Ford Motor Company has made some announcements which seem to
indicate that their senior Lincoln, the venerable Town Car,
will be discontinued after the 1997 model year.
The Town Car is currently manufactured in the ancient Wixom
plant, which is due for closure in about a year. The only
other factory Ford owns where it could be profitably
manufactured is the Windsor (Ontario) plant where the TC’s
sister cars, the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand
Marquis, will still be produced. Ford, however, has
informed the unions there that this will NOT happen.
So is Ford about to abandon this lucrative and prestigious
market segment? With sales of 45,000 units per year, this
seems puzzling.
Let’s consider alternatives. Does Ford have any other large
sedans which could be badge-engineered to produce a big
Lincoln…–
Robert MacLeay - 1990 Majestic (USA)
Denver, CO, United States
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
In reply to a message from Robert MacLeay sent Sat 15 Jul 2006:
According to news today Ford is making strange noises
concerning the divestiture of Vovo and Jaguar as part of it’s
‘‘restructuring’’ program. This seems very much like ‘‘cutting
off your nose to spite your face’’. Does anyone have any local
input in England re this possibility. This uncertainty is not
going to do much for increasing sales, either in the US or
abroad.–
The original message included these comments:
Ford Motor Company has made some announcements which seem to
In reply to a message from Sunny sent Wed 2 Aug 2006:
Well, If China can build a MG I suppose they Can Build A Jaguar.
However, IMHO [having owned and loved both] They will no longer be a
MG nor a Jaguar.–
The original message included these comments:
The original message included these comments:
Ford Motor Company has made some announcements which seem to
In reply to a message from highhopes sent Fri 4 Aug 2006:
I agree. However, it’s difficult to tell who built what in
this day and age.
The Continental tires on my 05 S-Type were made in Portugal
(sp) Sunny–
The original message included these comments:
Well, If China can build a MG I suppose they Can Build A Jaguar.
In reply to a message from Sunny sent Wed 2 Aug 2006:
I read these stories with extreme interest this week as well. But
I have a couple questions for the forum:
Does anyone with business experience have an idea what badge is
worth, i.e., in dollars/pounds? I can’t recall how much Ford spent
to buy its initial and final interests (I thought it was something
less than a billion, but I can’t recall) in Jag so many years ago,
but I assume its value may have appreciated in the last 12+ years.
Are there any afficionados out there with a $1-2B lying around
they wish to put to good use? While Ford has helped the brand in
many ways with certain corporate efficiencies, I can’t help but
think the corporate globalization of Jag may have diminished it in
some ways as well. Could a group of Jag-lovers make it fully
independent again and revive the passion without losing certain
efficiencies? Certainly the efficiencies have not made the brand
profitable…–
The original message included these comments:
According to news today Ford is making strange noises
concerning the divestiture of Vovo and Jaguar as part of it’s
‘‘restructuring’’ program. This seems very much like ‘‘cutting
off your nose to spite your face’’. Does anyone have any local
input in England re this possibility. This uncertainty is not
going to do much for increasing sales, either in the US or
abroad.
In reply to a message from Dan J sent Mon 7 Aug 2006:
When bean counters are in charge of design, and cost savings
is their sole objective, how can ANY brand survive?
The cancelation of the F seires sports car before production
was started was just one of the debacles engineered by the
Ford financial guys. The introduction of an upscale Ford
Taurus (aka X-Type) and promoting the fact that it was
saving tons of money by using components across platforms -
from bottom to top in the price scale was an insult to
Jaguar buyers and other European brand names benefited from
this.
There is nothing wrong with using components cross platform
as long as the luxury brand gets to use it first, then after
a couple of years it is introduced on the other brands.
Imagine Mercedes announcing it was going to be using the
Dodge cruise control system for its improved quality? Or,
Bentley adopting the VW Jetta suspension? Most components
get made by tier one vendors anyway, but in large part the
consumer is unaware of this.
Ford has been a marketing fiasco for a long time. The reason
their Town Car failed to excel is the perception of poor
drivetrain performance, something they did nothing about,
and Cadillac benefitted from this mistake.