Premier Automotive Group

Coordinates: 33°39′26″N 117°44′55″W / 33.6573338°N 117.7485857°W / 33.6573338; -117.7485857
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

33°39′26″N 117°44′55″W / 33.6573338°N 117.7485857°W / 33.6573338; -117.7485857

Premier Automotive Group
Ford Motor Company
Subsidiaries

The Premier Automotive Group (PAG) was an organizational division within the

marques. The PAG was gradually dismantled from 2006 to 2011 with the divestiture of its constituent brands.[1]

History

The Premier Automotive Group was formed in 1999 under then-CEO

Lincoln, Mercury, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo brands. Forbes estimated that, by 2004, Ford had spent $17 billion building on acquisitions to form PAG.[2]

In 2002, Lincoln and Mercury returned to Ford's direct control. Lincoln's headquarters had been merged into PAG's North American office, where it was run by a German executive based in London, England.[2]

The four other marques in the PAG, Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, were essentially completely different car companies with their own unique markets and dealer networks, so there were few synergies that could be achieved by combining them under one division. Ford attempted to push these brands to share parts and engineering in order to cut costs. This made some vehicles too similar to mass-market Fords, notably the Jaguar X-Type which was a capable compact executive car, yet whose reputation suffered because it shared its platform with the Ford Mondeo. While Volvo had been one of the more successful entry-level luxury brands in the United States with the Volvo 740/940 and S70 when it was independent, it lost market share to the German luxury marques like BMW and Mercedes-Benz who had expanded their entry-level offerings extensively.[2]

When Alan Mulally became president and CEO in September 2006, he oversaw Ford's dismantling of the Premier Automotive Group.

Geely for $1.8 billion.[6]

Management

Headquarters

The Premier Automotive Group headquarters were located at 1 Premier Place in Irvine, California. It is next door to the Mazda North American Operations office, and is now the main office for Taco Bell.

The Premier Automotive Group office in the United States was completed in 2001 at a cost of $68 million. It was the first Ford building and the first building in

New York Times asked dryly, "Will they install a drive-up window?"[8]

Members

Aston Martin

Aston Martin was a member of PAG. Ford acquired an interest in Aston Martin in 1987 and had full control from 1991. It was sold on 12 March 2007 for £479 million.[4] However, Ford retained a £40 million (8%) stake in Aston Martin.[9]

Lincoln

Ford's

Jaguar design themes.[1] In both years 1998 and 2000 Lincoln was the best-selling luxury car brand in the US. After Cadillac surged back into the market in 2002, however, Ford pulled Lincoln out of the PAG in what is according to Jerry Flint of Forbes magazine an "impossible to make sense out of... strategy."[2]

Jaguar

See also: Jaguar Cars § Ford Motor Company ownership (1989-2008)

Ford made an offer for Jaguar stock in 1989. It was placed in Premier Automotive Group when it was formed. After acquiring Land Rover, Ford market Jaguar and Land Rover together and sold them off together in 2008.

Land Rover

Ford acquired Land Rover from BMW in 2000 after the break-up of the former Rover Group. On 18 September 2006, Ford announced the purchase of the rights to use the Rover name. BMW had licensed the Rover name to MG Rover Group from 2000 until 2005, when MG Rover collapsed after a failed merger with SAIC. As part of Ford's initial purchase of Land Rover, Ford had the first option to purchase the Rover name if MG Rover Group ceased trading. Ford did not plan to use the name in production, instead buying it merely to protect their use of the name Land Rover.[10]

Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors in March 2008 for £1.15 billion. As part of Ford's sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to Tata Motors, the defunct Rover brand name was included, as well as the Daimler and Lanchester marques.[11]

Volvo Cars

Ford acquired Volvo's automotive division in 1999 while Volvo's commercial vehicles division became a separate company. Both share the use of symbols and trademarks. Geely was reported to have approached Ford in mid-2008 about a possible takeover of Volvo Cars. On 28 October 2009, Geely was named as the preferred buyer of Volvo Cars by Ford.[12][13] On 23 December 2009, Ford confirmed that all substantive commercial terms for the sale to Geely had been settled. Geely signed a deal with Ford to acquire Volvo Cars for $1.8 billion on 28 March 2010 and closed the deal on 2 August 2010.[6]

References

  1. ^ "The Decline of Lincoln". HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved 21 April 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d Jerry Flint (27 July 2004). "Ford's Premier Automotive Goof". Backseat Driver. Forbes. Archived from the original on 14 September 2004.
  3. ^ "What Ford's Losing With Volvo". The Money Times. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  4. ^ a b "Aston Martin sold to UK-led group". BBC. 12 June 2007. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
  5. ^ Ford buys Rover brand name from BMW from leftlanenews.com
  6. ^ a b "FORD REACHES AGREEMENT TO SELL VOLVO CARS AND RELATED ASSETS TO GEELY". Ford. Archived from the original on 31 March 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2010.
  7. ^ a b "Ford Opens PAG Headquarters In California" from autointell.com
  8. ^ a b Garrett, Jerry (11 November 2008). "Will They Install a Drive-Up Window?". Wheels (blog). The New York Times. Retrieved 2 June 2010.
  9. ^ Ford sells Aston Martin for $925 million Archived 10 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine at egm CarTech, 12 March 2007
  10. ^ Ford buys Rover brand name from BMW
  11. ^ "5 for 2 special: Tata acquires 3 other British marques in Jaguar, Land Rover deal". Leftlane News. 28 March 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
  12. ^ Clark, Andrew (28 October 2009). "Ford set to offload Volvo to Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely | Business | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  13. ^ "Geely/Volvo deal 'done by Feb'". Autocar.co.uk. 17 December 2009. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
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