966 Lincoln Continental Suicide Doors on 2040-cars

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Ford 2Q profit drops 86% as it restructures overseas

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford's net profit tumbled 86% in the second quarter due largely to restructuring costs in Europe and South America. Net income for the April-through-June period dropped to $148 million, or 4 cents per share. Without the charges the company made 28 cents per share. Revenue was flat at $38.9 billion. On average, analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings 31 cents per share on revenue of $38.49 billion. Chief Financial Officer Tim Stone says the company had charges of $1.2 billion as it moved to close factories in Europe and South America. He says Ford already is seeing an impact from its global fitness measures that included a reduction of 7,000 white-collar workers. Ford, which released numbers after the markets closed Wednesday, says its results include a $181 million valuation loss on an investment in a software company, trimming 4 cents off adjusted earnings per share. Its stock fell 6.3% in after-hours trading to $9.68. Stone said Ford is in the early stages of its restructuring, but already is seeing improvement in some regions. Free cash flow also improved by 80% to $2.1 billion in the first half of the year, he said. "We're already starting to see some early benefits," he said. "A lot of work to do." The company expects improvement in the second half of the year as more new big SUVs hit dealerships and more of the restructuring takes hold. Ford on Wednesday forecast pretax adjusted earnings of $7 billion to $7.5 billion for all of 2019, compared with $7 billion last year. The company previously had only said that pretax earnings would improve. Full-year adjusted earnings per share are forecast to be $1.20 to $1.35, up from $1.30 in 2018. Previously it did not give per-share guidance. Ford's U.S. sales fell nearly 5% in the second quarter, according to the Edmunds.com auto pricing site, as the company exited most of its passenger car business. But Stone said sales of the new Ford Ranger small pickup offset much of that as its share of the small truck segment rose 14%. Edmunds, which provides content for The Associated Press, said Ford's average vehicle sale price rose 2.8% to $41,328 during the quarter. In North America, Ford's biggest profit center, pretax earnings fell 3% to just under $1.7 billion, which the company blamed on switching its Chicago factory to build new versions of midsize SUVs.

2016 Lincoln MKX images and details hit the web

Well, what do we have here? In what we're assuming is an accidental leak, a live URL from Lincoln Canada has been brought to our attention, and it's chock full of information on a new 2016 Lincoln MKX that we figure will most likely see an introduction at the Detroit Auto Show right around the corner. "Inspired by airplane design," says Lincoln, we see a good bit of the smaller MKC in the design of the next MKX, and that's a good thing. We note HID lights with LED accents, a Panoramic Vista Roof, a hands-free power liftgate and a 360-degree camera mounted behind the front Lincoln emblem as tasty exterior details to look forward to. Inside is what appears to be a pretty darn beautiful cabin, with available Bridge of Weir leather seats with optional heating and cooling, plus 22-way adjustability. Open-pore wood in either walnut swirl of olive ash looks classy, and the newly available Revel audio with 13 or optionally 19 speakers ought to work well with the car's active noise control to provide a serene driving experience. We're not entirely sure what infotainment system the 2016 Lincoln MKX will boast, but the images appear to show a version of the much-maligned MyLincoln Touch interface, and not the upcoming Sync 3, although at least there is more physical switchgear for the HVAC, as on the MKC. As far as the vehicle's engine and chassis, we see mention of an available twin-turbo 2.7-liter EcoBoost, but there's no power rating just yet – we know it will be more than 300 horsepower, but how much more is still unknown. There's no mention of the 2016 MKX's transmission, which makes us think it will probably offer the same six-speed unit as the Ford Edge. On the plus side, there will be adaptive steering to go along with three driving modes – Normal, Comfort and Sport. Lincoln Drive Control with continuously controlled damping also sounds beneficial. That's all we know so far, but we're looking forward to getting all the details, hopefully in just a few days, since the vehicle is said to be hitting showrooms in the summer of 2015. In the meantime, check out the image gallery above, and feel free to read a lengthy discussion about the leak at the FordInsideNews.com forum. Featured Gallery 2016 Lincoln MKX Leaked Images View 14 Photos News Source: Lincoln Canada via Ford Inside NewsTip: Michael Detroit Auto Show Lincoln Crossover Luxury 2015 Detroit Auto Show lincoln mkx

Lincoln MKC will be renamed the Corsair in 2021, probably

Lincoln will be renaming its MKC crossover, calling it the Corsair instead. Automotive News is reporting that the recently trademarked, yet storied Ford model name Corsair will be affixed on the 2021 model year crossover. The report says Ford has already told its U.S. dealers about the name at an Orlando meeting last month. Ford has a long history with the Corsair nameplate in the States and abroad: Most recently, it has been in use in Australia in the early 1990s, in the UK in the 1960s, and before that Ford offered an Edsel Corsair in the late 1950s. Even if an Edsel connection might not be the best possible thing for a Ford product, let alone a Lincoln, it might serve the crossover well as Ford moves to ditch the MK naming convention it's used for Lincoln for the past decade. Still, the manufacturer is said to have cautioned dealers it might opt out of using the Corsair name before production time. At the same meeting, Ford reportedly showed the next-generation Escape, the Explorer, a battery electric crossover dubbed the Mach 1, a yet-unnamed small SUV (which might be the Bronco) , and a new Lincoln Continental complete with suicide doors. The MKC will still receive a refresh for next year, retaining its letters-name for a couple of years before the bigger redesign for 2021. Currently, the MKC is the strongest-selling Lincoln product in China, and it brings in numerous new Lincoln customers there. In the U.S. it's outsold by the MKX crossover and is neck-and-neck with the MKZ sedan.