For the best part of, well, a long time really, the most popular vehicle in North America for limo service has been Lincoln‘s Panther platform Town Car. But now, with the demise of both it and the evergreen Ford Crown Victoria/Mercury Grand Marquis, Lincoln’s sizeable number of livery fleet customers need an alternative. The brand believes that a specialized version of the slow selling MKT crossover should fit the bill.

To make the MKT more adaptable for livery use, it will feature revised seating with the third row removed and the second row adjusted to emulate the livery Town Car’s rear legroom, plus standard WiFi and info entertainment system. A second variant will be built off a heavy-duty chassis, capable of being lengthened up to an additional 120-inches and aimed straight at stretched limousine operators.

Both livery MKT models will offer all-wheel drive and should be available beginning sometime in 2012. Whether they’ll have durability to match the Town Car remains to be seen, but at least Ford isn’t choosing to abandon this very profitable market segment.

Ford is calling 1,187 Lincoln dealers to their Dearborn headquarters in a bid to get Lincoln dealers to upgrade their showrooms and the level of customer service as the brand seeks to gain greater market share in the luxury vehicle segment.

The meeting, to be held October 4th, is the first of its kind in two years. “This is a real business discussion, it’s not a pep rally,” said Christian Bokich, a Ford spokesman. “This is a discussion about the initiatives Lincoln will take and what will be expected of the Lincoln dealers since Mercury is no longer on the horizon.”

While Lincoln sales are up nearly 5 percent this year, Ford is pushing for the improvements as it prepares to launch 7 new Lincoln models within the next few years. Lexus, the top-selling luxury car brand in the U.S., sold nearly three times as many cars as 8th place Lincoln.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Lexus may be the perennial number 1 luxury car maker in America, but BMW has been on top of them in the sales charts for the third straight month, leading to speculation that the German auto company could overtake Lexus by year’s end.

With sales of their 1 Series up 53 percent, BMW is cautiously optimistic that their sales will continue to grow. “We are seeing a slowdown in the market and do not expect the second half of the year to be as strong as the first half,” Jim O’Donnell, BMW of North America president, said in a statement. “Despite this, building momentum throughout the year and narrowing the gap with our competitors is still our plan.”

BMW has a stated goal of becoming America’s #1 luxury brand by 2012, while Lexus was hit hard by quality problems, most notably the GX460 recall scandal earlier this year.

[Source: Automotive News]

Without wheels. When somebody says that, it usually means they haven’t got a car. For yours truly last week, it meant literally that. A trip to Detroit in a brand new Lincoln MKT press loaner was the highlight of a rather miserable seven days.

Having left the MKT in the parking lot of a hotel in the Detroit suburb of Livonia (next to a Mustang GT I might add), I awoke the next morning to find it on cinder blocks, stripped of its shiny 20-inch wheels and tires. The cops were called and a report filed.

When Tim, from Great Lakes towing, showed up with his Chevy Kodiak and flatbed to take the car to the dealership for some new rims and rubber (arranged by Ford), he simply stated that, “this stuff happens all the time, I get around two calls a day on stripped cars. Some people will take anything, mirrors, headlights you name it,” he said. “Welcome to Detroit.”