What Model Is the Baby Blue Lincoln Truck at the 2017 Auto Show Cost of 2017 Lincoln Navigator

Tucked inside an outdoor shopping complex in Scottsdale, Arizona, amongst various trendy stores is something one would've thought hilariously out of place not so long ago: a Lincoln dealer. But this isn't any old dealership, Lincoln or otherwise. This would be the Sanderson Lincoln Boutique, the start of its kind for Ford's luxury brand.

Walk through the big glass doors and you're greeted by a 2022 Navigator on your right, a 2022 Aviator Grand Touring straight ahead, and to your left, an expansive coffee bar. Vintage promotional images from Lincoln's midcentury glory years line the walls, which is a treat to anyone addicted of that automotive era. In that location are smaller seating areas elsewhere, including one enclosed in drinking glass presumably for more privately discussing a auction, but the overall vibe is reminiscent of an airline lounge. There are likewise no sales people: Those on mitt are salaried product specialists who get paid the aforementioned whether you buy a car or not. Oh, and baristas, there to whip up some caffeine costless of charge whether you buy a car or not. That seems similar a recipe for being popular with teenagers, only I digress.

Lincoln is planning for other such boutique stores, merely the determination to create this one was all on an individual dealer, Sanderson Lincoln, with the full support of Lincoln. And according to Lincoln President Joy Falotico, such boutique stores and their car-buying model could complement radical changes already happening elsewhere in the machine-buying realm.

In short, the ongoing supply shortage is set to alter everything. Customers are non only getting used to waiting for cars, but as well ordering them and therefore getting exactly what they want. That'southward where boutique stores come in. At the same time, Lincoln and its dealers come across the value in not keeping huge inventories of cars that will end up discounted or incentivized. Yes, that means existence able to proceed prices higher, which is a behemothic role of this, but it also means they'll be delivering cars customers actually want.

"We don't intend to go dorsum to the old model of (overabundant) dealer inventory," Falotico definitively said.

She elaborated that moving to a model where customers increasingly order their cars could increase the build possibilities and opportunities for customization.

"We've always assumed people similar packages, simply do they?" Falotico pondered aloud, calculation that product planners are only offering their best educated guess equally to what customers will inevitably want in terms of equipment, colors and the build mix of those variations. Packaging features together is a means of reducing complexity and costs, merely it does increase the chances of a customer being forced to get features they don't really need or desire.

Moving to a model where customers more frequently order their cars would therefore consequence in customers actually getting what they want, while also, equally Falotico suggested, increase the number of options available to them. And aye, information technology would reduce the amount of undesirable inventory languishing on dealer lots. I assumes it would also reduce the existent estate needed to park it all.

Ordering cars isn't new, and is in fact how it's largely done in Europe. Although some dealers and brands brand it easier than others (particularly European ones), you lot pretty much have always been able to do it – if you have the patience to await and know you can exercise and then in the first place.

Multiple Autoblog editors accept ordered cars over years and have gotten a discount almost every time, including myself with a 2007 Acura TSX (Electric blue! Manual!) and 2017 Mercedes GLC for my mother (Designo Blood-red! Chocolate-brown leather!). Those builds simply did not exist on dealer lots, yet with a little patience, nosotros got exactly what nosotros wanted. Now, the disbelieve flake is largely because we represented an automated auction and a machine earmarked for the dealer that's guaranteed not to languish on the lot and therefore lose money. Admittedly, that chemical element would change should auto ordering and reduced inventory get more than common.

As for Sanderson Lincoln Boutique and others like them, Tesla was the first to really push button in this direction in big function due to its direct-to-consumer sales model that bypasses traditional dealers. It's certainly a ownership environs that modern consumers are used to, and even the prospect of paying MSRP and not negotiating a discount (if that's how things ultimately shake out) doesn't seem like some deal-breaking, foreign concept. It'southward not like we go into the Apple store and kickoff haggling with the guy in the bluish T-shirt about the price of an iPhone. Really, it'south the traditional car-buying process that'due south the weird outlier now, non a "boutique" experience like this 1.

Furthermore, car buyers inevitably already apply Build Your Ain configurators on brand websites – wouldn't it be neat if they could actually buy the verbal car they virtually build? That'due south pretty rare. I could easily see this resulting in more colorful automobile selections, as I know from discussions with Porsche that custom orders are far more likely to be colors equally opposed to the blackness, white and grey norm typically bound for dealer lots. I could also encounter boilerplate transaction prices get down a bit every bit customers wouldn't exist forced into buying heavily optioned trim levels just to get a particular color or an unrelated option. I could also encounter sure new features, especially infotainment and driver assist technologies, start to disappear equally car buyers cull not to buy something they don't understand, haven't heard of, or have lived quite happily without for decades.

Well, that's if this change happens at all. The large question is, will American car buyers actually take waiting for what they want equally opposed to getting something kinda close to it immediately? And volition dealers hold house or volition they outset filling their acreage again with all-time-guess inventory in order to hands "put you in this automobile today" and definitively secure a auction? I think the answer probably lies in how long these shortages last, but to hear Falotico speak, it certain sounds like Lincoln is at least going to brand a go of it. Yep, information technology'll be adept for the company'due south concern, simply I also recall it's ultimately good for car buyers, likewise.

Check out the Lincoln Navigator Black Characterization updated interior:

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Source: https://www.autoblog.com/2022/03/08/lincoln-dealer-model/

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