Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
You don't need to build sales to build revenue. Build great cars & people will pay a premium for them. And buy them in decent numbers too. It takes a lot of time, money, and effort to pull off. And nothing says that the cars have to be great in any particular way either. Lexus and BMW are both very successful with wildly different approaches.
Not all sales are created equal. About the worst thing you can do for a luxury brand is to dump vehicles to rental companies. Not only to the rentals typically buy the cheapest version they can get (which hurts brand image when a person rents it & gets disappointed at the lack of features ... as well as bringing in less money for the automaker), but at the end of its service those cars are worth a lot less than their twins sold to the retail market. That drags the average resale value for the entire model line, which in turn makes leasing far less attractive. And if you don't have good leasing deals for your luxury brand, its not going anywhere.
Granted, a lot of Lincolns fleet sales are for limousine services as opposed to rentals but I'm sure the same logic is still going to apply. I can't see used limo's commanding a premium at auction compared to a used rental of the same make & model. Could even be worse as there is going to be an extremely limited market for limos that have reached the end of their service life.
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Again, your arguing point I agree with. I too wish Lincoln was making exciting to drive sport sedans along with money printing SUV's. But they have to work up to that point. Lets look at the numbers provided by MEDSIN above, ATP's and sales totals, and the revenue you and I both are speaking to. Which is the better path for Lincoln to be taking right now?
ATS @ $44,791×17,723units = $793,830,893
Or
MK
Z @ $39,299 x 25,343units = $995,954,557