Back in Black: New Lincoln Black Label Trims Revisit ’70s Designer Editions

Give the Ford employees behind the Lincoln brand reboot credit: they know their history. Vintage Lincolns have featured prominently in new Lincoln Motor Company marketing—as evidenced by this ad—and now the brand is channeling a decades-old design strategy to help further differentiate the Franken-Ford MKZ from its Blue Oval brethren. As we predicted last fall, a new top-of-the-line trim will debut late next year, called Black Label. Offering buyers three special "themes" incorporating distinct exterior colors, unique wheels, and upgraded interiors, Black Label initially will be offered on the 2015 MKZ. Lincoln is showing off the new designs this weekend in Monterey, hoping that leather-wrapped dashboards, real wood trim, soft leather seating with unique perforations, and faux-suede headliners might impress enough to merit consideration from those shopping Audis, BMWs, and Mercedes. Lincoln execs mention programs like Audi Exclusive, BMW Individual, and Mercedes-Benz Designo as competitors, but there's an important distinction between the custom mix-and-match approach of the Germans and the no-substitutions designs that Lincoln calls "curated." We see Black Label as more the spiritual descendant of the designer-edition Lincoln Marks of the 1970s. Those cars bore the signatures and styling imprints of fashion magnates Bill Blass, Emilio Pucci, and Hubert de Givenchy. (A Cartier edition was also offered.) This time around, however, Lincoln is doing things in-house. Launch themes for the MKZ are called Indulgence, featuring a chocolate-themed brown interior; Modern Heritage, a high-contrast interior with a black-over-white dashboard and white leather seats; and Center Stage, with a red headliner and red trim on a predominantly black interior. Available exterior colors have fancy names like Chroma Flame (red) and Chroma Couture (brown), but they're really just different hues of typical car colors: black, white, silver, red, brown, and blue. Lincoln expects that six to ten percent of all the vehicles it sells will feature the Black Label themes. Feature: How Ford Plans to Fix Lincoln Instrumented Test: 2013 Ford Fusion Energi Titanium Plug-In Hybrid Photos and Info: 2014 Cadillac CTS Sedan Each new model that follows will get its own Black Label treatment. Lincoln representatives told us that the first of these will be the MKC, which was previewed as a concept at the 2013 Detroit auto show, although we were reminded that the brand has not officially announced MKC production plans. Perhaps one Black Label theme for the compact utility could be called Not A Secret. Lincoln says that the color palettes and designs for the special-edition themes will see periodic updates, but these won't be limited editions–Ford will build as many Black Label Lincolns as it can sell. from Car and Driver Blog http://blog.caranddriver.com

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