According to Ford, it replaced its former Lincoln brand designer Max Wolff, with David Woodhouse. This new HR change happened in last December.
Woodhouse joined Ford back in 1999. Before that he worked for GM. During his previous work in Ford, Woodhouse oversaw the exterior design of the previous-Ford-own luxury brands such as Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover and Volvo.
While we do not know the actual reason why Ford let Wolff step down his post, we know Wolff did make good progress for the Lincoln brand. The model he was in charge of the exterior design, the Lincoln MKZ’s sales gain 36% in the last quarter.
It looks like Ford put a big hope on the exterior design to boost the Lincoln brand. But from our point of view, it is not because the exterior that hampers the Lincoln brand. The root cause is: all Lincoln sedans are now using a transverse engine front wheel drive layout. It is OK for a luxury brand to have some FWD sedan models; but if you do this for your entire product line, do people really think your brand is a true luxury brand?
For Lincoln, some people may consider the MKZ is actually a rebadged Ford Fusion; the MKS is just a rebadged Ford Taurus; the MKX is a rebadged Ford Edge; the MKT is simply a luxury version of the Ford Flex. Now the future MKC has the same problem: people will say it is a rebadged Ford Escape. Of course Lincoln still has the Navigator which belongs to RWD platform, but that platform is very old, and it is a truck, which is closely related to the Ford Expedition.
Almost all other luxury brands have their dedicated longitude engine RWD platform models. Even Acura is now preparing its RWD based NSX. Lexus sold many ES350/RX350, this is not only because these models fit many people’s car buying preferences, but also thanks to the flagship LS460/LS600hl setting the whole Lexus brand image.
We all know sharing platform and technologies can save cost. But you get what you have paid for. If you do not want to spend money to create a dedicated RWD platform, no matter how fancy exterior your product has, it is still really hard for you to compete in the luxury car market.
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