Ford Motor Company (F): Lincoln’s 2013 MKZ Is Blowing Consumers Away

Photo: Lincoln Motor.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)‘s impressive turnaround has been one for other struggling companies to learn from. The Blue Oval has had hardly any mishaps or bad decisions hit the headlines recently. But that hasn’t stopped doubters from pointing out that the Lincoln brand has largely been left behind in Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s resurgence.

Lincoln’s MKZ is its most important vehicle, and after months of shipment issues, April was finally a breakthrough month for the much-hyped MKZ sedan. So was the MKZ worth the wait for consumers? Will it be enough to revive Lincoln and help Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) boost its overall company revenues? Let’s dig into some details and consumer reviews and find out.

Set the stage First, let’s look at how important the MKZ is to Lincoln’s overall success. Here’s a graph of Lincoln’s top three models, with the MKZ highlighted.

Notice the sharp decline in January, where sales were practically nonexistent. That’s when the MKZ launch stumbled out of the gate and the advertising campaign spent on the Super Bowl was wasted. Lincoln wanted to make sure there weren’t any messy recalls, but the extra time spent on quality checks led to a bottleneck in getting the MKZ to dealers.

Supplier issues also slowed production, and the end result was that consumers waited for four months for the MKZ to show up at dealerships. Finally in March and April, the back orders were being filled, and sales soared. Here’s a look at how much these sales mean to Lincoln as a whole, represented by the top three models, along with total Lincoln sales.

Lincoln’s total sales have risen and fallen largely in correlation with the MKZ. Recently, Jim Farley, executive vice president of global marketing, sales for Lincoln, said “We’re going to have our best sales ever for MKZ” when speaking about this May’s results compared to prior year’s.

While this is encouraging, it’s also important to note what consumers are saying. Let’s dig into some reviews, courtesy of Edmunds.com.

Reviews I have to say the reviews on the 2013 Lincoln MKZ were extremely impressive – I mean nearly perfect. Check Edmunds.com for yourself. The MKZ averages a 5 star review, and while only 9 reviews exist 100% of readers agreed with those 9 reviews. I haven’t looked through hundreds of other vehicle reviews, but I haven’t yet seen reviews so favorable.