WHY!!!!!! I want an Ford Falcon from OZ…..this is a sad day for Ford fans and kills their chances at lincoln being a legit luxury brand.

Shoot

Him

Now

NO MORE LINCOLN MKR?ASDFA SKDFJASDL

that car was my DREAM CAR

Seriously though, could a RWD adpatation really cost so much as to scrap the project?

With all the advancements in technology making cars more efficient, is it REALLY going to do major damage to mpg using a RWD platform?? Why don’t they try to develop the worlds most fuel efficient RWD car? Then everyone would be happy.

Lincoln can still be a luxury brand without RWD. It just won’t be a premier luxury brand, but it hasn’t been that in a long time anyway.

Not having a RWD platform will hurt them long term. Eventually we will have the fuel thing figured out and more people will be wanting large RWD sedans again. Business need to thing long term to stay ahead. That’s what Toyota has done and a major reason why they have been so successful.

This is the same leadership that went to Congress, hat in hand, begging for money. Can we get visionaries running car companies in America?

They better be planning some Fisker-like cars.

Why?…
Why do you fill the need to F-up my day?
That’s it, I’m going let out my frustration by doing doughnuts in front of a Ford’ business center in Irvin, in my lifted monster Truck…

I know it wont do mush, but it will be so-cool… Watch me get arrested, I’m sure some one will posted up on You Tube…

Or maybe not… Someone can tip them off by the time I get there…

RWD and fuel economy are not mutually exclusive bright boy, just look at BMW’s diesels. Oh wait, Ford doesn’t care about diesel.

The Stig….no american company really cares about diesels. Its still a hard sale and no company is in the situation to put down that kinda gamble. I agree that RWD and economy arent mutually exclusive.

Damn it I wanted the MKR sooo bad it’s not even funny.

Ford needs that Interceptor and lincoln needs the MKR Build IT

so… keeping the crown vic?

You can’t kill the Vic… police stations are revising 2009 models, and you can buy a 2009 Lincoln Town Car… How is that platform 30 years or something? I guess if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…

What’s the point with RWD? No way any of Fords brands will ever be able to compete with Mercedes or BMW. It’s better they try take on Honda and Toyota.

I’d be willing to be that if you picked a thousand drivers at random and asked them which were the drive wheels on their vehicle fully half wouldn’t know off the top of their heads. We care; most people don’t. And we wonder why there are so many bad drivers out there.

Actually, I don’t wonder at all.

Lincoln is in a sad state. I mean that MKT, it’s not going to pry drivers out of their Acura or Lexus. The MKS isnt and will not fly off the showrooms, the MKZ, come-on its totally forgetable.

But that’s exactly the point – the perceived value of rear-drive (rarely does a car company concern itself with the enthusiast market) *would* pit a potentail world-market Falcon as a BMW / MB alternative.

How deeply have they looked into this? When a BMW 325i gets nearly identical fuel economy to a US-market Focus ST (per EPA estimates, which a BMW has no trouble exceeding), fuel economy is not the only answer. I have to think it could be more to do with cost. It’s only barely more material, arranged differently, but rear-drive does add cost.

It reminds me of the big cost-cutting uproar at Chrysler over a rear-drive 300.

Sad, sad day when Americans lose their cajones.

Ford: one of America’s leading manufacturers of appliances.

this is ford at its best…not getting the point and missing what the general public would LOVE to have!!!! sucks for them i guess

Sorry for re-posting so soon, but it was just last week or so that Ford said it wanted to re-establish its “street cred.” This RWD news is annoying because it reveals Ford as (choose one or both): (1) talking out of both sides of its mouth; (2) talking out of its ass.

Ok, first off, since Ford is trying to save itself and not ask for money right now, this is the smart thing to do, way too much money would go into the R&D for this. Also, everyone knows that if Ford survives the economy, then eventually it will have a RWD sedan, everyone should get the sand out of their vaginas

What FORD could do is work on an overall architecture, much like building a new series of engines that they can easily apply to almost any car they wish.

Of course, being a proponent of SERIAL hybrids (Parallels like the Prius are a sham), I would want to see that in FORD’s near future. Using a gas generator to run an electric motor. You can skip the batteries as a matter of cost and have a car with Mustang power and performance at roughly the same cost and get around 50mpg. You look at a Fisker and the Eliica and you say to yourself, “WHY ISN”T EVERYBODY DOING THIS?”

