Ford Expects Moderate Sales
Ford expects to sell about 15,000 or so Mark LT's annually, O'Connor said.
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| Likely LT candidates will be luxury buyers who want to make a bold statement. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
"It's not a huge volume, but it's a nice increase in traffic to build a Lincoln Mercury showroom," he said. "The market now is 50 percent car and 50 percent truck--granted a lot of different versions of truck. When you have 8 million units, out of which are 2.3 million pickups, the Mark LT is a nice addition to the Lincoln Mercury line."
The likely candidates will be luxury buyers who want to make a statement, with big sales expected in Texas, California, and even Kansas City. It is probably not going to be used as a work truck, O'Connor said.
For heavier duties Ford does offer the Lariat version of the F-150, which has been the upscale version to date. O'Connor said that while there might be a minimum of "product substitution"--i.e. cannibalizing F-150 sales for the Mark LT--it will probably be at small levels because the Lincoln and Ford pickups will be in far different dealer showrooms.
Come back tomorrow to check out Lincoln's proposed Cadillac XLR fighter, the Mark X.