The emergence of Tesla forced every premium automaker into a reevaluation of not just their products, but also their raison d’être. What does a brand like Lincoln mean in the 21st century? The company’s President is retiring after 38 years with Ford, and in a valedictory interview, made one extremely astute observation about the state of a luxury consumer. She also said something about “credible wellness.” I’m not sure I 100% understand that.
It’s been a while since The Morning Dump has featured a face-off between GM and Ford. My youth was dominated by the concept of Chevy v. Ford, Camaro v. Mustang, F-150 v. Silverado. With age and experience, I’m a little less concerned with picking one team over another. Both are capable of making great cars, and I’d rather enjoy all of them than pick sides.
Let’s pick sides for a minute, though, because Ford’s luxury brand is making a bigger statement about customer service being central to its business, while GM is trying to insist that anything you do on a public road in one of their cars is their business in response to a lawsuit over customer data. I don’t love that. While we’re on the topic of torts, Tesla settled another lawsuit related to a crash, which is unusual.
Toyota and Daimler may be competitive in certain markets, but the automakers seem to think they’ll have a better chance against China and U.S tariffs if they team up.
Let’s dump.
Lincoln President: Premium Customers ‘Don’t Want Subscriptions’
Lincoln has been a sleeper pick for one of the most improved brands over the last decade. Lincoln buyers are super sticky, the new cars are packed full of features, and sales haven’t been this good since True Blood was still pumping out new episodes on HBO.
A lot of credit for that success can go to longtime Ford exec Dianne Craig, who, after 38 years with the company, is peacing out at the end of April. Not content to merely go out on top, Craig gave a long interview to Automotive News, and there are two insights from Craig that I think we should talk about. Let’s start with something I 100% agree with, which is that to attract more premium buyers, you need a premium dealer experience:
“It’s all part of the package to make people feel special,” Craig said. “That’s what premium customers want. It’s an emotional purchase; it isn’t rational.”
One strategy the brand won’t use, Craig said, is charging new buyers subscription fees to use built-in features. Although Ford is counting on recurring revenue from such services to pad profit margins, Craig said that approach isn’t right for Lincoln.
“Whether it be BlueCruise, connectivity, security — they will be part of the warranty period,” she said. “Our focus is really in having that in the base vehicle price, at least for the warranty duration. Everything we’ve learned about premium customers is they don’t want subscriptions.”
If I buy a first-class ticket on a plane, I’m going to be upset if I’m then upcharged $5 for an extra hot face towel. That’s not how luxury works. I don’t even love paying extra for stuff in the basest of base-model Bronco Sports, and I’m not sure most buyers want that, either. It’s particularly insane for luxury cars to try to tack on expensive options you pay for monthly, although Tesla does sometimes get away with it for self-driving features (we’ll see how long that lasts). BMW tried this trick with its $18-per-month heated seats, and people got upset with them, so the Bavarian brand had to reverse its decision.
Fair play to Lincoln, here, for not doing that, or at least not doing that during the warranty period. After a few years, it might make sense to have certain features that require updates to be supported by a fee. Maybe. [Ed Note: Not a fan of monthly fees on a used car. -DT]
Here’s the other bit I’m a little less sold on, which is the move away from the guiding concept of “Quiet Flight” to another phrase:
While the “quiet flight” theme endures, Lincoln’s outgoing president, Dianne Craig, said the philosophy moving forward will hinge on another two-word phrase: credible wellness.
“We’ve got a really clear, compelling vision of where we want to take the brand,” Craig told Automotive News at a media event here. “We want to become the automotive brand that’s known for wellness.”
Huh.
“The reality is, especially our customers — the premium customers — they’ve arrived, they can afford really nice vehicles,” Craig said. “But what you can’t put a price tag on is your health and where you place your time and your precious moments.”
The new Lincoln Navigator does look super nice and has features like a “Rejuvinate mode” that’ll mix scents, massaging seats, music, and “calming visuals” to chill out passengers while parked outside a dance practice that never ends, or waiting for your mother-in-law at the airport.
She did say “credible” wellness, which means the company has to deliver the goods. I, for one, am willing to borrow the Navigator for a long trip to see if this is credible.
[Ed Note: The wellness thing I get. I see people dropping thousands on bone broth and spirulina smoothies at my local Erewohn grocery store; there’s money there. But “credible” seems unconfident to me. -DT].
GM Says Driving On A Public Road ‘Cannot Form The Basis For Any Privacy-Based Claim’
General Motors and other automakers got in trouble last year when it was revealed that they were selling your driving data to companies like LexisNexis and Verisk, who then sold that data to insurance companies. The companies all backed off, but not before a bunch of lawsuits were filed.
