luxury CUVs such as the Acura RDX, Audi Q5, BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLK, and Infiniti EX. And given the MKC’s importance to Lincoln sales volume and brand, we expect to see Linc unveil the production variant of the MKC at an auto show sometimes in the next few months. Let’s just hope that the final product is “Lincoln enough” compared to its mechanically-identical Ford relatives.
Check out LLN here to see the spy shots.
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Lincoln will never make an impact in the market because the buying public has already forgotten about it. In most purchases, Lincoln is not on their list. Why? Because the buying public views the brand as a Ford! With the production MKC already having been seen confirms this notion. Just view the Concept MKC and the Production MKC and it verifies it. Ford is not willing to spend the money. The bean counters win all the time. I understand that there are certain concept designs that simple cannot be carried over into production but there many that can and Ford is not and never has been willing to spend the money. Just compare the MKC concept, which does not look at like an Escape, it has a head turning premium look. Now compare the production version and the vehicle has lost that head turning premium look. What is lost? The headlights for instance. Why couldnt the concepts been kept? Why not willing to spend the money. The integrated trapizode exhaust outlets with the nice chrome border and strip connecting the two outlets. Why couldnt those have been kept? Again it has to be money and not willing to redesign that part which will be used with the Escape. The Escape has the same round tailpipes with cutouts, not integrated. The mirrors, while you can see the Concepts may not have been practical, dont go grab one from the Ford parts bin and think the buying public will not notice. Design a unique mirror that closely resembles the concept version. The Concept MKC garnered alot of buzz from the auto industry and the public because we thought, ok this does not look like a Ford Escape, it looks like a premium luxury CUV that will grab attention. But instead we are getting a production vehicle that carried over some concept designs, however to many were not carried over and instead too many parts from the Escape parts bins were added. While the inside maybe different, you have to make the outside attractive in order to attract the buying public so that they will take the time to stop at a dealership to go view the vehicle and buy it. Instead all we are seeing is the same old thing from Ford, terrific concepts, still too much badge engineering, and new vehicles that are only keeping a group of people happy, the bean counters at Ford, who chop this and that to save money. Ultimately they will lose, and so will Lincoln for not taking the risk and spending the extra money on those special and unique designs. Its in the details guys when it comes to luxury vehicles. The bean counters need to get that!