Ford Spending 'Billions' on Lincoln Brand

[nruggiero]

Ford Spending 'Billions' on Lincoln Brand
Wall Street Journal
January 14, 2013
by Mike Ramsey And Joseph B. White

DETROIT—Ford Motor Co. is investing billions of dollars to invigorate the Lincoln brand, said Jim Farley, the company's global Lincoln brand chief and marketing director, at the North American International Auto Show on Monday.

Mr. Farley, who added the new title to his job last fall, has championed the brand and pushed for its expansion into China as the company attempts to make its luxury line into a global player.

The company's commitment to the Lincoln brand has strengthened over the past year. In addition to the promise of four new or redesigned models to come over the next several years, Ford has made efforts to give Lincoln its own design team and parceled out engineering resources specifically to the brand in an effort to make it distinct from Ford.

Full article at link.

[Quixote88]

Well, do they really have a choice?

It's either spend billion$ revamping the potentially lucrative luxury arm of FoMoCo or shut it down immediately and stop the bleeding... Their billion$ invested in their mainstream brand has worked, so why not go for broke with the luxury brand? It may prove to be a more difficult road to go down, but I think it is still possible to not only save Lincoln, but see it flourish...

[donmateo]

Wise decision, I think we will be surprised with what they offer in the next few years.

[Pisswilly]

I would love to beat Ford in the head with a bat!

[demonspeed]

Best of luck. America will be a better place with two domestic luxury marques.

[jzchev28]

It's about time they realized that's what their going to have to do.

[autoplaybook]

I guess it's time to divest your Ford stock, folks. Ford is spending "Billions" on Lincoln when, according to all the fanbois, the original $1B commitment was enough, and companies like VW, who is spending $18B on Audi in the coming years, was deemed foolish in comparison.

Lincoln needs billions. Absolutely. I'm glad they're getting them. I hope it's more than $5B, because it'll take at least that much. Lincoln needs at least one mostly unique platform (Mustang and Falcon can share), and at least unique engine displacements, if not its own engine family, in order to compete.

[SeetheUSA]

Ford Wasting 'Billions' on Lincoln Brand


fixed the title for ya!

[GMusa]

Lincoln has so much potential.. I'm excited to see what they can do with it when they actually try.

[BlackGTP]

If Cadillac can revive itself, so can Lincoln. If Lincoln and Caddy can make world class cars the perception of Americans may really change. Americans may start to take pride in our own industry. Cars are one of the most visable parts of our industrial base its no wonder we take a dim view of made in America with the crap cars that Detroit put out in the 70's - 90's. With cars like the ATS, Corvette, ELR, etc people may start changing their views!

[StormHunter77]

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Perhaps some truly stunning products will arrive, igniting a war between Cadillac and Lincoln Motor Company.

[F14CRAZY]

If Lincoln is going after like Buick, Acura, and like Volvo, then that's fine. If they think they can go after BMW, Audi, MB, Cadillac...they are very mistaken. The generation of product that's hardly even out yet then they're better off giving me those billions

[PistonsFan]

[Extreme4x4]

So, they were stupid when they were only spending $1 billion.................... and they are stupid if they are spending "Billions."

Ok.

[unkillsam]

Ford in general is stupid. GM would have Cadillac totally restored right now if they would not have had to prop up Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, and Saab in the 2000's. That was what A+S was supposed to do, especially the CTS.

Ford on the other hand, well yes it did have to worry about PAG at the time, and well Mercury, but really? Ford gave up on Lincoln when it did have the resources, unlike GM. At least IMHO.

EDIT.. I don't really know what Ford's financials were back then but they had to be better then GM's.