Premier Automotive Group

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The Premier Automotive Group (PAG), is a section of the Ford Motor Company that combines the business operations of its five European automobile manufacturers:

Current marques:

Past marques:

Lincoln (1998-2002)

All are British marques, except for Volvo, which is based in Sweden. Lincoln, Ford's American luxury car brand was part of the Premier Automotive Group from 1998 to 2002 as well.

1 North American headquarters
2 Lincoln
3 Aston Martin
4 Rover
5 Other brands
6 Management
7 External links
8 References

[edit] North American headquarters

PAG is based in London, and its North American Headquarters in Irvine, California which is the first Ford building, and the first building in Orange County, to qualify for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. When the headquarters first opened, some of its floors were each specifically dedicated to one of PAG's brands.

[edit] Lincoln

Ford's luxury car division Lincoln was part of the Premier Auto Group as well in the late 1990s, but was pulled out in 2002 as part of Ford's marketing strategy to separate its "import" marques from its domestic ones. During the creation of PAG, Lincoln's line-up received a complete overhaul, beginning with the 1998 redesign of the Lincoln Town Car. The same year also saw the introduction of the Lincoln Navigator SUV and in 2000 the Lincoln LS, which shares its engine with the Jaguar S-Type, was introduced. All three cars were designed in Irvine, California, and were according to many critics heavily influenced by 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 a "impossible to make sense out of... strategy."

[edit] Aston Martin

Aston Martin was until 2006 part of the Ford Premier Automotive Group, however due to the extreme financial difficulties that Ford were facing, they made the decision to sell off Aston Martin. At the time of writing, the potential buyers appear to be the Aston Martin management themselves. ^[2]

[edit] Rover

On September 18th, Ford announced their buying of the Rover brand name from BMW. As part of Ford's initial buying of Land Rover in the 1990s, Ford had the option to veto the sale of the Rover name by BMW to any other company. BMW originally intended to sell the Rover name to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation, but had to wait 90 days to allow Ford time to discuss the deal. Ford decided in the end to buy the name outright and place it among the Premier Automotive Group. However, Ford does not plan to use the name in production, instead buying it merely to protect their use of the name Land Rover.[3]

[edit] Other brands

In addition to the five brands considered part of the PAG, and the Ford brand, Ford also operates the Lincoln and Mercury brands, and owns 33.4% of Mazda, giving them effective control of the company.