Continental

Make
Lincoln
Segment
Sedan

A model once thought to hint at Lincoln's return to the glory days of American luxury may not be long for this world. After being on the market for only 18 months, the new Lincoln Continental may only get a single generation as Ford is rumored to be lining it up for the guillotine. Ford Authority cited "sources intricately familiar with Ford Motor Company's future product plans for its premium Lincoln brand" in its report. It's a sad day if true; the Continental attempted to redefine American luxury, and its cancellation would be an admission of failure.

When reached for comment, Global Lincoln Communications Manager, Angie Kozleski, told CarBuzz, "Continental remains an important part of the Lincoln lineup and we are not going to speculate our future product plans." Still, the reborn sedan hasn't been setting the sales charts alight. As a replacement for the slow-selling Lincoln MKS, the Continental has given Lincoln a marginal sales boost, but it was still outsold by the Genesis G80, Cadillac XTS, Audi A6, Lincoln MKZ, BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and Lexus ES last year. Lincoln reportedly invested $1 billion to revive the Continental nameplate.

Meanwhile, other models in the Lincoln family have seen steady growth. The all-new 2018 Lincoln Navigator has seen its sales increase since it went on sale toward the end of 2017, and the MKC-which will see a refreshed model arrive at dealers this summer-has also seen its sales numbers appreciate each year since the model's introduction in 2014. A redesign for the Lincoln MKX for 2016 brought with it a massive spike in sales, too. Of course, all of these vehicles are SUVs. On the car side of Lincoln's ledger, sales of the MKZ sedan have dropped from 34,009 in 2014 to just 27,387 last year. It was refreshed for 2017, just before the Continental's arrival.