GM, OnStar, LexisNexis, and Verisk are all trying to get a federal court to dismiss the claims, and the arguments seem to be centered on two main arguments:
- People consented to this.
- What you do in public on public roads can’t be considered private.
Ignoring the first one for now, this second one might be a compelling legal argument, but it feels wrong. Here’s what GM said in its brief:
Ignoring the benefits of OnStar services in general and Smart Driver in particular, Plaintiffs claim GM used OnStar and Smart Driver to convert GM vehicles into “corporate surveillance machines” that invaded customer privacy. These allegations fail to state viable claims because, among other reasons, GM’s collection of driving data was disclosed and consented to, and because driving a vehicle—which necessarily involves conduct that takes place on public roads—cannot form the basis for any privacy-based claim.
Again, even if this is true from a legal perspective, as a consumer, I hate it.
Tesla Settles Another Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Tesla was on a bit of a roll for a while, having won a few wrongful death lawsuits related to the company’s assisted driving features. Lately, though, Tesla has been settling. First, there was the lawsuit from the Apple engineer whose Model X swerved off a highway, which Tesla settled on the eve of the trial.
This week, Tesla settled another crash.
Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla has agreed to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the estate of a man who was killed in 2021 after his Tesla crashed and caught fire near Dayton, Ohio.
Tesla and lawyers for the estate disclosed the settlement in a filing on Monday in federal court in San Francisco but did not reveal its terms.
Tesla denied any wrongdoing. Is this part of a pattern? All of a sudden, Tesla and its CEO seem a lot less sympathetic to a larger group of potential jurors, though there’s been no indication that this is the reason behind the move.
Toyota’s Hino And Daimler/Mitsubishi’s Fuso Look To Merge
The world is growing increasingly uncertain with tariffs, Chinese competition, and things of that nature.
Toyota’s Hino Trucks unit and the Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, which is actually owned by Daimler, look like they’re going to merge in order to better face this uncertainty. At least that’s the plan, according to a report in Nikkei Asia:
The four companies are expected to finalize the merger agreement as early as May. An antitrust review by the Japan Fair Trade Commission is close to completion.
After the transaction, a newly created holding company would own all of both Hino Motors and Mitsubishi Fuso.
Toyota now owns 50.1% of Hino, and Daimler Truck owns 89.3% of Mitsubishi Fuso. While Toyota and Daimler Truck are expected to have equal stakes in the new holding company, Toyota’s share of the voting rights would be under 20%.
The deal was supposed to go forward last year, but the Hino emissions cheating scandal slowed things down for a while.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I grew up in the time of grunge, even if grunge never quite felt right to me. I didn’t have quite the self-loathing necessary. Perhaps that’s why the clever Britpop of Blur and Pulp was more appealing as I grew up and slowly became aware of those bands thanks to shows like “120 Minutes” on MTV. One band I totally missed was Suede, even though the group was a key part of the success of the genre. Enjoy “Animal Nitrate” from the Brit Awards.
The Big Question
Would you pay a subscription for any car service? What would it be for?
Top Photo: Lincoln
Yeah, some things do make sense to charge for though. I have a used X5, the previous owner had paid for the extended connectivity service (I think that’s what it’s called) it literally adds 0 value in a world where we have apple car play. I’m not willing to hand BMW over $130 every year for it, but there is a cost for BMW to maintain it and supply the service. But I see no value in it. Conversely paying BMW $18 a month to access my heated seats would make me so unspeakably mad because there is no ongoing cost for BMW to have that in there, there is no licensing cost to anyone, no data plan they have to pay to a service provider or anything like that. The car has the heating elements in the seats. Connected services – particularly on an out of warranty used car, probably do need to be paid for by the end user, but it should be supplied for the first couple of years while the car is under warranty. Also don’t get me started on options that can be unlocked by paying a fee – if the car has it built in, it should be there for you to use. You are buying hardware
The problem with argument 2 on the privacy thing is that, yes, if I drive past you and you see me, I have no reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to my actions.
If, on the other hand, you hide in my trunk and write down everywhere I go and then sell copies of your notebook to people who never even bothered to stand on the road to see if I drove past, that’s a problem. We have no reasonable expectation of immediate privacy in public, but we do have a reasonable expectation that the vehicle we just paid 50 grand for will not be tattling all our activities to the highest bidder.
The courts have generally understood nuance on this point – for instance, the FBI tried to insist that putting a GPS tracker on a vehicle was no different than tailing said vehicle, and the courts suggested they get off their lazy asses if that was the case.
I will never understand this obsession with everyone from used car dealers to luxury brands trying to make my car smell like something. I want my car to smell like nothing at all, 100% of the time. The fact that there is a detectable smell tells me that something is wrong.