Lincoln Doubt and Cadillac Commitment

In a recent newsletter piece about Ford’s Lincoln division by auto journalist David Kiley, he asserted that Lincoln has stopped meaning anything to buyers, particularly younger buyers. His suggested fix was to kill the brand and start a new one.

The Kiley newsletter led me to think about the other American luxury automotive brand historically linked to Lincoln as a competitor, GM’s Cadillac division. For decades, both luxury brands have been the flagship divisions anchoring each company's prestige vehicles.

Yet for many years, both Lincoln and Cadillac lost ground to other luxury competitors like Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus. Around 2013, both Ford and GM CEOs faced similar questions regarding their luxury car divisions.

What could be done to revive Lincoln’s and Cadillac’s former elevated positions in the luxury automotive space?

By 2013, then Ford CEO Alan Mulally had already sold off Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo, the luxury automotive brands Ford had acquired years prior. Mulally killed Ford’s Mercury division outright. Bloomberg later reported that Mulally considered eliminating the Lincoln brand as well, with its sales down 65% from a peak in 1990. Ford’s Chief Operating Officer, Mark Fields, who later became CEO when Mulally retired, asked for a chance to save Lincoln instead.

By 2016, part of Field’s compensation as CEO was tied to “supercharging the Lincoln brand.” He never got the chance to see it through, however, because Ford's board replaced him in 2017, less than three years into the job.

In 2014, GM CEO Mary Barra made a bet on Cadillac. Nine months into her tenure as CEO, Barra told CNBC, “We've got the product right. It's going to be patience and discipline to execute, to build the brand [Cadillac] where it needs to be."

Cadillac sold almost 183,000 vehicles in the U.S. in 2013. It then fell for years, bottoming at just under 118,000 in 2021, before climbing back four straight years to about 174,000 in 2025.

Lincoln sold around 82,000 vehicles in 2013, less than half of the 193,000 vehicles it sold in 2000. Sales have since grown to slightly under 107,000 in 2025, far from reclaiming what the brand once accomplished.

Cadillac's best vehicle asset has been the Escalade, its flagship since 1999. Escalade has also been the brand’s best-selling model since 2021 despite also being its most expensive vehicle with a base price of $91,100. This fact deserves special attention because Escalade breaks the sales pattern across the luxury segment. No luxury automaker, not Porsche, not Mercedes, not BMW, not Lexus, has its most expensive vehicle also be the brand’s sales leader.

Note: Cadillac also sells the Celestiq, a custom, hand-built, ultra-premium EV priced at $340,000. Since first deliveries in 2024, there are reports suggesting Cadillac has sold less than 50 Celestiqs.

As I wrote in 2024, Cadillac’s ability to sell Escalade to a diverse and wealthy demographic is a testament to the vehicle’s enduring appeal and the company’s constant product investment in the vehicle itself.

Escalade outsells Lincoln’s Navigator two to one and holds 53% market share of the full-size luxury SUV segment, which includes vehicles from notable luxury automakers like Mercedes, BMW, and Land Rover.

Cadillac added five EV nameplates, which outsold the EV portfolios of BMW, Audi, Mercedes, and Lexus in 2025. There’s a performance V-Series of Cadillac models as well, which launched in 2004 with the singular CTS-V. Today, V-Series vehicles exist across Cadillac sedans and SUVs, including gas and electric models.

Cadillac has a racing program which has been winning continuously since 2017. It has IMSA race wins, Daytona titles, a 24 Hours of Le Mans podium, a win at the 6 Hours of São Paulo, and a first in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Now Cadillac has invested $1 billion in its F1 racing program which debuted this year.

Not all has been perfect since Barra’s Cadillac bet in 2014. In an effort to accelerate Cadillac’s stature with Mercedes, BMW, and Audi (not just Lincoln), there was the lifestyle push that began around 2014. The brand’s move to New York and its Cadillac House did not survive for long. The Oscars sponsorship and Dare Greatly campaign never really gained momentum. And more recently, the bet that Cadillac EVs could fully replace gas vehicles like the XT4, XT5, XT6, and CT5 has been reversed. 

What survived the Cadillac mistakes, however, has been the commitment itself, as well as the CEO who made it.

Unfortunately, the CEO tasked with “supercharging Lincoln,” Mark Fields, didn’t last long in the job.

