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Lincoln taps Serena Williams to pitch all-new Navigator

Lincoln is turning to a new star to help it pitch the hot-selling Navigator SUV alongside Matthew McConaughey: Tennis megastar and businesswoman Serena Williams. She'll help pitch the Navigator in a social media campaign that launched Thursday. Lincoln released four short spots that will appear on Lincoln and Williams' social channels. In one, the longest at 41 seconds, Williams recalls buying her first Navigator as a teen and says she's come full circle as a mother. She dubbed the vehicle "Ginger." "Ginger was all white, she had 22s and she had rims," she says in the spot. "I felt like, you know, I was kind of balling in a way. It was like my first huge purchase." Another shows Williams talking on a tennis court about being a mother and how the vehicle functions as a kind of bedroom for her daughter, Olympia, who was born last September. "For me that's what's most important." Like the McConaughey spots before them, the new spots hew to the Lincoln script of mostly not focusing on the vehicle but rather on experiences. (Williams' experiences seem a lot less ethereal than McConaughey's.) View 4 Photos Williams is known for her tennis exploits, having won a record 23 Grand Slam singles titles and four Olympic gold medals. She has fashion deals with Puma and Home Shopping Network and launched her own fashion brand called Aneres. And she operates the Serena Williams Fund to emphasize education and help victims of gun and domestic violence, plus the Williams Sisters Fund, which she launched in 2016 with her sister, Venus. Serena Williams is also a member of the Oath Board of Advisors. Oath is the parent company of Autoblog. "Serena is an amazing athlete who has won 23 Grand Slams, but she also has a family, she has her own clothing line, she sits on major boards, she's philanthropic — she has all these competing demands on her time," Lincoln Group Marketing Manager John Emmert said in a statement. "We know that time is our Navigator client's ultimate luxury as they balance everything in their busy lives, and Serena exemplifies that balance with poise and grace." It's not the first time Williams has endorsed an automotive brand, notes AdAge. Mini featured the tennis star in a Super Bowl ad in 2016. The Navigator is all-new for 2018. It won North American Truck of the Year last month at the Detroit Auto Show. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Lincoln dealers frustrated over slow MKZ production ramp-up

Lincoln has clearly been working hard to get the word out about its 2013 MKZ sedan. The Dearborn automaker has taken out lavish spreads to trumpet its boldly styled new model in magazines of every description, along with placing commercials for both the vehicle and the reborn brand behind it on all manner of television programs, including the super-costly Super Bowl earlier this month.
Pity, then, that Lincoln dealers don't have enough MKZs to sell. According to The Detroit News, parent company Ford has spent a good portion of its time at this week's National Automobile Dealers Association meeting in Florida attempting to pacify upset dealers who don't have enough examples of the pivotal new vehicle in stock.
As the DetNews notes, Lincoln only sold 453 MKZs last month, a whopping 73-percent decrease over the same period last year when the sedan's predecessor was on sale. In fact, the stunted supply had enough impact that Lincoln's January figures worked out to a 32-year low for the brand, just as it's trying to get back on its feet. This, despite the fact that the MKZ is said to have the biggest number of pre-orders in the marque's history.

More head-up displays are coming to a dashboard near you

With the exception of Apple products — $1,000 for a freakin' smartphone? — one great thing about tech is you typically get more for your money with each passing year. This is particularly true with automotive tech: Features like driver assists and surround-view cameras that were once exclusively available in luxury vehicles now come standard even on some economy cars. The same thing is slowly happening with head-up displays (HUD). For example, the 10-inch HUD in the 2018 Toyota Camry is one of the largest and best HUDs I've seen in any car. And a big improvement on the much smaller HUD in the latest Toyota Prius. Mazda is another mainstream brand that offers HUDs in several of its vehicles. But instead of embedding expensive components in the dash and using a special windshield, the HUDs in the Mazda3 and Mazda6 use a thin plastic lens that folds down when not in use. MINI has a similar solution, but this low-cost approach has limits in terms of size and position of the images compared to traditional HUDs that use the windshield as a screen. We're also starting to see similar lens-based aftermarket options that can be added to any car. Last year I tested a portable HUD called Navdy that taps into a car's OBD-II port to provide info on speed and RPM and uses built-in GPS and Google Maps to show the surrounding area, display speed limits and route you to your destination. Navdy also connects to an Android or iOS smartphone via Bluetooth to display data from phone calls, texts and music playing on a connected device, and it's simple to use and easily visible in almost any lighting condition. While Navdy is still available online, late last year the company ran into financial difficulties, and product support has been halted. I recently tested a new portable HUD called Hudly that's not quite fully baked and falls short of Navdy because it doesn't tap into an OBD-II port. Since a companion smartphone app for Hudly isn't scheduled to launch until next month, for now it only mirrors what's on a smartphone. So it can be used for nav and other apps, and its features are very limited. Between automakers adding HUDs in more reasonably priced cars and the aftermarket filling in the gaps for existing vehicle owners with add-ons, the technology is becoming more prevalent and affordable. And it's also getting better.