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Lincoln unveils its Black Label Collection at Pebble Beach

With the posh surroundings of Monterey, CA during the Pebble Beach week as a backdrop, Lincoln has unveiled is new personalization and luxury service brand, called Lincoln Black Label. Following in the footsteps of programs like BMW Individual, Range Rover Autobiography, and many more, Black Label is strategic strike, aimed at upping Lincoln's brand cachet while luring new customers into the fold. Speaking about this at the Black Label's introduction in California Thursday, Jim Farley, Ford's executive vice president of Global Marketing, Sales and Service and Lincoln, told members of the media that "At Lincoln, our flagship is, you get to choose. That's our flagship."
While Black Label customers will benefit from concierge-like service from their dealers - both during the sale process and throughout ownership - the focus of the introduction is strongly focused on interior design.
Lincoln chose its current MKZ sedan and its MKC Concept crossover (seen in the inset image) as the debutants for Black Label treatment for good reason: the well-received MKC points the way forward for Lincoln styling as a whole, and the MKZ will be the first production vehicle to receive the option of the high-zoot interior design. We're told that eventually, Black Label treatment will be available for the full Lincoln lineup, but the MKZ will be the initial recipient, and not until late in 2014 according to the company's current projections.

Dealers mobilize to protect their margins from automaker subscription services

Six individual auto brands — Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo — have established or are trialing a vehicle subscription service in the U.S. Three third-party companies — Flexdrive, Clutch and Carma — run brand-agnostic subscription services. And three automakers — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and General Motors — have also launched short-term rental services. Dealers, afraid of how these trends might affect their margins, are building political and lawmaking campaigns to protect their revenue streams. So far, three states are investigating automaker subscriptions, and Indiana has banned any such service until next year. It's certain that those three states are the first fronts in a long political and legal battle. Powerful dealer franchise laws mandate the existence of dealers and restrict how automakers are allowed to interact with customers to sell a vehicle. On top of that, Bob Reisner, CEO of Nassau Business Funding & Services, said, "Dealers and their associations are among the strongest political operators in many states. They as a group are difficult for state politicians to vote against." In California earlier this year, the state Assembly debated a bill with wide-ranging provisions to protect against what the California New Car Dealers Association called "inappropriate treatment of dealers by manufacturers." One of those provisions stipulated that subscription services need to go through dealers, but that item got stripped out when dealers and manufacturers agreed to discuss the matter further. In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a moratorium on all subscription programs by dealers or manufacturers until May 1, 2019, to give legislators more time to investigate. Dealers in New Jersey have taken their campaign to the state capitol, asking that the cars in subscription programs get a different classification for registration purposes. Automakers run the current subscription services and own the vehicles. Sign-ups and financial transactions happen online or through apps, leaving dealers to do little more than act as fulfillment centers to various degrees, with little legal recourse as to compensation amounts when they're called on to deliver or service a car. That's a bad base to build on for business owners who've sunk millions of dollars into their operations.

Art students explore what a Lincoln might look like in 2040

Lincoln gave students at the ArtCenter College of Design an unusual challenge. It asked them to sketch their idea of what its cars will look like in the year 2040, and it instructed them to team up with students specializing in other fields (including film and illustration) to create a short movie that depicts their concept, the environment it operates in, and the folks who drive it. Over a year in the making, the final submissions have been presented to the public. "More than just the vehicles themselves, we were looking for that great narrative development, that rich storytelling. It's so important to understand the future ecosystem in which a concept vehicle will live," explained Jordan Meadows, the global strategic design specialist for Lincoln, in a statement.  Four teams of students participated in the project, which Lincoln called Quiet Flight 2040. Students received a basic set of guidelines that helped them create what the Ford-owned firm referred to as "the ultimate beautiful gliding human sanctuary," a term that's intentionally open to interpretation. Four body styles were chosen: a two-passenger car, a four-passenger vehicle, a different four-passenger model with a higher, SUV-like ride height and a six-seater. Participants created the concepts from scratch and showcased them in short films. The design studies are crammed with futuristic features, including autonomous driving systems, a technology that displays images on the dashboard, touchscreens embedded into the door windows, and a lounge-like interior that wouldn't look out of place at the Consume Electronics Show (CES). One is a crossover with a fastback-like roof line, another is a stately sedan, a third is an elegant coupe and the last is a van-like vehicle that looks like nothing Lincoln has ever built before. Nothing suggests these concepts will be built, let alone approved for production. What's certain is that, from a student's perspective, Lincoln's future looks a lot different than Polestar's. Volvo's upmarket offshoot held a similar contest in late 2020, and the finalists returned with a sci-fi blimp, an electric yacht and an autonomous pod. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. 2020 Lincoln Aviator Back Seat Review | Autoblog