This Day in Automotive History: Ford buys Lincoln | Hemmings Blog ...

Lincoln badges through the ages. Image courtesy Ford Motor Company

On February 4, 1922, Ford Motor Company officially closed the deal on the purchase of the bankrupt Lincoln Motor Company from Henry Leland, giving Ford a true luxury division to compete against the likes of Cadillac, Packard and Auburn.

Founded just a few years earlier, in 1917, by Henry Leland to manufacture V-12 aircraft engines for the war effort, Lincoln?s valiant attempt at selling a luxury car was as much an exercise in bad timing as anything. The economic instability following World War I made for a tough market for a $6,000-plus car when a Model T could be had for $400. Despite an initial $8 million capitalization, Lincoln found themselves stretched thin, their first car, the Model L, having appeared only in 1920. Henry Ford came to the rescue and was able to quickly turn Lincoln into a world-class luxury leader, a status the marque enjoyed for decades.

Henry M. Leland

In an incredible example of the incestuous nature of the early days of the automotive industry, Leland?s claim to fame was in creating the Cadillac Automobile Company 20 years previous from the ashes of the Henry Ford?s first eponymous car company. Leland convinced a group of investors that had ousted Ford to not liquidate the Henry Ford Company when they started Cadillac instead. A veteran machinist, Leland used his experiences in the gun industry, where interchangeable parts were the norm, to change the fledgling car industry. In 1909, Billy Durant purchased Cadillac for $4.5 million as part of the creation of General Motors. When Durant returned some years later, he had a dispute with Leland, namely that Durant was a pacifist and did not want to get involved in the war materiel business.

Leland didn?t last long and left in 1917 to create Lincoln, which was named after the President he so greatly admired. With a government contract in hand, Lincoln made thousands of Liberty V-12s for allied aircraft. After the war, they invested $6 million in converting the factory to produce luxury cars. The 1920 Lincoln L was powered by a narrow 60-degree V-8. With the economy in depression throughout 1920 and well into 1921, demand was soft for such a car and Lincoln fell into receivership, necessitating Ford?s rescue.

Henry Ford. Photo courtesy of Ford Motor Company

Henry installed his 28-year-old son, Edsel, in the top job at Lincoln and the company had decent success throughout the rest of the decade, managing to turn a profit after just one year under the Ford umbrella. Lincoln would go on to become the number one competitor to Cadillac for much of the post-war era before the rise of European and Japanese luxury cars in recent decades.

Source: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2012/02/04/this-day-in-automotive-history-ford-buys-lincoln/

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