Lincoln brand changes name with MKZ debut

DETROIT – Lincoln is getting a new car and a new name designed to reverse 20 years of falling sales.

The 97-year-old luxury brand, synonymous with presidential limos and black Town Cars, is returning to its original name, Lincoln Motor Co. Lincoln hopes the name will help restore the brand’s luster as the new MKZ sedan goes on sale this month.

Lincoln Motor Co. founder Henry Leland – who also started Cadillac – named the company after his hero, Abraham Lincoln. He sold it to Ford, which wanted a luxury brand, in 1922. Lincoln Motor Co. was used in advertising all the way through the 1970s and 1980s, but had fallen out of use more recently, Lincoln chief Jim Farley said Monday. That’s not unlike the brand itself, whose sales have been slipping since buyers began defecting to foreign brands like Lexus and BMW in the 1990s.

Ford is depending on the MKZ to start reversing that slide. It’s the first of seven new or revamped Lincolns due out by 2015.

The MKZ, which was unveiled in concept form at the Detroit Auto Show last January, is longer and wider than the current version. It starts at $35,925, or about the same as its archrival, the Lexus ES 350. A hybrid version is the same price.

Among its new features are a push-button transmission instead of a shifter and an optional panoramic glass roof. It still has Lincoln’s split-wing grille, a tribute to the 1938 Lincoln Zephyr and one of the brand’s most recognizable features. But designers made the grille thinner and more tapered after complaints about the ungainly maw on the most recent Lincolns.

CEO Alan Mulally said the MKZ’s elegant design is its most striking feature.

“It’s smooth and soft. It will stand the test of time,” he told the Associated Press on Monday. The new car, he said, is the “proof point” of Ford’s commitment to the Lincoln brand.

Lance Willis, a Lincoln dealer with the Bayway Auto Group in Houston, likes the new MKZ but is frustrated that it’s not in showrooms yet. Ford has built up a lot of hype but needs to deliver the MKZ and the rest of its new cars if it wants to keep people interested.

“One car itself won’t do the job,” he said. “They need to shorten the timetable.”