New Lincoln MKT key to Ford plans

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The new three-row Lincoln MKT is one model Ford hopes will help boost the declining sales of its luxury brand.

Ford Motor Co., bucking a 44 per cent drop in sales of its Lincoln line since 2000, is trying to win back luxury buyers to the brand as it sells off international marques such as Jaguar and Volvo.

The automaker introduced its Lincoln MKT, a three-row "sport wagon" based on the Ford Flex, this week. With the MKT, Ford has refreshed 90 per cent of its Lincoln lineup since 2005.

Lincoln is critical to chief executive Alan Mulally's goal of turning Ford's $30 billion (U.S.) in losses in three years into an operating profit in 2011. Luxury cars typically generate the largest margins, and Mulally plans to revive traditional U.S. brands like Lincoln as he sells European lines.

Lincoln sales in the U.S. fell 44 per cent to 107,295 last year from 2000, according to researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

Lincoln's share of the U.S. luxury market has fallen to 7.1 per cent this year from 11.7 per cent in 2000, according to researcher J.D. Power & Associates.

A Regal return

General Motors, focusing resources on four U.S. brands as it disposes of four others, will revive the Regal name for Buick's next midsize sports sedan.

GM announced the move at a dealer business meeting this week. Buick already sells a vehicle under the Regal name in China. GM didn't say when the Regal would be sold in North America.

"The transformation of Buick began with our luxury crossover, the Buick Enclave, and continued this year with the launch of the 2010 LaCrosse premium sedan," said Buick GMC general manager Susan Docherty, who is GM's new U.S. sales chief.

Expanding Buick is part of GM's strategy of emphasizing that brand along with Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac since exiting bankruptcy on July 10. Buick plans to double its current lineup of three models in the next two years. The Regal was dropped when GM began selling the LaCrosse in 2004.

Switches spark Ford recall

Ford is recalling more than half a million older vehicles in Canada and more than 14 million around the world to repair defective cruise control switches that could cause fires.

As part of the biggest recall in its history, Ford Motor Co. of Canada Ltd. disclosed this week the company will soon send notices to owners of 522,900 pickups, minivans and commercial vehicles for repairs on their control deactivation switches.

Ford said the notice expands the number of 1992-2003 vehicles that it has recalled for the repair to about one million.

Ford spokesperson Kerri Stoakley noted Ford has identified two reports that "appear to allege" a fire related to the switches.

The company is recalling the 1993-1997 and 1999-2003 F-Series SuperDuty diesel trucks; 1995-1997 and 2001- 2003 Ranger trucks; 2000-2003 Excursion diesel sport utility vehicles; 1992-2003 Econoline commercial vans; 1995-2002 Explorer sport utes; 1995-2003 Windstar minivans.

Meanwhile in Detroit, parent Ford Motor Co. said it would recall 4.5 million more vehicles in the U.S. for the same repair. That lifts recalls to seven and affected vehicles to a record 14.3 million.

U.S. company spokesman Wes Sherwood said 1.1 million Windstar minivans will be recalled for repairs due to a small risk of fires.

He said another 3.4 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles with the same switches also will be recalled even though there have been no reports of fires with them. Those vehicles mainly are trucks and sport utility vehicles.

Sherwood said this is Ford's seventh recall due to the Texas Instruments speed control switches.

What's in a colour?

In Philadelphia, they've got the blues. In Cincinnati, they've got ? well ? the reds.

Cincinnati is the top market for red cars in the U.S., while Philly buyers prefer blue, according to U.S. sales data released this week by Ford.

Sometimes, colour preferences are logical. Buyers in hot cities, like Phoenix and Dallas, like white cars, while buyers in colder cities, like Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, are partial to red, according to Ford's internal data. No-nonsense New Yorkers like black and grey.

Sometimes, the preferences are a puzzle. Boston is the top market for both brown and green cars, for example, while San Franciscans like silver. In Florida, they like gold.

Silver remained the most popular colour in the U.S. and Canada this year for the ninth year in a row, according to data released this month by Pittsburgh-based paint maker PPG Industries Inc. Twenty per cent of U.S. cars are silver. White finished second and black was third.

Ford said it analyzes the data carefully to figure out which vehicle configurations will be the top sellers in any region.

China auto sales jump

China's vehicle sales vaulted 78 per cent in September from a year earlier, widening a lead over the U.S. as the world's top auto market, with sales in the country spurred by tax cuts and government stimulus spending.

Overall vehicle sales totalled 1.33 million units, while passenger car sales climbed 84 per cent to 1.02 million units, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported.

Total sales for the first nine months of the year rose to 9.66 million units, up 34 per cent from a year earlier, it said.

September was the seventh month that China's auto sales, boosted by tax cuts and subsidies as part of Beijing's stimulus, exceeded 1.1 million units.

Sales in smaller cities have been booming as automakers rush to woo first-time car buyers with new models,

China leads the world in total 2009 sales, with the U.S. in second place with January-September sales at about 7.85 million units. U.S. sales plunged 41 per cent from a year earlier in September to 746,000, following a summer buying spree driven by big discounts to consumers.

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