By John LeBlanc
Despite being the darling of the auto-world media right now (NO BANKRUPTCIES!! NO BAILOUT MONEY!! NO STICKY GAS PEDALS!!),
Ford has a problem child: its name is
Lincoln. Ah, yes, Lincoln. Remember? Ford’s luxury brand? Don’t feel ashamed if you’ve forgotten.
In 1998, Lincoln was the best-selling luxury brand in the U.S. But since then, Ford’s luxury brand has been having its lunch eaten by pretty much every other luxury brand out there. So, what happened? According to a former Lincoln designer who has moved onto another company, the decline of Ford's luxury brand stems from a dearth of product development caused by the
Firestone/Explorer crisis from the late 1990s. Just as Ford was ramping up to make Lincoln truly distinct from plebeian Fords, the financial stress of the exploding Explorer tire fiasco meant new platform development money dried up, leaving exciting, rear-drive Lincoln concepts like the
Sentinel and
Mark 9 with no platform home.
The timing couldn’t have been worse. At the same time
Government Motors and
Nissan started investing in creating unique (i.e. rear-drive) platforms to establish their
Cadillac and
Infiniti luxury brands, respectively, Ford took the opposite approach with Lincoln, relying on styling alone to differentiate the brand.
Smart car buyers started having a hard time justifying Lincoln’s premium pricing over essentially what were Ford nuts and bolts.Personally, as someone who gets asked for new car advice almost on a daily basis, it’s hard to recommend a Lincoln over a Ford. Essentially, a
Lincoln MKZ is a
Ford Fusion, an
MKX is an
Edge, an
MKS is a
Taurus, and an
MKT is a
Flex. As one U.S. dealer recently told the
Detroit News, "It's hard to sell a $48,000 (US) MKS when the Ford guy down the street has a Taurus with the same features for $10,000 less."
But is it too late for Lincoln? Even of Ford did make the substantial investment to give the brand unique engineering, the dividends may never occur. Unlike other global luxury brands, Lincoln’s sales opportunities are limited to North America—primarily in the U.S. of A. Even there, the brand sells less annually than
Buick, Cadillac and
Acura.
Ten years ago, Ford made the decision that Canadians could live without its tweener
Mercury brand. Does it need to consider the same fate for Lincoln?
Does Ford really need Lincoln to succeed?
[Source: Detroit News]
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