The Ford touch 

"El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First!" (lightningzone) 01/10/2016 at 11:24 • Filed to: None

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As you know, Ford dropped a lot of brands from its organization, and did it quite swiftly. Maybe, the good position Ford is in right now, can allow the company to start rebuilding its lost empire.

Lancia and Lotus seem like easy acquisitions, since both aren’t making much money, and are mere shadows of what they used to be.

In this new group, the Ford brand would keep focusing on mainstream models.

Lincoln would be the quiet and sophisticated luxury brand, but with enough latent performance to satisfy most luxury buyers. It would go against Mercedes.

Lancia would be the sporty, sensual and performance focused brand. It would go against BMW and Alfa Romeo.

Lotus would make lightweight and premium sports cars and even a couple of supercars.

I was going to say that it would’ve been nice if Ford saved Pontiac from GM’s graveyard and turned it into a sporty premium brand, but there’s no chance GM would let Ford have Pontiac. Lancia on the other hand, it would be much easier to obtain, since Marchionne is more pragmatic than GM’s management and FCA could really use some quick cash.

sdwarf36 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/10/2016 at 11:33

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Yea—no. It was rather foolish sign of the times when Ford was buying up any company they could. I don’t think they made any money on any of them. If there was profit in keeping those other companies afloat, they’d still have them.

El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! > sdwarf36 01/10/2016 at 11:41

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Except this time, in the plan I quickly exposed above, they would buy brands that are basically in critical condition, likely for peanuts, so losing money would be pretty hard.

sdwarf36 > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/10/2016 at 11:50

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Going from memory-when Ford bought Jag, someone hi up the chain (prez? unsure) said something to the effect of “when we bought Jag, it was losing 2 million dollars a day-now they are only losing one million.” It takes a long time to recoup your money when you also buy their debt-and even longer to make it profitable.

DrJohannVegas > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/10/2016 at 13:09

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The Lotus connection from the olden days makes that sort of purchase make a little sense. But, I’d be that enough of the management at Ford are snake-bitten from the previous UK adventures to stay out. It took Ford a decade or more to get productivity and quality to acceptable levels at JLR (at least at Jaguar, BMW footed the bill to fix Land Rover) and Aston Martin.

Lancia seems like a poor fit, and only ended up with FCA because of the Fiat takeovers of 1969 (the same rush to purchase companies which landed them Ferrari). Since Lancia has been gutted, and now is mainly a restyling department for Fiats, any engineering would come out of Ford’s global departments, and they seem busy enough as it is. The badge has no cache (outside of a small group of enthusiasts) in the US, and probably not very much more globally.

These proposals fundamentally undo all the things which have made Ford healthy again. It’s marketing fluff over business sense, to be frank. Obsessing over “brands” and “marques” while the fundamentals of the business are on the rocks was part of the problems of the old GM and Ford.

(Oh, and the Pontiac idea is so ludicrous, I spit coffee all over my keyboard. You’re funny, guy.)

Cé hé sin > sdwarf36 01/10/2016 at 13:26

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Land Rover have been making billions since Ford sold tham for less than that, so there’s that.

sdwarf36 > Cé hé sin 01/10/2016 at 15:07

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Tata is happy about that. (The Indian owners of them + Jag.)

Cé hé sin > sdwarf36 01/10/2016 at 16:04

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Indeed, they got the company for a song (relatively).

boxrocket > El Relámpago(LZone) - Humanity First! 01/10/2016 at 18:29

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I’d rather Ford resurrect Mercury, and push Lincoln upmarket where it belongs, Lincoln with only RWD and RWD-biased AWD vehicles on semi-unique platforms, and Mercury with the rebadged Fords (and some quirky cars, like a Fusion wagon, Australian Falcon, etc.).