Lincoln Rolls Out New SUV

American luxury hasn’t sold very well in the car market in recent years, not even in America.

But now Lincoln, Ford Motor Co.’s premium division, is banking on an all-new truck lineup to revive sagging sales and restore some luster to the brand, which has been broadsided by the booming popularity of luxury imports.

The new Lincoln Aviator, a mid-size luxury sport utility vehicle based on the Ford Explorer, is being revealed today at the New York International Auto Show. Irvine-based Lincoln hopes that it will boost interest, especially among younger buyers, in the brand, which plummeted from the No. 1 position among luxury marques in 1998 to No. 6 last year.

“We continued to be inundated by competition in a variety of forms from the Asians and Europeans,” Lincoln President Brian Kelley said at a preview of the Aviator.

“The game’s all about product, and you need to consistently refresh your product in a way that can be cadenced well: constant launches of new products,” Kelley said. “And we didn’t have that for a while.”

The Aviator, which hits the market in late summer, is one of four new Lincolns this year. The others are a refreshed 2003 Town Car, with a new frame and interior, which goes on sale in late spring; the all-new Navigator, which arrives in showrooms this summer; and a significantly redone LS sedan, which goes on sale at the end of the year.

The Aviator is built on the Explorer’s platform, with its independent rear suspension, a stiffened frame and suspension updates. It has the characteristic Lincoln chrome grille and a lavish leather interior including seat heater-coolers and a fold-flat third row of rear seats. It is powered by a 4.6-liter, 302-horsepower V-8 engine.

Kelley said he expects that 85% of Aviator buyers will be new to Lincoln, bringing in that all-important target: younger buyers who will stay with the brand through future vehicles.

With the Aviator and Navigator, Lincoln is seeking a fun driving experience, a characteristic that BMW and Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus boast but that Lincoln has lacked.

Ford plans to build 30,000 to 35,000 Aviators a year at its St. Louis plant, which also makes Mercury Mountaineer SUVs. Pricing has not been decided, but with the Mountaineer selling from $28,000 to $35,000 and the Navigator starting at $48,000, it’s likely that the Aviator will have a sticker price of $40,000 to $42,000.

Although the flagship Town Car is still the domain of over-60 customers, the current Navigator has helped bring down the average age of Lincoln buyers to 55.

Lincoln Vice President Richard Beattie said he hopes that the Aviator attracts buyers whose average age is 42, which with a younger Navigator customer would bring the average age of Lincoln owners to about 50.

“Lincoln very successfully brought down the age of their buyers,” said Michael Ward, senior auto analyst with Salomon Smith Barney. “They went from a limo company to one that can sell to actual customers outside of Florida.”

“But it’s all about how they’re going to get me and you into their showrooms; I for one am not going to go buy a Town Car,” he said.

Lincoln, a perennial No. 2 to General Motors Corp.’s Cadillac division for decades in the U.S. market, edged out its GM rival in 1998, 187,000 to 175,000, before DaimlerChrysler’s Mercedes-Benz took the luxury crown in 1999 and Lexus the last two years.

Cadillac, the No. 4 luxury brand last year, has worked on its truck lineup and is now turning its attention to passenger cars.

Lincoln’s truck strategy “potentially can work,” said Jim Hall, vice president of the consultancy AutoPacific in Detroit. “It’s an affordable Navigator is what it amounts to. It gets more people to come to the brand.”

But it also means “they’re turning into a truck company--a brand where the most visible, desirable vehicles are trucks,” Hall said.

Kelley is not ready to talk about revamping Lincoln’s passenger car lineup. The Continental has been canceled, and new cars based loosely on the recently shown concept Continental sedan and Mark IX coupe won’t be coming until 2005.

But to claw its way back toward the top, Lincoln will have to push past Cadillac, which has just put a new sedan on the market and has a lot more in the pipeline than Lincoln.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Lincoln Slips

(text of infobox not included)