LOS ANGELES \u2014 Retail sales of the Lincoln Town Car will continue to slide in 2008 as the model becomes primarily a fleet vehicle, a Lincoln Mercury marketing executive says.<\/p>\n
“We’ll sell fewer Town Cars next year than this year, but we’ll fill the natural retail demand,” Mike Richards, Lincoln Mercury general marketing manager, said at the Los Angeles Auto Show.<\/p>\n
The Town Car comes back from a seven-month production hiatus in January. Ford Motor Co. will move production of Lincoln’s stalwart full-sized rear-wheel-drive sedan to its St. Thomas, Ontario, assembly plant. The automaker shuttered the Town Car’s former assembly plant in Wixom, Mich., in May.<\/p>\n
Lincoln executives already have told dealers that retail sales of the Town Car will be minimal when production resumes. Lincoln is offering dealers one retail trim series.<\/p>\n
Richards said he doesn’t have a projection for total Town Car sales in 2008 because he’s not yet sure of demand from fleet buyers.<\/p>\n
Through October, Lincoln sold 26,057 Town Cars, down 19.2 percent from the same period in 2006. As of mid-November, just 237 Town Cars remained in dealership stocks, Richards said. Lincoln will end 2007 with about 10,000 Town Cars sold to retail customers, he said.<\/p>\n
Even though that total will shrink in 2008, Lincoln aims to lure current Town Car owners with the 2009 MKS sedan. The front-wheel-drive MKS goes on sale next summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES \u2014 Retail sales of the Lincoln Town Car will continue to slide in 2008 as the model becomes primarily a fleet vehicle, a Lincoln Mercury marketing executive says. “We’ll sell fewer Town Cars next year than this year, but we’ll fill the natural retail demand,” Mike Richards, Lincoln Mercury general marketing manager, said … <\/p>\n