Lincoln

Okay so this article is dedicated to cars.

Now I am a HUGE fan of cars, I try to go to the local auto show every year, and being I live in Southern California hopefully that means this year it is the LA Auto Show.

Now my favorite luxury car brands are Audi and BMW, but I will admit I like the Infinity G37, new Mercedes Benz C63 AMG Coupe, and Lexus IS F. My favorite BMW is the of course the M3, but I also like the 335 Coupe. When it comes to Audi, well where to start: A3, A4, S4, A5, S5, R8.

Usually I will go on various car manufacturer websites building my dream cars.

Now this lead to my thinking, What is wrong with American Luxury Brands?

If you did not know the main American luxury brands are: Cadillac and Lincoln, although Chrysler would like to consider itself a luxury brand.

Well sorry to break it to you Chrysler, you are not a luxury brand. They do have the popular Chrysler 300 which arguably is a luxury car, but that is it. The 200 is basically a renamed Sebring and te Town & Country, which luxury brand has a minivan. Plus for the base models you get cloth, no luxury brand would put cloth in a luxury car, I mean it better be a luxuries cloth that out does leather.

Anyways I am not here to talk about Chrysler, I am here to focus on Ford's Lincoln. Get it Focus on Ford. Ford has recently invested $1 Billion dollars in its Luxury brand as sales for the Lincoln brand are hurting. Ford sold Volvo and Jaguar a while ago. And they discontinued the Mercury brand. Was it a smart move? Well I dont know to be honest. Mercury was a brand that was hurting and shared too many similarities for its cheaper Ford versions. And if you wanted a luxury car all you had to do was pay a few extra thousand and get a Lincoln.

Now lets be honest, look at Lincoln, what is right with it? The American luxury brands have sure taken a back seat to the Germans and Japanese, but I think a lot of it has to do with marketing and new designs. All I can say besides the fact I think Cadillacs are ugly, is atleast they differentiate themselves from other GM Brands. Lincoln has just used the Ford cars and dressed them up as Lincolns. That would be like seeing a Jetta with an Audi logo on it, or a Malibu with a Cadillac logo on it. Lincoln just doesnt make itself different from Ford. If you take an MKZ and customize it to the max it would be around $42k, but take a Ford Fusion and max it out it would be almost $10k cheaper, yep just $32k for a car that has received outstanding reviews from various car magazines.

If you look at the two they look almost identical, but I think the Ford is 100 times better than the Lincoln.

And that is not all the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX are also the same vehicles just with minor visual differences.

Now what does Lincoln, or Ford, need to do with this $1 Billion?

I think Ford seriously needs to think about Lincoln. I am not saying to get rid of Lincoln, just rebrand it and kind or redue the entire Lincoln brand. My opinion: new Logo. I just find that logo to old looking, I think Lincoln needs an update. I think they should incorporate the L into a new logo. Also what might look really cool is having on the back of the car the letters LINCOLN rather than a logo.

Another thing I think Lincoln needs to do is get rid of their line-up. Yes I said it, even the once popular Navigator. I think they need to put a line-up together that can compete with BMW, Mercedes Benz, Lexus, etc.

That means new cars, and not ones that look like Fords. If you want to sell more luxury cars you better have cars that are different from your base brand, in this case Ford. They need a new grille, that grille is just super ugly. What I would do is get bars that go straight down, not diagonal. Take out the middle part with the logo and have the grille go all the way across. And no bar running horizontally on the grille. When it comes to the taillights, make them more modern. They look way too ugly. Make this a car someone is going to want to own.

What not to do: Dont make a new Grand Marquise, Those things were ugly and dont try to bring back old ugly American luxury styling. I am not saying avoid boxy cars but do it so that it looks modern and that a 30 year old will want to drive it, not a 90 year old. This car on the left is not terrible, but looks way too Grand Marquise. The car also looks too much like a sedan version of a Dodge Challenger. What I would recommend is look at Mercedes and Lexus and see what they do right in styling. Sure I dont want you to copy them, but dont make your styling ugly.

Other things: scrap the idea of making an efficient small car, you are a luxury brand, you need to show that someone with a million dollars will buy you. I think the company needs to focus on performance as well. Bring in a coupe or a few coupes to match your sedans. Maybe even a wagon as well. And make like two SUVs that are cross-overs. I would recommend they have a smaller car a little bit bigger than the focus to compete with the 3-series, and a Fusion size sedan and then a sedan to compete with the 5 series. And like I mentioned make a coupe for each one. Please no ugly Cadillac style coupes that dont even look like arrows.

One of the big things, make a sports car line-up and super car. Similar to Mercedes AMG, Audi S and RS, BMW M, and Lexus F.

I just think that Lincoln needs to reinvent itself as a luxury brand that doesnt barrow from Ford and looks modern.

I think if Lincoln were to do this they could pull themselves around and make themselves a wanted brand.

I might consider drawing some sketches and posting them later.

DROID!!!

Okay so we have all heard about it by now the Motorola Droid Razr. Despite sharing its name with the popular last generation Razr it is very different.









Besides being a touch screen vs flip phone,

Although one big thing these phones do share is their slimness. The new Razr is the slimmest 4.3 touch screen available 4G LTE phone. Try this .28 inches thick. That is crazy.

This new Razr features a 4.3 inch touchscreen with two cameras. A front camera that is 1.3 megapixels and shoots 720 video. And a back camera that is 8 megapixels and shoots 1080 video.

Motorla says it has a special designed front so that it is harder to break, and the back is almost carbon fiber like. The material is called Kevlar which is super durable and used in bullet proof vests. I would advise not to test it out and shoot at it.

The screen is 540x960.

One of the best features of this phone is Smart Actions which are basically quick short cuts for your phone. For example, if you plug in your headphones, the moment you do it your phones music player or pandora will load up and start playing. Verizon and Motorola claim that it helps out with battery life as well.

It does feature an HDMI out to hook it up to a TV or Computer.

In more news Android Ice Cream Sandwich is coming soon.

The biggest problem is the battery. Which smart phones are not hidden from. According to tests you would have to charge it around twice a day depending on usage. Also you cannot take the battery out. This means, well I dont know what it means? What happens when the battery dies?

I am a fan of Droid phones no question, but I hope this phone is better than my Droid 2 Global. Dont get me wrong the Droid 2 Global is a good phone, but for me it has had too many problems. And when I went into a Verizon store the employee told me that it is their most trouble shooted Android phone. That is a bummer considering Verizon doesnt want to admit it.

What is wrong with the Droid 2. The phone has some freezing problems, phones calls dont always go through, the speaker will some times stop working, battery really sucks, I charge the phone at night then have to charge it again when I wake up and it still turns red before I get home. Now my Navigation almost no longer works, first it flipped the maps upside down, then when it fixed it, the voice on the Navigation no longer says anything which is annoying when I use it while driving. I cant tell you how many times I have missed a turn because of it losing its voice. The other problem not related to technology is the weight, it is way heavier than any other Droid. That is the price I pay for wanting a keyboard that doesnt really matter anymore.

Well besides those problems the phone is good, and some of the problems except the navigation volume have gone away.

The Droid Razr starts at $300