Auto Brands Elevate Customer Experience With Flexible Options

Taking a page from Book by Cadillac and a growing number of other marques, Lincoln and Volvo are the latest luxury auto brands to launch flexible and on-demand services in a bid to elevate the customer experience and offer more options beyond ownership. The hope extend their brand halo while bridging the era of ubiquitous car sharing and even self-driving cars.

Ford’s Lincoln brand will pilot month-to-month vehicle subscriptions in 2018, starting in a handful of markets in California. Learning from customers involved in Ford Credit’s Canvas subscription service that launched in May, the Lincoln program will incorporate the same technology.

Announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week, executives commented that the prices would be significantly lower than those of rival brands. Book by Cadillac, for example, launched at $1,500 a month in New York, rising to to $1,800 a month as it expands to Dallas and Los Angeles.

While not confirming pricing, Lincoln’s service promises to be all-inclusive, covering insurance, maintenance, roadside assistance, and vehicle pickup and delivery. Customers can change vehicles every month, and the pricing will depend on the vehicle.

“The inspiration for us was from research about what customers want, and they want options,” Lincoln President Kumar Galhotra commented. “The millennial demographic is used to a monthly fee for a phone or whatever is, and they’re driving a higher lease mix. We want to reinvent leasing in the 21st century, and this is a step in that direction.”

The test with dealers will extend Lincoln’s increasing orientation toward service innovations, such as becoming the first in the industry to offer pickup and delivery on every model when it’s being serviced, as it launched last year.

This year, a Lincoln Chauffeur pilot program launched in Miami and San Diego, summoning a personal chauffeur by app to drive the customer’s own car and run errands. Lincoln is rebranding the plan as Lincoln Personal Driver as it arrives in Dallas, the sixth-largest luxury market in the U.S.

Volvo has provided details of its planned subscription service, too. Care by Volvo, announced in September, will cost less than half the price of existing services like Book for Cadillac: $600 a month for a new XC40 SUV. Two versions of the car will be available, and the lineup will eventually expand.

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