Most of our readers probably didn’t have much love for the long Mercury division of the Ford Motor Company, but the brand had a long history filled with amazing cars and stupid missteps. Yet as much as some of us miss Mercury, there is no doubt that the Ford brand as a whole is better off without it, even as the luxury Lincoln brand is still struggling to find new buyers.
But Ford has pledged to bring Lincoln back, better than ever, investing millions of dollars into new cars for the old brand. In a USA Today interview with Ford executives regarding Lincoln’s rebirth, it is mentioned at the very end that the luxury brand was almost killed off like its cousin, Mercury
Obviously Lincoln has avoided the ax (for now) but it should demonstrate just how dire of straights Ford was in during the depths of the recession. It would have been easy to kill Lincoln, according to Ford’s President of the Americas Mark Fields, just as they did with Mercury. But Ford decided to give Lincoln an infusion of cash and engineering talent, as well poaching talent from competitive luxury brands like Lexus, in the case of Ford’s Jim Farley.
What does Lincoln’s future hold? Well if the Lincoln MKZ Concept is any indication, the Lincoln design is going to get edgier, and with more of an emphasis on high-tech gadgets like EcoBoost engines, touchscreen center consoles, and cloud computing. Lincoln’s turnaround plan includes going after “magicians,” creative tech-saavy types who are trendsetters living on either coast (sorry Middle America.) Lincoln still has a long road ahead of it, but we’re glad Ford kept it around. Is there a Lincoln in your future, mayhaps?
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