Ford really should not have canceled RWD however, Postponed it for a later time for sure. The Panther platforms are so decrepit and better cars, DODGE’s Charger police car and the CARBON MOTORS E7 Purpose-built Police car, are out or no the way. The Panther turned 30 last year. Even the Fox got retired over after 25 years. FORD needs something soon.

Like several have said so far, if Lincoln is to be taken seriously as a luxury mark, they need RWD. Whether it is turbo six or V8 and RWD/AWD or EV or SHV and RWD -like to see AWD with a SHV (Serial Hybrid Vehicle), it NEEDS to happen.

Not happy news but not unsurprising.

As much as I am sad to hear this… I knew it was coming.

Actually, I thought they already gave us this news.

But currently, now isn’t the greatest time for Ford to be going into too many ventures. (not that some would think they’ve gone on many lately) Let them recover, build up, then we might just be seeing these cars (or something like them) on the road.

Heh. It’s most likely not gone yet.

-eat your cereal

Lincoln can do standard AWD like the US X-Type to hide FWD in luxury models..

The 3 series, C-series, and G35/37 cars are RWD, and they are NOT gas hogs!

WTF Ford?

Nooooooooooooooooooo! ‘Stephen Cobert style’ overly loud and camera zooming out/in. I guess this is a swing and miss, would have been to have a sedan RWD platform in the works. Maybe back-burner for a bit?

@ltbullitt

Agreed that American car companies don’t care about diesel. Only the Germans seem to be forward thinking but that’s only because some 50% of their European sales are modern diesels due to guaranteed fuel economy advantages and gas versus diesel tax structure pervasive everywhere except the US and Canada. However, it’s all going to change once buyers realize how good modern diesels are – and then, once again, the American manufacturers will be behind the curve – not that they have a choice due to current market conditions.

Damn it. The Interceptor was one hell of a vehicle. FWD is for losers, Ford!

This is very sad news. Lincoln has been my most favorite American manufacturer despite me absolutely hating American cars. I’ve only had exceptions to the Ford GT, Mustang GT, Saleen, Corvette’s, Challengers, Camaro’s – especially the Yenko’s and Lincoln as a manufacturer. I’ve lost all hope in the Auto Industry that’s forcing people to buy cars that they don’t wantm especially FWD’s. As for this RWD news, it’s completely unacceptable. Shame.

Despite what you guys think, enthusiasts make up a very small percentage of Ford’s range of customers and potential customers. Therefore, Ford is focusing on what is selling cars now, and what will sell cars in the future, and that is fuel efficiency and fuel-alternative powered vehicles, and the cheapest way to go about that is build and improve on FWD/AWD architecture’s already in place.

The difference compared to BMW/MBenz/Cadillac is that all those manufacturers already have performance imbued into customers perceptions of their products…when people think of BMW, majority of people think “sport sedan, fast, etc.” that is definitely not true for the most part of Ford or Lincoln and unless they invest literally millions to billions of dollars on advertising and changing those perceptions on top of actually engineering a new RWD, sport-driven platform. It simply isn’t cost-effective for Ford (especially considering economic conditions) to pursue such an agenda when most of the global population has no desire for such a product.

Now their goig to put that damn grill on everything they make!

They can still have a legitimate luxury brand; read: Audi.

However, I think it’s a load of crock. They have Aussie RWD platforms, plus the Mustang’s basic structure. It couldn’t cost that much. Their new hybrid tech costed them a fortune.

Too bad thei didn’t build that KMR either. The MKS is too watered down stylistically from that.

Doesn’t matter, Ford could never build something as awesome as the G8, even if they had GM’s design tallent. The car would be in the shop more than it would be on the road because it would still be built by Ford Motor.

Wow…and the Panther soldiers on in its 31st season on the market. Crown Vic for fleets, Grand Marquis for the Florida set (it’s still Merc’s best-selling single model), and the Town Car.

Ugh. Wouldn’t it have been more cost-effective to stretch the Mustang’s platform?

I have to admit that it wouldn’t make much sense to offer a large RWD Ford. With the new Taurus and updated Fusion, it’d be hard to see where a large RWD sedan would fit, unless it went to a ‘67-71 T-Bird-type redux. The effort would be wasted if it just went to replacing the Crown Vic. If the Vic is filling a void for the fleet market, they wouldn’t make much on the RWD large sedan anyway.

Were Lincoln to get the platform, a new Mark IX would fit nicely in the line…along with a proper Town Car replacement.

Mercury would have benefitted the most, though, with replacing the Grand Marquis AND bringing over the AU Falcon as a Mercury, since the Sable will be gone now.

It’s bad news for enthusiasts, but it makes sense with the vehicle line they’ve got.