Bloomberg, 2006-09-13
By Greg Bensinger
The Lincoln Town Cars that chauffeur New York investment bankers home at the end of the day soon may be part of Wall Street history.
Ford Motor Co. plans to close the Wixom, Michigan, plant that makes the sedan and hasn't committed to production beyond the 2007 model year. Ford's Mercury Grand Marquis or DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler 300 may be called upon to take the Lincoln's place.
The Town Car, which makes up more than 80 percent of New York's 35,000 for-hire fleet, is the ``black car'' of choice in every major U.S. market, said Neil Weiss, editor of industry magazine Black Car News. Without it, life wouldn't be the same for thousands of bankers and executives who have been stretching out in the back seat since 1980, usually at company expense.
Investor Warren Buffett is already giving up the ride. Yesterday, he offered his 2001 Town Car in a charity auction.
``It's spacious, the leather seats are nice, and it's just a nice ride,'' Alex Weiss, an investment banking analyst for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said of the fleet models. Weiss, who uses a car service three or four times a month, estimated his five-minute ride costs Lehman $18, compared with $6 for a taxi.
The Town Car has a manufacturer's suggested retail price starting at more than $40,000. The biggest model is the largest American sedan, at 18 feet, 5 inches (5.6 meters). That's more than a foot longer than the $140,000 Mercedes-Benz S600, based on figures from Ford and DaimlerChrysler's Web sites.
Riders ``feel like kings in the back of these things,'' said Dean Hameed, 36, who has driven Town Cars for 10 years.
Wall Street Waits
On a recent evening, Hameed's Town Car was one of 40 lined up outside Deutsche Bank AG on Wall Street. A mile away, 30 Town Cars waited on Greenwich Street in Tribeca for workers headed home from Citigroup Inc. just before midnight.
The vehicle is so much a part of Wall Street culture, the local community board demanded that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. adopt a ``black-car management plan'' for the $2.4 billion headquarters it's building in lower Manhattan. The investment bank agreed that black cars for employees working after 9 p.m. will be summoned from an adjacent garage, spokeswoman Andrea Raphael said.
Town Cars often are used as a messenger service, said Maria Yuan, 25, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. investment banker.
``When one of our bosses or clients needed a package delivered to their house in Connecticut or Westchester, we'd just throw it in the back seat of one,'' she said.
Holiday Antics
Sometimes the car's comfort and spaciousness are put to the test.
``Christmastime, you get many, many drunk bankers,'' said driver Andy Koksal, 32, parked near Citigroup's offices on Park Avenue. Last December, he had to plead with a female passenger to limit her back-seat activities with a client because the windows were becoming too fogged.
``This is a very embarrassing situation,'' Koksal said. ``But you want to drive safely.''
Ford hasn't disclosed any decision on making the Town Car after the 2007 models, spokesman Jim Cain said.
Factory Closings
Shuttering the Wixom plant is part of a plan announced in January by William Clay Ford Jr., great-grandson of the company's founder, to close 14 North American factories and cut 30,000 jobs by 2012. The company's board is to meet tomorrow to consider additional restructuring steps.
Boeing Co.'s Alan Mulally was named Sept. 1 to replace Ford as chief executive officer. Ford, who held the position for almost five years, remains chairman. The Dearborn, Michigan- based company, the second-biggest U.S. automaker, had a first- half loss of $1.44 billion.
Ford shares rose 13 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $9.19 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 19 percent this year. The automaker's 7.45 percent note due July 2031 fell less than a cent to 79.75 cents on the dollar, yielding 9.6 percent, according to Trace, the NASD's bond-price reporting service.
Town Car sales slowed to about 47,000 in 2005 from 149,000 in 1990, according to Autodata Corp. This year's sales through August fell 17 percent. Sales are split about evenly between retail and fleet customers, Ford spokesman Alan Hall said.
``If they put $200 million into a redesign, I think they could revive sales quickly,'' said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
New Car for Buffett
Buffett, chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., put his personal gold Town Car on the block -- including the license plate that says ``Thrifty'' -- in a benefit for Girls Inc., a New York-based non-profit educational group.
Bidding on EBay Inc.'s Web site runs through Sept. 22 and starts at $25,000 for the car, which has been driven less than 14,000 miles. Buffett replaced it earlier this year with a Cadillac, made by General Motors Corp.
The Chrysler 300 or the Grand Marquis is the Town Car's likely successor in black-car fleets, said John Wolkonowicz, senior auto analyst for Global Insight Inc., an economic forecasting firm in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Like the Town Car, both have long wheelbases and rear-wheel drive, making them roomy and better equipped to handle all-day driving, potholes and stop-and-go traffic, Wolkonowicz said. The Chrysler 300 is 16 feet, 5 inches, while the Grand Marquis is 17 feet, 7 inches.
Cadillac Contender?
The 16-foot, 4-inch Cadillac STS rear-wheel drive sedan is a less likely replacement, said Jesse Toprak, market forecasting director for vehicle-comparison Web site Edmunds.com.
That's because the STS has a retail price starting at almost $43,000 and a reputation as being less reliable, Toprak said. ``Pricing is the number one thing,'' he said. ``A few thousand dollars per car can make a big difference when you're buying this in quantity.''
David Yahodah, general manager of Queens-based City Ride Transportation, said he can't imagine what could replace his fleet of 180 Town Cars.
``You can put maybe 400,000 miles on a Town Car, no problem,'' Yahodah said.
In Brooklyn, Lincoln Auto Mall sells only used Town Cars, for as much as $31,000.
``We'll be able to sell Town Cars for a few years if there's no new ones,'' said general manager David Khoen, who estimates that he sells about 200 of the vehicles annually.
``We haven't crossed that bridge yet,'' he said. ``Maybe we'll change our name to Chrysler Auto Mall.''
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