What’s The Deal With Lincoln Buyers?

If there is one car brand that I do not understand it’s Lincoln. I love a Navigator and enjoyed the Nautilus when I drove one last year. Arguably, Lincoln doesn’t make a bad car. The brand, though, only competes in extremely crowded segments, which is why it’s a bit of a surprise to me that the Lincoln brand is kinda killing it right now from a loyalty perspective.

S&P Global is out with its 2024 awards for customer loyalty, and there are the usual players, including Tesla, but there’s also a hell of a lot of Lincolns. If you buy a Lincoln, you apparently never stop buying Lincolns. By comparison, Infiniti plays in mostly the same segments and it’s getting destroyed, which might explain the push to get Nissan’s CEO shoved into the nearest crate.

No one is planning to excommunicate GM’s Mary Barra, especially as the company agrees to more dividends. The strategy keeps working, but I don’t love it. Maybe my way of thinking is why I’m writing The Morning Dump and not, say, flying on a private jet to Florida this weekend to spend ungodly amounts of money on a vintage Porsche.

The Lincoln Corsair Is The Model With The Most Owner Loyalty

Do I need to borrow a Lincoln Corsair? Is the Lincoln Cosair… Good? I’m trying to drive more cars in order to better understand the market and keep you, dear readers, up-to-date with what’s going on in the world. I did drive the Lincoln Nautilus and thought it was nice.

Would I buy one over a Porsche Cayenne or a Genesis GV80? Probably not. I’d probably get the GV80, although the Nautilus is about $5,000 cheaper. The logic of a luxury automobile that’s nice and also quite affordable is appealing. The word “affordable” doesn’t come up enough these days. It’s the same with the Corsair. I’d be tempted to buy a Macan, but a Macan costs a lot more.

It turns out that people who own Lincolns either really love the experience or are unaware other cars exist, because S&P Global named the Nautilus and the Corsair the cars in each class with the most loyal buyers. Even more impressively, according to registration data, no single car had more return customers than the Lincoln Corsair last year.

Most of this list is entirely sensible. The most loyal make is Tesla, because up until recently, there weren’t a lot of good reasons to buy something else if you already owned one. General Motors is the most loyal overall manufacturer, which is somewhat interesting. In certain categories, there are vehicles that pretty much always win.

If you want a Porsche 911, there’s no other sports car you can buy than a 911. Similarly, there’s no Range Rover like a Range Rover. I do think cost is a factor here, as the most popular passenger car for return buyers is the Nissan Sentra, which is affordable and reasonably nice. That does, also, perhaps go to explain Lincoln’s success.

The brand also had a great 2024, relatively speaking, from a sales perspective. Lincoln’s sales were up 28% year-over-year for its best performance since you could see a reverse-aging Brad Pitt in the movie theaters. I presume discounting and just an abundance of cars maybe had something to do with it as well. Just because you’re selling more cars doesn’t mean you’re selling more of them profitably.

Also, Lincoln is at risk from tariffs now that its most popular model is built in China. As noted by Automotive News earlier this year when writing about a meeting between execs and dealers:

A dealer who attended the meeting said executives acknowledged that tariffs pose a “significant risk” to the brand because of its limited lineup and that a government affairs committee is working with retailers to address the challenges tariffs might pose.

The dealer said executives also promised to better manage inventory after it rose more than expected last year and promised dealers additional floorplan support in the coming months.

Other than Raylan Givens, the average Lincoln owner has historically been older than the market as a whole, and that almost certainly contributes to the numbers. A new Navigator is probably only going to help things and maybe, just maybe, unseat the Range Rover.

Nissan Is Reportedly Trying To Push Out Its CEO, Or Maybe It Isn’t

Nissan CEO is the worst job in all of the automotive universe. If you’re not getting arrested at the behest of your subordinates, you’re dealing with your competitor telling you your company is worthless, and that doesn’t even include having to kowtow to your French shareholders.

Somehow, people actually want this gig, or at least Nissan’s Board of Directors is maybe trying to find someone willing to give it a shot. Here’s what Bloomberg is saying:

Nissan directors are gauging interest in potential candidates to replace Uchida, the 22-year company veteran who has been CEO since late 2019, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Other sources told Reuters that Uchida is likely to hang on to his job.

Nissan is due to announce the management streamlining on March 12 but Uchida is not expected to resign as part of the announcement, the sources said.

I feel like getting fired by Nissan without having to, like, go to prison is the best outcome a CEO of Nissan can hope for.

GM Agrees To Hand Out More Dividends

If you’re a shareholder of General Motors then you, too, could be a beneficiary of increased dividends and a planned share buyback.

Per the Detroit Free Press:

General Motors’ board approved increasing its stock dividend by 3 cents to 15 cents a share, the company said Wednesday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a sign of confidence despite growing threats from federal policy that could impact the auto industry this year.

This is the first time GM has said it planned to raise its stock dividend since late 2023.

“We feel confident in our business plan, our balance sheet remains strong, and we will be agile if we need to respond to changes in public policy,” Paul Jacobson, executive vice president and CFO, said in the statement. “The repurchase authorization our board approved continues a commitment to our capital allocation policy.”

I have been down this road before, so I’ll spare you the details, but this isn’t my favorite thing GM is doing. Sharing excess profits back with shareholders is a good thing, both for rewarding your investors and for maintaining your share price. Dividends are not, on their face, bad. I just think the automotive market is in for a long period of uncertainty, and it would make more sense to reinvest that money in the company.

Old Porsches Are The New Old Ferraris

One of the cool things about being partnered with Beau, other than he gets the references that David does not, is that he’s active in the auction scene, which gives us access to it. Over the years of attending auctions, it’s become obvious that older Porsches are steadily increasing in value.

There’s a comprehensive story on this from our pal Hannah Elliott in Bloomberg that’s worth a read if you follow these things:

This month, as car enthusiasts converge on Florida for two weeks, they’ll find 14 Porsches with estimates straddling the $1 million mark—two more than the dozen Ferraris with the same distinction and far more than any other brand among the 405 total lots being offered across three auction houses. Million-dollar Porsches are creeping into the elite pricing echelon that Ferraris once dominated at significant auctions around the globe.

The increase reflects collectors’ desires and financial ability to build significant collections around one favored brand, says Steve Serio, a Boston-based automotive broker to billionaires. Porsches have always been valuable—they just haven’t been as desirable as multimillion-dollar Ferrari GTOs, LMs and Testarossas. But Porsche is inching closer as an increasing number of buyers amass collections around the historic marque.

I remember when Porsche 912s were like $16k all day and I was not smart enough to buy one. Instead, I bought a Merkur. Never take my advice about anything, is what I’m saying.

What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD

Roberta Flack passed away recently and it would be a shame if we didn’t recognize her, so here’s Roberta doing “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” RIP to a legend.

The Big Question

What’s your theory on Lincoln buyers?

Top photo: BaT/Justified

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