German Car Zone

If America’s luxury brands want to be around in years to come they need to expand sales overseas and become more relevant in a global context. Cadillac has made it clear that it wants a big slice of the international market. It’s already launched several models in the Middle-East and Europe and next year the brand will be launched as far away as Australia. Ford’s Lincoln brand, on the other hand, is barely acknowledged in markets outside of North America but this may soon change according to recent comments from Ford boss Alan Mulally.

Lincoln is already sold in the Middle-East but Mulally apparently wants the brand launched in Europe and Asia as well. During a recent interview with Auto Motor und Sport, a Ford official told reporters that Lincoln isn’t targeting top level luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW in Western Europe. Instead it sees itself moving into new markets like Eastern Europe, Russia and China, where most brands are still on a level playing field.

One major problem for Lincoln is its lack of a RWD lineup. If Ford is serious about competing with Europe’s luxury brands it will need to add more RWD models in Lincoln’s lineup and perhaps even a diesel. Lincoln already revealed the RWD MKR concept at last year’s Detroit Auto Show and recently Ford’s group vice-president in charge of global product development, Derrick Kuzak, admitted there is a RWD Lincoln model in the works. Still, it will take several years before the Lincoln brand becomes a household name in countries outside of North America and tough competition from the established European marques as well as a new and improved Cadillac could make it take even longer.


Source: Motor Authority >> Lincoln to become global luxury brand

Targeting developing markets is a strategy that could easily work for Lincoln.

Good luck wit that!



P.S. Tip: start making interesting cars, and not fugly rears like that:

Martin, they wanna be American MB, nothing wrong with that...