Sad news, friends. The new Lincoln Continental—the lovely, languid blueberry of a vehicle—isn’t selling well. And as a result, there are now rumors that Ford might just kill it off after this generation.
Admittedly, this rumor should be taken with a boulder of salt. But here it is: Ford Authority, citing “sources intricately familiar with Ford Motor Company’s future product plans for its premium Lincoln brand,” reports that the Conti is getting the axe after this current model. The outlet wasn’t able to dig up any specific reasons, but also notes that Ford invested over $1 billion to resurrect the Continental name.
If this rumor turns out to be true, the Conti’s abhorrent sales figures definitely didn’t help it win any battles. Ford only managed to sell 12,012 Lincoln Continentals in the U.S. last year, while the similarly classed Mercedes-Benz E Class sold a hilarious 51,312 models. The sedanapocalypse seems to have claimed another halting victim.
That’s kind of depressing! The Continental is a nice car. Not world-stopping luxury nice, but still a very pleasant place to sit. And it’s Lincoln’s flagship model. If Ford chops the head off of Lincoln’s lineup, what will that leave it with? The MKZ? The Navigator?
Meh.
We’ve reached out to Lincoln for comment and will update if we hear back.
Update March 15, 9:57 a.m. EST: A Lincoln spokesperson responded, “I can tell you that the Continental remains an important part of the Lincoln lineup but we aren’t going to speculate about our future product plans.”
via Reddit