(December 30, 2011) LOS ANGELES — For the luxury transportation industry, the discontinuation of the Lincoln Town Car marks the end of an era. Since the 1990s, the Lincoln Town Car has been the flagship of limousine companies' fleets.

In 2010, however, Lincoln announced it would cease production of the Town Car series, leaving the luxury transportation industry high and dry without a clear successor.

KLS Transportation Services, Inc., a Los Angeles limousine service, is looking at the same landscape as its competitors and wondering what model will take the Town Car's place as the market leader.

At the 2011 LCT Show in Vegas and the LimoDigest Show in Atlantic City, no vehicle stood out as an obvious replacement for the Lincoln Town Car, according to KLS. Lincoln was pushing its MKT and MKZ models, but top-tier limousine companies aren't sold yet. The future success of these models in the luxury transportation industry will really depend on word-of-mouth from clients.

If customers don't respond favorably to Lincoln's newest entries, limousine companies will look elsewhere. At the same time, Hyundai has made the Genesis its standard-bearer, and Toyota was presenting the Camry for consideration. Both of these brands, however, will face resistance, because neither is widely considered a "luxury class" automobile.  More likely contenders include the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and S-Class, and the BMW 5-series.

According to the experts at KLS, market forces are probably going to sort this out on their own over the next few years. If the existing field of vehicles doesn't impress customers, auto manufacturers like Lincoln or Cadillac will likely respond by introducing a new sedan (hopefully by 2013).

After all, the transportation industry represents roughly $7 billion in annual revenue worldwide, and that is not a market share that the auto industry can afford to ignore for long.