Lincoln has announced that the 2008 Mark LT pick-ups will be the last for the line, which was introduced less than three years ago.

Sales of the Mark LT topped out at 12,753 for the 2006 model year and never approached the company target of 20,000 vehicles a year.

Although no official comment was forthcoming from Ford Motor Co., sources speaking to the online site Automotive News said simply, "It's history."

Apparently original plans for the Mark LT put it on schedule for a major update in 2009 in tandem with the Ford F-150. An internal decision, however, redirected the necessary funds for that restructuring to the development of crossover vehicles and cars more suited to the tastes of luxury buyers.

The re-engineered and re-designed 2009 Ford F-150 will include a version on the high-end labeled the "Platinum," which will fill the luxury truck niche left blank by the demise of the Mark LT.

From its debut in 2005, the Lincoln Mark LT as of July 2007 managed lifetime sales of 28,117. Its predecessor, the unpopular Lincoln Blackwood, had a lifespan of only 15-months and sold only 3,356 units.

Chances are good that Ford will have better luck with a luxury F-150 as the line is a well-established and known quantity with buyers.