Auto Motor und Sport [via Reuters] reports that Ford is contemplating selling Lincolns in Europe. "We are considering distribution in Europe and Asia," FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally told the German buff book. "We already sell Lincolns in the Middle East." Yeah, well, not many. Of the 130,700 Lincolns sold last year, only one percent of those transactions occurred outside North America. No wonder a Ford spokesman quickly spun Big Al's comments into oblivion. While hyping the brand's foreign potential, he insisted that any European incursion by the Reach Higher brand would take place "sometime in the future since the priority right now is clearly on North America." Still, Big Al's loose lips could be another indication that Volvo is heading for the auction block; the Swedes were supposed to be Ford's worldwide luxury brand. Question: what Lincoln could possibly hope to compete in the Eurozone?
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Statements like these really do add credence to the allusion that Big Al isn’t aware of Ford’s Euro operations.
What possible reason could there be for adding Lincoln to the European market when Volvo is already there?
The funny thing is GM tried the same trick before with disastrous results. (i.e introducing Cadillac as a luxury brand in Europe when SAAB could have done the job).
Oh, no – please don’t tell me we’re going to foist Navigators on Europe…
Not that I ever thought they were great, but the interior on the latest model has some of the cheapest feeling plastic door panels ever foisted on the public in a $50k “luxury” SUV.
Lincoln is the Fiat of America. A brand that can do ‘OK’ in this neck of the woods. But once it tries to jump across the proverbial pond… forget it.
Cadillac is in very much the same boat as far as the EU is concerned. They actually do very well with the Escalade in the Middle East and Russia (at the dealer auctions at least). But offering a quintessential American design to a part of the world that generally has very different tastes in cars is an exercise in futility and red ink.
Cadillac has failed with American Cadillacs in Europe (Seville, STS, CTS, Escalade, SRX). Cadillac has failed with European Cadillacs in Europe (BLS). Why Cadillac continues trying in Europe is beyond me – the new BLS Estate is evidence that they simply don’t get it. Cadillac is quintessentially American. No amount of badgineered Saabs or diesel engines will change that. I suppose you have to start somewhere, though.
Why Lincoln, with its sad Ford-plus-chrome lineup, thinks it can gain any sort of foothold in the European market is utterly stupifying. Americans barely take their MKZ/MKX/MKWhatevers without huge incentives, while vastly superior “America’s Best” Cadillacs are laughed out of the European market quarter after quarter.
Hold on, he just said they were considering selling Lincolns in Europe–he didn’t say what kind of Lincolns. Clearly the current crop in the USA isn’t going to cut it, but upscaling a Mondeo, for example, and putting a Lincoln badge on it for Euro consumption is entirely feasible.
Yeah, and that worked real well for the Lincoln LS back in 2000. Then again, with Jag and (hopefully) Volvo sold off to keep N/A operations alive…
Sajeev:
Did the Lincoln LS even make it to Europe?
Good question:
http://media.ford.com/newsroom/release_display.cfm?release=3332
The LS, while initially launched in the United States, will help Lincoln take its vision of American luxury to the world market. “We believe our American luxury vision will resonate not only in Boston and Burbank, but in Tokyo and Toronto as well as Hong Kong and Helsinki,” Hutchins continued.
Can anyone tell me how many dealerships Cadillac has in Europe? I thought that was a big problem. If the brand had more exposure, it might help.
Also, I read that they were targeting Eastern Europe, where the market isn’t as mature and entrenched.
Question: what Lincoln could possibly hope to compete in the Eurozone?
That, at least has an easy answer: selling in euros, since the dollar isn’t worth enough to use as newspaper anymore ;-)
I tend to disagree for both Volvo and Saab as luxury brands. They are more akin to VW or Toyota in Europe, i.e. premium brands, but still below MB, Audi, and BMW in perception. And I love Volvo…..
But the quirkiness of both brands prevents them from being the “it” machine to have in one’s driveway, marking the ascent into middle-managementdom.
Well, they fail to sell sell any Lincolns here, so why not fail to sell them worldwide? Spread the pain across the globe!
They won’t cannibalize Volvo sales, because, like Cadillac, THEY WON’T SELL ANY CARS.
It might be a good idea for Lincoln to have some, you know, actual product that people will buy before they make designs on conquering the globe.
Have they hired Ferdinand Piech?
Steven Lang: “Lincoln is the Fiat of America. A brand that can do ‘OK’ in this neck of the woods. But once it tries to jump across the proverbial pond… forget it.”
Totally agree—-lets get Lincoln USA right first. I think they are headed in a credible direction (2007 sales +9%) and in 24 months will have their shit together more due to more Sr. Mgmt focus on the business and better product.
