Should the Lincoln dealers sell a car named Daimler?

Question

Since the demise of Mercury the Lincoln-Mercury dealerships have been unable to compete in the medium and low priced segments of the market. This doesn't seem fair that Ford should make such a drastic reduction in what they can sell. If the the plan is to seperate this dealer network from Ford a make it purely a purveyor of luxury cars, then at least some of the cars should be imported. Many Americans believe that if a car is not from Germany or Japan, then it's level of quality is not high enough to be a true luxury car. What they could do is purchase the Daimler brand name. Mazda, Mitsubishi and some other Japanese automakers would have liked to have created a luxury brand like Acura, Lexus, or Infiniti but the market was saturated by the 1st 3. The "Lincoln Company" could buy luxury cars from these companies and sell them thru the Lincoln dealer network using the name Daimler.
In 1895 a British company purchased the right to use Daimler as a brand name for cars from Mr. Daimler. Mr. Daimler's company used Mercedes as their brand name and later merged with Benz. Daimler Ltd. was a make of car until the 1960's when they were bought by Jaguar. The cars became jaguars to which the Daimler name was affixed. Tata motors bought Jaguar and got the Daimler name as part of the deal.

? · Accepted Answer

Your about 13-14 years too late. In 2000, Lincoln wanted to build a car to contend with the BMW-type offerings from Europe. The result was the Lincoln LS. It was Motor Trend's Car of the Year in 2000. It had some mechanical issues as it aged, but It's a blast to drive if you can keep up on the maintenance issues.

As far as Ford's business model, I think their approach is vindicated by being the only one of the Big Three not taking Gov't. bailout money. As for killing off the Mercury nameplate, it's a mere microcosm of society itself. The middle class is shrinking, and what's left are basically the "haves" and the "have nots".

upsucker · Answer

Excellent idea!
The Lincoln LS was alot like a european luxury car, but most people thought it was a ford product and didn't think it had enough snob appeal. Lincoln is a name associated with limosines so the name won't help sell a sports sedan.
Lincoln was the president who started the civil war and freed the slaves so that name is a deal breaker for southerners.
What I would like to see is a Mazda sport sedan with a 4 rotor wankel engine.

STONER · Answer

If Tata motors of India wants to sell cars they make in the U.S. They will need that Daimler name to put on the cars. If they want to sell cars they will need a better name than "Tata"

? · Answer

no. it should stay lincoln. it was named after our 16th president abe lincoln. from 1996 on lincoln was the only car of choice to have a full sized american made sedan. before lexuses and infinitis came out- lincoln was king. i really think they should make an extended wheelbase mustang and rename it the lincoln mark 9 lsc just like the mark 8 was.

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Should the Lincoln dealers sell a car named Daimler?

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