Lost Lincoln

About 18 years ago, the domestic luxury brands were positively blindsided by an ambitious upstart luxury brand from Toyota called Lexus. At the time, nobody considered the Japanese a serious threat in the luxury market. After all, Acura had launched a few years earlier with modestly upgraded products over its mass-market Honda parent brand, but hardly a threat to the Europeans or Americans.

Cadillac and Lincoln both were characterized largely by downsized, but still boxy, chromey and cushy models with sub-par quality and primitive, underpowered powertrains.

Cadillac quickly rallied with the sleek, sophisticated 1992 STS, and later re-defined themselves again with the bold 2002 Escalade. The 2008 CTS has just walked away with Motor Trend's Car of the Year award, Car and Driver's 10 Best, as well as many others.

But where is Lincoln in all this fanfare over the domestic luxury revival? It showed its MKS "flagship" model at the L.A. show, but many were less than blown away by its conservative, derivative styling. Even some morning show correspondents commented, "I'm not feelin' the grille."

Indeed, Lincoln's current lineup is "nice" to a fault. But none of them have the unmistakable style of their crosstown counterparts from Cadillac. Is all hope lost for this presidential brand?

Perhaps not. For those of you that remember, a few years ago, Lincoln showed off its Continental concept, styled by Gerry McGovern. Thankfully, he's still within the company, in a round-about way. He's currently the design director for Land Rover, which may soon be spun off to the highest bidder.

If Ford (the company) is smart, it will keep him. McGovern's Continental concept perfectly captures the confident, unmistakably American style that Lincoln needs to put itself back on the map and in the minds of consumers. Could you see this bad boy rollin' with some chrome 22s? Like it or not, the "bling" factor is big with a lot of luxury buyers, especially the critical younger ones. The MKS doesn't quite pack the same in-your-face stylistic punch, in my humble opinion.

Please, Mr. Mullaly, have Gerry pen some more concepts for Lincoln that might have a chance of making it to the showroom.