CarShark: Cadillac currently has about 25 dealerships in Germany with plans to expand to 35. I think none are stand-alone dealers; all I have seen are sort of shop corners within multi-brand dealerships.
Taking a wild guess, I suppose in all of Europe, Cadillac should have no more than 200 outlets.
Sajeev: from what I know, the LS didn’t make it to Europe. Perhaps in select markets, but I have never seen one.
Ok so they dont give the US the better selling, looking and driving Euro Ford’s and instead sell us cheapened Fords. They take these Fords and gussy them up and make Mercurys and Lincolns for the US. Now they are thinking about taking these slow selling cars to be newly introduced in europe. I guess they have never heard of Cadillac. Even redesigned euro Ford’s wouldn’t be enough to compete with the German’s on their own turf, at best they would start competing with Volvo.
When they say stuff like this they seem like they want to go out of business. They need to focus all their efforts at fixing the North American operations and not distract themselves with the foreign markets they are doing ok in right now.
RF: Still, Big Al’s loose lips…
KatiePuckrick: Statements like these really do add credence to the allusion that Big Al isn’t aware of Ford’s Euro operations.
Give him a little more credit than that. “Big Al” is more than aware of EU Ford’s strengths and weaknesses. You can’t initiate a global development strategy, realign resources all over the world, sell-off EU managed brands or overhaul Volvo’s operations without constant work with the EU.
And his lips, while loose, are very deliberate.
Mulally doesn’t say anything that isn’t generally scripted. The new Taurus “slip”? Scripted. That Homer Simpson thing? Probably planned a week in advance.
He’s trying to get a reaction, test the waters, get people interested in what’s going on without giving away the full burrito. An off-hand announcement like selling Lincoln’s in Europe and Asia gets media attention and free publicity about which he will get responses back from investors, consumers and even writers on random auto enthusiast sites.
The Lincolns they may sell in, say, Europe or Asia won’t be the Navigator. Large SUVs don’t have much of a market outside the U.S. and the Middle East. However, the MKS, MKT or Ford’s future RWD Lincolns equipped with diesels might. Lincoln’s current 1% international sales level is reflective only of a lack of strategy to move Lincolns abroad. In five years, Lincoln will have at least six products other than the Navigator (and none of those six will be the Town Car), some of which may have been more specifically designed for sale in all markets, including SE Asia and Eastern Europe.
The LS was never sold in Europe as far as I remember, at least as a Lincoln. There was talk of rebadging it as a Ford Scorpio, but I dont’ think that happened either. I don’t know that Europe even knows there is a brand called Lincoln.
I hear Sarko wants to trade his Peugeot for a Navigator.
The way I remember was that Ford had plans to sell the then new Lincoln LS through European Ford dealers as a replacement for the slow-selling, oddly-styled, and recently discontinued “big” Ford Scorpio.
Then, just before the big introduction, Ford purchased Volvo and decided that the large Volvos could better meet the demand for “large” (by European standards) cars, and the plan to sell the LS in Europe was scuttled.
I suppose that Ford could try to sell the MKZ, MKS, MKX and MKT models in Europe. (Hey, the MKS is a Volvo!) I can’t imagine that many Europeans would be terribly interested, though.
Well hey the idea’s got one thing going for it: presumably the “Lincoln” brand doesn’t carry around the same poisoned baggage in Europe as it does the U.S. It takes a little time to develop that.
Besides there’s a statue of Honest Abe in London down not far from the Parliament Building.
Everyone loves to dump on Lincoln, especially Europeans and Britons. But in every major European city the ubiquitous white stretched limo is, you guessed it, an elongated Town Car.
It’s a shame that Ford’s Premium Auto Group has come such a cropper. I was hoping that some Jag and Volvo magic would have made Lincoln more of a player in the US (as opposed to a “playa”) in the executive luxury – 5 Series market. Alas, it was not to be.
Actually due to the weakness of the dollar and the Mexican production of some Lincolns, perhaps Ford could market Lincoln as their budget brand under Ford in Europe.
As for the Dew98, its a shame they didn’t sell that in Europe because it was an awesome platform. If not for being styled like a 1992 Mitsubishi Diamante it could have sold well in America too.
Hey, give that PR spinmeister some props; at least he said, “sometime in the future…” instead of that cliche du jour “sometime going foward…”
Renault/Nissan is bringing Infiniti over to Europe this year with the G sedan, G coupe EX, and FX. Mullaly, on the other hand, wants to send Lincoln over to Europe when with what?
guyincognito:
Got to factor in the Euro-peso exchange rate on the MKZ. They sell the Euro Focus (but produced where?) in Mexico so I’m guessing that the MKZ may not be viable in the other direction, but if there’s someone who’s more knowlegeable about international trade, please correct me.
Shouldn’t Ford be figuring out how to sell Lincolns in North America?