Dealerships may not be the proper word to use on this occasion, so let's just say that the Blue Oval's more luxurious brand inaugurated its first three stores in China. These are located in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou, and their focus in not on selling cars by volume, but through 'The Lincoln Way'.
The American brand says that way is an "unique new luxury automotive ownership experience in China." So what about US dealerships then? This is the marketing jibber-jabber the industry can very well do without, frankly speaking. “The Lincoln Way demonstrates how a storied brand with a nearly 100-year history is innovating for our Chinese customers while staying true to our roots of personal service." explained Kumar Galhotra, the newly appointed president of the Lincoln brand.
The Lincoln Way is another way of saying China is fond of customer-centric dealership environments
As it happens, each Chinese buyer has a dedicated team to ensure personalized service tailored to the individual's needs. It's sort of funny that the dedicated team is made up by people called "the Host, the Master and the Craftsman, team members specially chosen and rigorously trained by The Lincoln Institute." Don't ask... all we want to highlight is that customer service doesn't make up for vehicles as old as socks.
Populated by over 1.3 billion souls and a lot of nouveau riche, China is not nearly a place for just three Lincoln dealers. That's why the automaker will open five more stores by the end of the year and a total of 60 stores in 50 cities in China by 2016. Presently, Lincoln is selling only two models in this part of the world – the all-new MKC small utility vehicle and the MKZ mid-size sedan. These two will be followed by the MKX and Navigator, as well as a third, yet-to-be-released model.
To come in the form of an all-new full-size luxury sedan, this model is slated to debut by 2016. Too bad any other info on the mystery Lincoln full-size sedan isn't available at the moment. In recent months, the Lincoln brand made a lot of effort into making a change for the better and turn around the destiny of an otherwise old and uninspiring automaker. This is also the reason why Ford decided to give Lincoln a whopping $5 billion over the next couple of years, but only time will tell if that big lump of money will be well spent.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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