2007 Lincoln MKX AWD Photo Gallery

Okay, so I ranted a bit about rebadging the other day. Now I'm going to rant some more -- about benchmarking and the death of innovation.

Some say that progress is incremental. They claim that technological progress is like evolution -- it's a slow process that takes many generations. Applied to cars and SUVs, that means that small changes add up over time, until eventually a whole new vehicle has emerged over time.

One way to insure that this theory is valid is to use competitive benchmarking as a guiding force in vehicle design and engineering. An article by Peter Griffin on the Quality Network out of the UK contains some very good information and recommendations about benchmarking, if you're interested in finding out more.

The challenge that I see in the SUV world right now is that some companies are taking the first step of competitive benchmarking -- identifying the strengths of their competition -- but failing to find a way to improve on those strengths or to avoid the weaknesses. I've heard such statements as -- "That would be a good feature to add, but it's not competitively significant. None of the other vehicles in the class are offering it." So a feature or innovation is deemed unnecessary because other manufacturers are doing without it, and innovation is quashed by consensus.

Should building a vehicle that's "just as good" as the competition be the goal, or should building the best vehicle for the money?

That's part one of my rant on competitive benchmarking -- inspired by the 2007 Lincoln MKX. Take a look at this 2007 Lincoln MKX AWD Photo Gallery to see what raised my ire.

Photo © Jason Fogelson