Supplier Sources Suggest Lincoln MKT Replacement Due By 2019
2005 Lincoln Aviator
Lincoln is poised to have the biggest year yet in its ongoing brand resurgence, kicking off 2017 with its largest January sales mark in 10 years. In addition to the success of its 2017 Continental flagship sedan, the brand will be carried largely by the success of its SUVs and crossovers. According to a report from Automotive News, the brand’s SUV lineup stands to add a new face by 2020.
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Mark LaNeve, Ford’s Vice President of US Marketing, Sales, and Service, confirmed to Auto News on Tuesday that the Blue Oval brand will add five new SUVs to its US lineup by 2020. Separate supplier sources added that there will be a sixth new SUV added to Ford’s lineup by that time, sold instead as a Lincoln.
Lincoln is expected to unveil a next-generation Navigator in the coming months ahead of a probable Q3-Q4 2017 launch; in addition to this fact, sources confirmed to Auto News that the brand will be redesigning its MKC in 2019 and MKX in 2021. Those same sources confirmed that Lincoln’s fourth offering will be a mid-size SUV built upon the same framework as the next-generation Explorer, both of which are expected to arrive in 2019.
Lincoln MKT
Given that the report lists Lincoln’s 2020 SUV lineup as topping out at four models, it can be presumed that this mid-size SUV—known internally as the Aviator or MKD—will ostensibly replace the Lincoln MKT. This would fall in line with a similar rumor from 2015, originally reported by The Truth About Cars, that had the Explorer-based Aviator replacing the MKT in 2019.
MKT sales were down 48.5% in January with a total of 260 units sold. MKT sales were down 14.2% for 2016, totaling just 4,028 sales and ranking last for the brand in terms of volume.
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News Source: Automotive News (subscription required)
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