2000 Lincoln Town Car Cartier L Sedan 4-door 4.6l on 2040-cars

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Dealers mobilize to protect their margins from automaker subscription services

Six individual auto brands — Lincoln, Cadillac, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW and Volvo — have established or are trialing a vehicle subscription service in the U.S. Three third-party companies — Flexdrive, Clutch and Carma — run brand-agnostic subscription services. And three automakers — Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and General Motors — have also launched short-term rental services. Dealers, afraid of how these trends might affect their margins, are building political and lawmaking campaigns to protect their revenue streams. So far, three states are investigating automaker subscriptions, and Indiana has banned any such service until next year. It's certain that those three states are the first fronts in a long political and legal battle. Powerful dealer franchise laws mandate the existence of dealers and restrict how automakers are allowed to interact with customers to sell a vehicle. On top of that, Bob Reisner, CEO of Nassau Business Funding & Services, said, "Dealers and their associations are among the strongest political operators in many states. They as a group are difficult for state politicians to vote against." In California earlier this year, the state Assembly debated a bill with wide-ranging provisions to protect against what the California New Car Dealers Association called "inappropriate treatment of dealers by manufacturers." One of those provisions stipulated that subscription services need to go through dealers, but that item got stripped out when dealers and manufacturers agreed to discuss the matter further. In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a moratorium on all subscription programs by dealers or manufacturers until May 1, 2019, to give legislators more time to investigate. Dealers in New Jersey have taken their campaign to the state capitol, asking that the cars in subscription programs get a different classification for registration purposes. Automakers run the current subscription services and own the vehicles. Sign-ups and financial transactions happen online or through apps, leaving dealers to do little more than act as fulfillment centers to various degrees, with little legal recourse as to compensation amounts when they're called on to deliver or service a car. That's a bad base to build on for business owners who've sunk millions of dollars into their operations.

2019 Lincoln Nautilus commercials bring back Matthew McConaughey, plus pool

It's that time of year again, folks, time for another kind of strange, awkward Matthew McConaughey Lincoln commercial. And, yes, checking back when each ad comes out, it's usually in Decemeber or near the end of the year that these ads are released. This latest ad has the actor hanging out with a group of friends having a generic conversation about something over dinner. They all then head inside, and McConaughey breaks away from the group to walk to a pool table, and he promptly makes a trick shot on the pool table while a woman says "I've never seen that before." This leads to clips of McConaughey getting into a 2019 Lincoln Nautilus and driving it on beautiful backroads. And before he starts driving, there's a shot of the instrument cluster with a bunch of driver aid options displayed. The woman's words come in again, and he follows it up with his own words, "I have." This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Basically, the idea is that the trick shot of the cue ball threading between other billiard balls is like how the Lincoln driver aids help keep the Nautilus under control. Except it's a vague, awkward way of doing it, which is also par (above par?) for the course of McConaughey Lincoln ads. A much better ad accompanies the actor's version. This one features a real trick pool player making some clever shots to illustrate the individual features available on the luxury crossover. They're legitimately nifty shots, and the features are clearly explained. Maybe all of Lincoln's ads should have this pool player. Related Video:

Would a Mustang-based Lincoln look like this?

Designer Josiah LaCalla has taken a stab at what a Ford Mustang-based Lincoln model might look like with the Continental Mark X1 concept. Make no mistake, Ford's luxury arm has made it abundantly clear that it won't be pursuing any new products outside of volume models, which means a flashy halo grand tourer like the one you see here isn't in the cards. LaColla used the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG as a basis for his creation, which explains the long nose, but we certainly don't mind the idea of a rear-wheel drive Lincoln with a cabin pushed to the aft.
While we're dreaming, there's certainly nothing stopping us from imagining what's under that lengthy hood. We like the idea of the 5.8-liter supercharged V8 from the Shelby GT500 pushing the Mark X1 down the road, but how about something a little more inventive? Something like a high-revving, buttery V12 with enough torque to push the contraption well past 200 miles per hour. Dream a little dream, people.