http://www.autoblog.com/2012/12/30/h...ed-a-limo-rev/

The deaths of the Ford Crown Victoria and the Lincoln Town Car have meant overhauls of three high-profile American fleets: police, taxi and livery car. Just as police fleets are more open to considering other options and Nissan Van is the new face of the NYC taxi, livery car companies are looking at replacements for the Town Car beyond The Blue Oval. Ford, via Lincoln, has made an MKT Town Car, but an article in the Detroit News claims "it has failed to win over most of the big limousine companies."

 

The XTS and Avalon love I don't get. They have less space, they're FWD unibodies like the Linc, and both have heavily-arched roofs that make stretching them...awkward.

The 300 has been chipping away at the market since it came out, I'm not sure a livery edition is going to suddenly cause a massive uptick versus the previous trend.

 

Why not make a livery version of the MKS?

 

Agreed! I would think a livery/extended wheel base could also be sold in China as they seem to like extended wheel base cars . . .

 

this..




but a fiesta!

 

It seems that Ford doesn't wanna investing in anything that they can't use on the global markets ... unless it's a really a high seller, like the F-Series.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Lincoln is on sale in China yet.

 

Correct, not until 2014.

 

I saw an MKT hearse on tv the other day.

 

This seems like yet another market Lincoln is going to loose soundly to Cadillac. I can't imagine very many people or companies are going to choose that MKT think over a DTS/XTS livery car.

 

Well on the MKT Livery they moved the 2nd row back a couple inches for legroom and deleted the third row for luggage space, I don't think they can do that to MKS without doing a LWB model. You can "cheat" a Limo model since nobody expects a limo to retain top-shelf driving dynamics, but a LWB sedan customer wants you to put in the effort to make it still drive well and I doubt Ford's interested in that sort of investment with the current car.

But among the next-gen MKS rumors is that it will be a "LWB only" model.

 

If the prices are competitive, what about the XTS makes the MKT a non-starter for a livery company?

 

If i was a rich azz I would just have someone make me a Mustang limo! ;p

 

Tradition? I personally don't like the XTS, and I think that the DTS made a better limo style car. But with that no longer an option I feel like the XTS is more likely to be chosen than the MKT because it's what people are used to. Switching from a sedan style livery car to a crossover is a choice I think a lot of companies will find difficult to make.

 

Around here, the newer limos show the 300C is the vehicle of choice. The Escalade and H2 follow. Appear to be replacing the Town Car and Navigator as they get phased out of service. I have not seen any FWD-based vehicles chosen for this role locally.