ESPN’s Darren Rovell is reporting that Kia has snagged Lebron James to the the brand ambassador for the new Kia K900 luxury sedan. Kia has been doing very well, but the volume numbers for the K900 have not been very robust. With James plugging the vehicle, however, this will provide a huge shot in the arm for K900 sales along with the Kia brand image.

The K900 is a beautiful vehicle that should provide a nice halo effect for the Kia brand. But at over $60,000 it’s not something most Kia buyers can afford. So to increase sales Kia needs to attract more affluent buyers. James can help raise awareness for the vehicle and potentially drive sales. It will be interesting to see if this endorsement has a noticeable impact on sales volumes.

Lexus has introduced the successor to the F performance sedan with the new Lexus RC F coupe. This badass vehicle can hit 60 MPH in 4.4 seconds and has incredible handling.

Lexus has been upping its game with its F models and F SPORT versions of its entire line, so suddenly this stodgy luxury brand is becoming known for speed, styling and performance as well.

With the all-new 2013 Lincoln MKZ, get reintroduced to the Lincoln Motor Company. Check out the video below and you’ll see a new direction for the company which celebrates ninety years of history while also blazing new trails. You’ll see a very bold and aggressive new design and it will be interesting to see how this transforms the brand.

The political ads are over, so now we can be bombarded with ads for luxury cars during the holiday season.

Car shoppers will see so-called “loyalty” and “conquest” discounts in this year’s holiday sales campaigns. These deals essentially reward consumers for shopping the competition, even if they intend to stay with the brand they already drive. For example, a customer who owns a Mercedes could get an additional $750 discount for agreeing to buy or lease another. If the same owner went to a BMW showroom, he or she would likely be offered a similar amount to switch teams.

About 20% of shoppers on Edmunds.com who looked at a Mercedes C-Class during the last week of October also looked at a BMW 3 Series, according to data from the site. Among those considering the 3-series, 10% looked at a C-Class, and 10% looked at the Audi A4.

Dealers say discounts specifically tied to retaining existing customers have an impact. “It gives us something else to discuss, to look at a customer and let them know they are special to us,” says Robert Camastro, owner of Mercedes of Danbury, Ct.

The loyalty and conquest discounts vary by model and brand. Some Audi dealers are advertising discounts of up to $2,500 if you are trading in a rival luxury brand.

Lincoln, a brand of Ford Motor Co., is offering no-money-down lease deals on its MKX sport utility. Cadillac’s deals vary, but the brand is offering no-money-down, $399-a-month leases on its just-launched ATS model, which is designed to compete with the 3 series and Mercedes C Class.

It’s interesting to see Lincoln get in on the action, as their ad looks very similar to ads for the other luxury brands, but they need to do something.

As Cadillac keeps working to gain traction against the imports Lincoln continues to fall further behind of everyone in the California luxury market. The numbers are clear and Lincoln needs a rear wheel drive platform more than ever but still no word on when this is going to happen. Cadillac is still behind the likes of Mercedes and BMW but with new offerings like the sleek and nimble Cadillac ATS that brand has a real change to increase sales for the General. Either way at some point Cadillac and especially Lincoln need to break out in the luxury market soon or it will start getting much harder to build any momentum.

From CNN.Com:

FORTUNE — Cadillac and Lincoln are two of America’s most storied car brands, with more than 200 years of automotive history between them. But in the country’s largest and highest profile luxury car market — California — they are regularly trounced by Europe’s upscale automakers and even the Japanese. Both domestic brands are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to catch up, but they have a long way to go.

Spend some time cruising the eight-lane freeways of Southern California as I did recently, and you will find yourself surrounded by fleets of Mercedes-Benz’s and BMW’s, sprinkled with an assortment of Audi sports cars, Range Rover SUVs, Jaguar sedans, and Porsches. These are mostly high-trim models, too, with AMG and M-sport badges in abundance. Black is the favored color. The Cadillac Escalade appears to be the most favored domestic offering — popular with hotel shuttle services — but you search in vain for a Cadillac CTS or any passenger car with a Lincoln’s in-your-face bow-wave grille.

Check out the full article!