No EV has ever reached a Lincoln dealer. That’s not due to market conditions. It’s by choice. Last year during Monterey Car Week, current Ford CEO Jim Farley told classic car insurance company Hagerty, “The team really pushed me to have an all-electric lineup [for Lincoln], and I refused to do it.” Farley isn’t anti-EV. He’s greenlit the development of a next generation, low-cost manufacturing process for a Ford EV truck. But he seems reluctant to commit Lincoln to any full-BEV models for now.

There’s been no Lincoln racing program to help build credibility. There are no Lincoln performance sub-brands to challenge Cadillac’s V-Series, BMW M, or Mercedes-AMG.

Navigator tells a different story than Escalade. It’s Lincoln’s flagship and the most expensive model too. But it’s not close to being Lincoln’s top-seller. It sold slightly more than 22,000 units in 2025 compared to more than 57,000 for Escalade.

Navigator as a vehicle actually debuted before Escalade. Lincoln beat Cadillac to the category with Navigator by at least a year. That model helped Lincoln become the top-selling luxury brand in the U.S. in 1998, overtaking the Cadillac sales crown. Several sources describe the introduction of Escalade as a reaction to the success of Navigator. At the time, The Truth About Cars described Navigator as having real and immediate cultural dominance.

But along the way, the script flipped. The Seattle Times described Ford foregoing major redesigns of Navigator for about 15 years while GM kept refreshing Escalade. Lincoln had the category and the cultural win first. Ford just didn’t keep building on it the way GM did with Escalade.

I’m sure the Navigator versus Escalade story is one Ford and Lincoln executives know well. That history makes Farley’s current bet worth a hard look. Mary Barra made a long-term commitment on Cadillac with significant investment in product and promotion. Over 12 years at the helm of GM, her patience is slowly working for Cadillac.

I almost hate to think that Kiley’s solution for Lincoln, kill it and start over, might be the right solution. Cadillac carried a dated reputation but didn’t require being replaced. What Cadillac had that Lincoln didn’t was twelve years of one CEO who refused to walk away. Maybe the fix for Lincoln is not a new brand. The fix might be a CEO that has a commitment and focus on the brand.

Lincoln: David Kiley, The Car Collective (Substack), "The Case Against Saving Lincoln," August 26, 2026. Bloomberg via Motor Authority and Jalopnik, July 2014, on Mulally and Lincoln. Bryce Hoffman, "American Icon," via Curbside Classic. Ford/Lincoln Media Center biography of James D. Farley Jr. Farley, quoted by Hagerty, August 2025. Forbes India, Fox Business, Automotive News, CBC, NBC News, and DBusiness on Mark Fields' tenure as CEO and the Lincoln revival effort, 2014-2017.

Cadillac: Mary Barra, via GM Authority and CNBC, October 2014, and GM's Q2 2026 earnings call. Detroit News, CNBC, Automotive News, CNNMoney, and Fortune on the 2014 New York move and 2018 return to Detroit. Cadillac's official racing archive and newsroom releases; NBC Sports on GTP results. GM Authority quarterly US sales reports and Autoblog, 2025, on Escalade's volume and pricing.

Historical sales data: GoodCarBadCar.net, Cadillac and Lincoln US annual sales figures, 2013-2025. GM and Ford US sales via GM Authority, Ford Authority, WardsAuto, and best-selling-cars.com, 2025-2026. BMW of North America and Audi of America, full-year 2025 results; Cox Automotive/Kelley Blue Book EV Sales Reports (Q1-Q2 2025) on BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Lexus US EV volumes. The Truth About Cars and the Seattle Times on Lincoln Navigator’s 1997 debut, cultural impact, and long redesign gap; Wikipedia and Grokipedia on Navigator’s 1997 launch and Lincoln’s 1998 sales lead over Cadillac.

F1 and EV investment: Sportcal, Formula1.com, and CBS Sports on the Cadillac F1 program. Yahoo Finance and Carscoops on GM's Q2 2026 earnings call and the XT5/XT6/CT5 relaunch.

Prior TaaSMaster analysis: "GM Funds Transition. VW Warns of Crisis. What's the Difference?" May 4, 2026. "The Bankruptcy VW Can't File," July 2026.

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