David Kiley (2026) recently argued in The Car Collective’s Substack newsletter that Lincoln should be killed. His opinion piece shows a lot more spunk than what one might find in the vapid pages of Automotive News, but I would question his conclusion.
After running through all of the money that Ford has spent trying to revive Lincoln, Kiley concludes that the problem hasn’t so much been the quality of the vehicles, but rather the obsolescence of the brand.
“The Lincoln name carries enormous history, but history is not necessarily the same thing as brand equity,” Kiley (2026) writes. “To older Americans, Lincoln can evoke Continentals, presidential limousines and the elegant automobiles of the 1960s. To younger luxury buyers, it evokes very little. The old idea that one’s parents’ brands don’t appeal, but one’s grandparents’ brand do does not apply here.”
Kiley (2026) proposes that the Lincoln be discontinued and that Ford “create an entirely new American premium brand.” This does not sound like a modest endeavor because he calls for a retail experience “designed from scratch,” a unique “digital interface,” and a product line with “completely different bodies, interiors and ownership experiences.”
If such a plan sounds audacious, Kiley (2026) points to the success of upstart Asian brands such as Lexus as evidence that not possessing decades of American luxury heritage “was arguably an advantage” — particularly with younger buyers.
Kiley’s big idea is to copy the Asian automakers
I would imagine that Kiley sees himself as an outside-the-box thinker. Yet all he really proposes is that the Ford Motor Company throw away everything that it has invested in the Lincoln brand in favor of essentially copying the playbook used by Asian automakers.
In other words, this isn’t bold new thinking, but fairly generic example of “follow the leader.” Kiley doesn’t acknowledge this. Nor does he address why Ford could expect to find success in a crowded market when its new brand is the last one in.
Also see ‘Was Patrick Foster right that the revived Jeep Wagoneer could be a game changer?’
What’s particularly perplexing is that Kiley argues that creating a new brand is cheaper than saving Lincoln. How could that be, at least when one includes both the cost of building a new brand from scratch and winding down Lincoln? Kiley doesn’t even attempt to vaguely answer that question.
Nor does Kiley entertain basic logistical issues, such as what to do with Lincoln’s dealer network, which is larger than Cadillac’s (Foote, 2025). And while he complains that Lincoln’s sales have been too low, he doesn’t explain why Ford would benefit from walking away from a solid market niche for livery vehicles.
What would thinking outside the box look like?
When I started to read this essay my initial guess was that Kiley might suggest killing Lincoln and creating a new sub-brand sold through Ford dealers. That would save the automaker the cost of a broad enough lineup of vehicles that could profitably sustain a separate dealer network.
Here Ford’s past could be instructive. The early four-seat Thunderbird was highly successful in competing in the upper-reaches of the premium-priced class even though it was sold through Ford dealers. Given how expensive top-end Ford trucks have become, why couldn’t Ford dealers do an adequate job of selling and servicing a new premium sub-brand?
That said, I suspect that a better alternative would be to shrink Lincoln down to a boutique brand sold entirely through Ford dealers and introduce a new premium model or two under a separate nameplate. That way traditional Lincoln customers could be maintained at a lower breakeven point while Ford simultaneously tries to reach younger buyers with new, non-Lincoln models.
This strikes me as getting closer to the “One Ford” strategy that former CEO Alan Mulally championed — but without throwing the baby out with the bath water.
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RE:SOURCES
- Foote, Brett; 2025. “Lincoln Dealer Network Much Larger Than Cadillac.” Ford Authority. Posted July 28.
- Kiley, David; 2026. “The Case Against Saving Lincoln.” The Car Collective’s Substack. Posted Aug. 26.
ADVERTISING & BROCHURES:
- oldcaradvertising.com: Ford Thunderbird (1961)
My local Lincoln dealer has two cars in its dedicated showroom: a Bill Blass Mark VI and a first gen Zephyr Continental coupe.