TRAVERSE CITY -- Ford Motor Co. is expected to announce today that it's revving up its product development efforts with two new vehicles -- the Lincoln MKS flagship sedan and the Ford Shelby GT, a new high-performance Mustang.
Mark Fields, president of Ford's Americas group, will discuss the new models at the Management Briefing Seminars, an annual conference in Traverse City organized by Ann Arbor's Center for Automotive Research. In addition, Fields will promise that Ford will roll out nine new models in the next six months, most of which have already been announced. Fields is clearly hoping to quiet critics who question whether the company has enough new vehicles in the pipeline. The pledge for nine new vehicles includes the Ford Shelby GT, but not the Lincoln MKS, which won't go on sale until 2008.
"When we talk about acceleration at Ford, that includes more new products, features and technologies throughout our lineup," Fields said in a statement. "We are rebuilding our business for the future with an emphasis on more new products faster."
The MKS will be Lincoln's new full-size flagship sedan. It will be built on the same platform as the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego sedans that are built in Chicago, but it features a sleeker and more powerful design. "The Lincoln MKS will take Lincoln craftsmanship and comfort beyond anything we've built before," Fields said. "Its design communicates power, motion and speed, and it will be packed with more technology and features than any Lincoln before it."
The new sedan will also feature a panoramic vista roof. While Ford would not provide any details of the powertrain, the production concept it showed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January boasted an all-aluminum, 4.4-liter, 315-horsepower, V-8 engine paired with a new six-speed all-wheel-drive automatic transmission.
The production model is quite similar to the prototype but has been given a cleaner, more aerodynamic design. "It looks far less Japanese," said Jim Hall, an analyst with AutoPacific in Southfield, who has seen the new Lincoln. He said it could prove a big hit for Ford if offered with the right combination of price and powertrain.
"This is probably one of the most attractive offerings Lincoln has had in some time," said Erich Merkle, a brand analyst with IRN Inc. in Grand Rapids. "It's going to appeal to a younger audience." The new Lincoln MKS will face stiff competition from other new luxury cars debuting around the same time -- notably the redesigned Cadillac CTS.
The MKS effectively replaces the larger Lincoln Town Car that has been largely relegated to the livery fleet market in recent years.
The Town Car, which is based on a decades-old platform, is still produced at Ford's Wixom Assembly Plant, but the company has no plans to transfer it to another facility when that plant is idled next year as part of the company's North American restructuring. Ford would not comment on its future plans for the Town Car, but Ford spokeswoman Sara Tatchio said the new MKS "makes a great team with the MKZ," a redesigned and renamed version of the current Zephyr midsize sedan that will debut later this year. It will be the first vehicle to use Ford's new Duratech 35 V-6 engine. Two more new Lincolns are slated to go on sale this fall. The redesigned Navigator large sport utility vehicle will be in showrooms in September, followed by the all-new MKX crossover utility vehicle in November. An even bigger version of the Navigator, the Navigator L, will go on sale in December. Lincoln has been on the rebound. Its sales were up 8 percent for the first half of 2006, largely due to the success of the Zephyr, which was introduced last fall and is bringing a younger buyer to the marque. But analysts say Lincoln still has a long way to go to reclaim its former position as America's best-selling luxury brand.
"They just neglected Lincoln for so long," Merkle said. "They have lost a lot of ground." The Detroit News first disclosed details of the Ford Shelby GT on Aug. 3. The car is a retail version of the Ford GT-H, a high-performance version of the Mustang sports car developed by Ford Racing and Carroll Shelby's legendary customization shop for Hertz. The 4.6-liter, 325-horsepower Mustang will go on sale in January.
"We know the combination of Mustang and Shelby is magic, and we proved it again when we revealed the Ford Shelby GT-H for Hertz. The car received such rave reviews that our dealers and customers asked for a version of their own," Fields said.
Also coming from Ford in the next six months:
All-wheel-drive versions of the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan.
An F-150 pickup with increased towing capacity.
The Ford Edge midsize crossover vehicle.
A new Ford Expedition large SUV and an Expedition EL, a longer version of the vehicle.
Separately Tuesday, Ford's vice president for manufacturing in the Americas, Dave Szczupak, told analysts at the JP Morgan/Harbour Automotive Conference in Dearborn that Ford plans to build at least four new vehicles off the same platform used for its Ford Five Hundred sedan.
The vehicles include the MKS, another sedan and two for "future unique segments." One of those could be the Ford Fairlane, a new vehicle that will eventually replace minivans in Ford's lineup. Ford showed the Fairlane concept two years ago at the Detroit auto show.
