Ford To drop 1b on last chance lincoln turnaround efforts



As Ford Motor Company’s Lincoln brand continues to slip and slide away, the automaker has reportedly committed $1 billion to turn the division around.



Dealers gathered in Detroit for an annual meeting were told that Ford will spend the money on what Ford President of the Americas Mark Fields calls the automaker’s “last chance.”



Lincoln’s precipitous decline saw it sell just 85,828 cars in the United States last year, a figure dwarfed by just one of rival BMW’s lines – its 3-Series sold 100,910 units in 2010. Sales are off a further 8 percent this year and could drop even more next year when the company’s fleet-heavy Town Car, which accounts for nearly one in six sales, is dropped.



Ford says it has seven new Lincolns on the way by 2015, which it thinks will boost sales to 162,000 units despite a planned decrease in Lincoln showrooms. That drop in retail outlets should benefit remaining dealers, which Ford thinks will see sales increase 300 to 400 percent over the next four model years.



To get to that point, Ford says its dealers need to commit to big dealership upgrades to put them more in line with import brand showrooms – and even those operated by crosstown rival Cadillac, which is Detroit’s undisputed luxury leader.



But Ford isn’t expecting its dealers to shoulder all the burden. It plans to spend $1 billion, according to dealers, to revamp the brand. That might seem like a lot, but it’s not far off of what some automakers will spend on a single product redo, let alone seven new models over the next few years.



It’s unclear how much – if any – of that funding had been allocated to its now-dropped Mercury division, which was dropped last year as Ford streamlined its lineup.