Friday, May 12, 2017

Lincoln MKS - Get Off My Lawn


We've all heard that old saying about how much value a new car loses the instant it goes over a new car dealership's curb. Some, of course, more than others. According to autoblog.com, the 2017 champion of depreciation is the Fiat 500L - this ugly little lump losing just over $8,000 or nearly 35% of its initial value within the first year of ownership. Once more taste being like armpits; I for one have no idea why anyone would buy this thing but that's just little ole me.


Also on the list of new cars that will exaserbate buyers remorse losing more than 30% of their initial value in the first year of ownership are the Buick Regal, Chrysler 300, Cadillac CTS, Fiat 500 - that's two for Fiat on the list and three total if you count the 300, Jaguar XF, Lincoln MKZ, Nissan Maxima, Mercedes C250 - do I not know junk when I see it or not?, Kia Cadenza, Volvo S60 and last but not least rounding out this fat pack of expensive losers coming in at #2, the other Lincoln sedan that no one ever knew about, our subject today, the Lincoln MKS.


Rather than focus on what was wrong with the MKS, though, let's first focus on the positive about this thing which has been discontinued. Replaced by perhaps the most ridiculous Lincoln ever but we'll get to that in a moment. For the record, one of the reasons the MKS is on this list is because it's been discontinued; being what they call "orphaned" in the car biz has always been disastrous for resale in the first couple of years after a model has been axed. I don't buy new but I can somewhat understand why fashion conscious new car buyers might not want to be seen in outdated duds. 


Lincolns have long been little more than dressed up Fords or Mercurys much in the same way you could argue that Cadillacs have long been gussied up Oldsmobiles, Buicks or dare I even say Chevrolets. That's not so much the truth anymore with Cadilac save for the Impala/LaCrosse clone they call "XTS". Anyway, the MKS, which is a fancy Taurus, has all of the inherent attributes the Taurus has. It's stout of structure and has very impressive driving dynamics. The car is big, solid and safe; it's a rolling two ton bank vault. Then again, what car in this class isn't these days? And, subjectively, the MKS is better looking than the Taurus it's based on. 


On paper, the MKS handles, brakes and accelerates as well if not better than anything it was targeted against at first from Audi, Mercedes Benz and BMW. What's more, Lincoln crammed as much "tech" into the MKS as they could and kept the price point on a fully loaded model to a relatively "modest" $60,000. Let's not kid ourselves that $60G is not a lot of money for a car but when you compare it to those tonier German makes, to get what Lincoln offered in the MKS out of a Mercedes E class, you'd have to have spent considerably more.


And therein lies the biggest problem with the Lincoln MKS. Those that have the beans to drop that much on a car aren't or weren't buying it. They bought those German makes and what's more - they had no problem spending more to get them equipped like this "cheapo" Lincoln. Or they bought a Cadillac.


Another problem that Lincoln had with the MKS was that they offered the, again subjective, better looking MKZ for sale on the same dealership floor. Smaller, slightly less expensive and drop dead gorgeous, the MKZ offered something the MKS never did - styling that transcended what the vehicle was. In this case the fact that it was "just" a Lincoln. 


Lincoln suffers from much of the same maladies that Cadillac suffers from only worse - Lincolns are for "old people" just like Cadillac but they're not even Cadillac. In this day and age of Cadillac consistently producing automobiles that better anything from Germany, still boggles the mind, and they too aren't selling in droves, what chance does a literal #2 have in a one horse luxury town? That's why Lincoln has thrown in the towel on attempting to be something it's not and has resorted to slapping a "hallowed nameplate" on its replacement for the MKS that they market as a rolling boudoir first and foremost. Is it selling any better than the MKS? Nope. But it least they're not comparing it to makes and models from Germany hoping that someone would not buy a BMW and buy a Lincoln instead. Only time will tell that if the Continental will make the impact on the low end of the high end market they hope it will. I, for one, am going to stand my ground on what I've said about that car from the get go. Lincoln should just stick to pushing out luxury cross overs since they're the only thing they make that sells. 


What I'm gonna do when the time comes is find a low mileage, Gramma driven Lincoln MKS for about the cost of a similarly aged vintage Taurus. And I wouldn't care that having one in my drive way pegs me as "old". If that's the case then so be it. What it really says is that this "old guy" knows value when he sees it. Our lovely and loaded 2013 example here has just 23,000 miles on it and has an asking price of under $24,000. Wow. New this thing sticker priced for $58,000. This would be a private sale so the asking price is lower than a dealership's but still, this is a lot of car for the money. Would you rather have a (hideous) new Malibu or a slightly used three year old Lincoln?  Try and find anything on a used car lot today that can offer the type of value a used Lincoln MKS can. I'd be curious to see what you come up with. And get off my lawn.

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