When Ford’s Lincoln Motor Company debuted the Continental concept at the 2015 New York International Auto Show in April, we had a plethora of questions run through our minds. One of these is whether the Continental concept will herald a change in the way the storied luxury brand named its vehicles.
With the exception of the Navigator, Lincoln’s current naming scheme involves a combination of three letters that start with MK and add one more letter to identify the model, such as MKZ, MKS, MKC, MKX, and MKT. But when the Continental concept makes it to production, will it be called MKS — the full-size Lincoln model that the Continental will most likely replace — or will it be called Continental? Lincoln has been somewhat shady on the matter, and we’re not quite decided on the topic.
On the one hand, Lincoln has some historic names from its past such as Zephyr, Versailles, Mark, Town Car, and more. And even though those are quite historic and carry some branding value, we wonder how relevant they are to today’s luxury car buyer. Similarly, it’s worth noting that most of today’s full-size luxury car buyers purchase vehicles with the following names: S-Class, 7 Series, A8/S8, and LS460, which makes us question the importance of a “real name” compared to building a quality product and building its reputation in the marketplace, regardless of name or naming nomenclature. And then there’s always the question of international markets, which might not be as receptive to a product whose name they’re not familiar with, or worse yet, can not understand.
So, what do you think: should Lincoln go back to calling its vehicles by “real” names such as Continental, Zephyr, etc., or should it stick with its current alphabetic nomenclature of MKC, MKZ, MKS, etc.? Perhaps you think Linc should call its vehicles something else entirely. So, vote in the poll below and sound off in the comments.
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