1980 Lincoln Continental Base Hardtop 2-door 5.0l on 2040-cars

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BMW tops Consumer Reports 2023 Brand Report Card

Feels like we wrote about Consumer Reports' 2022 Brand Report Car and 10 Top Picks a few weeks ago, but it was last April. So the mag is back with a ranked roster of 32 brands and 10 vehicles in four categories for your debating pleasure. Starting with the brands, last year's top three were Subaru, Mazda and BMW. This year, the Munich crew climbed two spots to win the prize thanks to "Superb road test scores and solid results in CR’s reliability and owner satisfaction surveys." Subaru narrowly fell to second, maintaining its four-year run in the top three. Mini, eighth last year, jumped five spots to get the last step on the podium. The rest of the top 10 were Lexus (up one spot from last year), Honda (down one spot from last year), Toyota (up three), Genesis (up 12), Mazda (down six), Audi (down three) and Kia (up eight). The magazine and testing outfit says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CRÂ’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." Last year's top 10 had six automakers from Japan, three from Germany (giving Mini credit for England), none from the U.S. or South Korea, and five luxury brands. This year's list counts five makes from Japan, two from Germany because Porsche fell out of the top ten, two from South Korea, still none from the U.S., and four luxury brands. Buick again ranked as the best domestic, dropping to 12th after being 11th last year. The big mover was Lincoln, its 10-place jump up to 16th attributed to better reliability from the Corsair and Nautilus. Tesla's improved overall reliability saw it climb six spots to 17th. Dodge climbed one spot to 15th. Jeep got out of the penalty box in last to come second-to-last. Land Rover fell three places into the penalty spot.  CR's top 10 vehicle models The 10 Top Picks list is practically a new list. Only two holdovers made it to 2023, those being the Subaru Forester and Kia Telluride.

Lincoln may add suicide doors to future Continental

There's been plenty of uncertainty surrounding the future of the Lincoln Continental, a nameplate revived only 18 months ago but struggling to move units as sedans submit subduction-style to the techtonic boom in crossovers. We recently shared a report that the Continental won't live to see another generation after selling just 18,846 units in its year-and-a-half back on the market. Now comes a report from Automotive News saying that Lincoln at the 2018 NADA convention in Las Vegas showed a photo of the Continental with rear-hinged doors and said it plans to manufacture it. The publication cited several dealers who were in the room but didn't want to be identified. Lincoln, of course, isn't saying anything about rear-hinged suicide doors except to say that "Continental is an important part of the Lincoln family." The announcement at NADA was reportedly meant to convey a commitment to cars by Lincoln, which has been buoyed by crossovers like the MKC and its red-hot Navigator large SUV. There was no word on timing or other details about the suicide door-equipped Continental. Lincoln sold just 1,573 units of the sedan through February, down about 25 percent on the annualized monthly rate. Still, if Lincoln wants to plant its flag in the car segment, then its flagship is probably a good place to start. The Continental nameplate, which was revived in New York in 2015 as a concept, enjoys a long design lineage, of course, and boasted production suicide doors on the 1961 Continental Mk V. The luxury sedan also inspired one artist to reimagine the Continental as a two-door coupe, true to its original 1939 styling and demonstrating the car's versatility. And the car already has some concept-style futuristic touches, including hidden electric door handles and 30-way adjustable front seats. But suicide doors have mostly been relegated these days to concept vehicles, one-offs like this Rolls-Royca Sweptail and the Tesla Semi truck. So should we see this as a way for Lincoln to draw some attention to a struggling nameplate? Related Video:

2019 Lincoln Continental will cost as much as $5,000 more

Rumors have been swirling for months about the fate of the slow-selling Lincoln Continental amid Ford's larger plans to pare cars from its lineup in favor of trucks and SUVs. But now comes word of official order guides that show the 2019 Continental priced as much as $4,925 more than the previous year's model. That price bump brings more perks for buyers, however. According to CarsDirect, all models will get adaptive cruise control and the Lincoln Co-Pilot360 suite of safety technology, which includes automatic emergency braking, blind-spot information system and rearview camera. The base level Continental Premiere will start at $47,140, including destination fee, which is $985 more than the 2018 model. The Reserve model is where the starting price jumps $4,925 to $60,705. It adds technology like a 360-degree camera, heads-up display and park assist, plus heated rear seats and steering wheel and windshield wiper de-icer. The top-of-the-line Black Label edition starts at $71,040, an increase of $4,630, and adds 30-way adjustable seats. Those prices are considerably cheaper than comparably equipped competitors like the Audi A8 or BMW 7 Series, of course, but that value proposition hasn't so far managed to help the sedan's fortunes. Lincoln sold 12,012 models of the Continental in 2017, according to CarSalesBase.com. Sales through August were 5,677, which is more than 29 percent off the pace at this same point last year. Lincoln revived the storied Continental nameplate back in 2015 to much fanfare, but its market release in 2016 was a victim of bad timing, coming amid a rising tide of crossovers. Earlier this year Lincoln reportedly showed dealers photos of a Continental with rear-hinged suicide doors that it said it planned to manufacture, which may be an attempt to drum up interest. Jalopnik, citing unnamed sources familiar with Ford's product plans, says the Continental is likely to be killed off at the end of the run of the current model in 2020. That aligns with what a user on the Blue Oval Forums is saying, that shift changes at the Flat Rock Assembly plant near Detroit are coming and that workers have been told the Continental can be phased out of production by next summer. One supposed possibility is Ford moving production to China, though any plans to import sedans to the U.S. from there would seemingly be negated by the same Trump administration tariffs that killed plans to import the Ford Focus Active. Related Video: