Ford realigns design staffs once again; Lincoln Mercury back in North American fold - Ford Forums

Stacy94PGT · 05-07-2003, 08:28

May 07, 2003
By RICK KRANZ | Automotive News

DETROIT - Ford Motor Co. has given up on its strategy of having a separate design operation for Lincoln and Mercury, effectively folding those brands back into a North American organization dominated by the Ford brand.

Ford already had given up on trying to transplant Lincoln Mercury to Southern California.

Separate positions are being created to oversee all North American car and truck design, from Ford blue oval to Lincoln and Mercury.

Ford Motor had hoped to create a distinct identity for Mercury and to create a design direction for the moribund Lincoln brand, the former luxury sales leader that has fallen far behind archrival Cadillac and several import luxury brands.

As part of the shuffling, Lincoln Mercury design director Gerry McGovern will return to his native England, where he will lead Ford's Ingeni design studio in London. He had been design director of both brands while the division was in Irvine, Calif.

Ford Motor named two designers to shape the future of its North American product line.

Pat Schiavone and Ed Golden move directly under design chief J Mays. For the most part, Golden will be in charge of cars. Schiavone will be in charge of trucks. Mercury's two "co-chief" designers have new posts.

Golden had been in charge of designing Ford brand cars; Schiavone was chief designer of Ford's Tough Truck and Outfitter brands, which means SUVs and pickups, including the upcoming 2004 F series.

The reshuffling follows other changes: this summer's return of Lincoln Mercury to Dearborn, Mich., and February's realignment of product development into several distinct groups, based on types of vehicles.

The structure will replace a previous arrangement that had design chiefs for the Lincoln, Mercury and Ford brands.

As McGovern leaves, Lincoln's design direction is a work in progress, at best. The parent company is short on cash, and a resurgent Cadillac and world-class import brands are eager to snatch Lincoln customers.

McGovern, 46, came to Ford through its purchase of Land Rover in early 1999. By August of that year, he had been called to California to steer Lincoln and Mercury design. At the time, Lincoln was part of the automaker's Premier Automotive Group, which included Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.

With his pointed cowboy boots and his curly, shoulder-length hair (trimmed last year at the request of a girlfriend), McGovern cut a striking figure, even in the black-shirt world of automotive designers.

"Gerry I think was fine with Lincoln in the way that we were forming it out in California as a separate business unit, not in the Detroit area," says a person close to McGovern. "He had free rein to do his own thing. But that is all changed now, and I don't think he fits there anymore."

In March 2002, the grand vision painted by engineers was that by mid-decade, the first in a series of new rear-wheel Lincoln cars would bow to compete with the likes of Mercedes-Benz and BMW.

But later that year, as part of Ford's massive effort to slash costs, the automaker said that Lincoln and Mercury would return from California to Dearborn.

The styling theme McGovern helped create for the past three Lincoln concepts will not be abandoned, says Dan Bedore, a Lincoln Mercury spokesman.

The theme draws on cues from Lincoln's 1961-1969 era. Slab-sided fenders, accented with a thin strip of chrome running across the top of the fender, and "suicide" rear doors are prominent in Lincoln's current concepts.

But those concepts - the Lincoln Lincoln MK9 concept, Continental and Navicross - have drawn mixed press reviews.

"While Gerry led the design, he did not operate in a vacuum," Bedore says. The design theme McGovern directed "is very much supported by Phil Martens and J Mays," in particular the design cues on the Continental concept.

Martens is Ford's new vice president of product creation for North America. Mays has been vice president of design since 1997.

At last month's New York auto show, executives said Lincoln would receive a new rwd sedan and two all-wheel-drive vehicles: a sport wagon and a sedan. But the first of the new vehicles isn't expected to bow until around 2006.

At least one awd vehicle will be developed off the Mazda6 platform, which also will be used for several new Fords and at least one new Mercury. The rwd Lincoln sedan is expected to evolve from the next-generation DEW platform.

While Lincoln dealers have an updated product line, few customers can tell the difference between the significantly re-engineered 2003 Town Car and the LS and the 2002s.

During a Lincoln Town Car event last year, one engineer said the priority for the 2003 models was engineering, and little money remained for a significant styling change.

That plan was orchestrated when Lincoln was part of PAG. The first step in the plan was to improve each car's overall ride, handling, brake and steering, and give each vehicle a similar feel.

But with its eviction from PAG, Lincoln is creating a new-product program.