Next Lincolns to Get Push Button Transmissions and All Glass Roofs

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Ford has been very vocal lately about its plans to hopefully fix the Lincoln brand. In June it was announced that Ford is going to invest $1 billion in new Lincoln models. Now were getting more details about Ford has planned.

Ford recently gave a preview of the future Lincolns and some of those details have been released. Future Lincolns will move further from the Ford lineup. According to Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president of global product development, that means, “No more badge engineering.”

To differentiate Lincoln models from Ford, Ford has assigned 100 people to Lincoln’s design team. Previously Lincoln designers were also part of the same team that designed Fords. Lincoln also now has an exclusive powertrain development team, which will create unique powertrains with eight-speed transmissions.

Future Lincolns are also reportedly going to get push button shift controls for the transmission and fully retractable glass roofs.

The first all-new Lincoln will be the MKZ, which will be previewed in concept form at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show.

Autoweek