Lincoln is an American luxury automobile brand, operated under the Ford Motor Company.
Founded in 1917 by Henry M. Leland and acquired by Ford in 1922, Lincoln
has been manufacturing vehicles intended for the upscale markets since the 1920s.
Leland named the brand after his longtime hero Abraham Lincoln, for whom he
had voted in the first presidential elections for which he was eligible.
The
company was founded in August 1917 by Henry M. Leland. Leland, one of
the founders of Cadillac (originally the Henry Ford Company), left the Cadillac
division of General Motors during World War I and formed the Lincoln Motor Company
to build Liberty aircraft engines with his son Wilfred. Total vehicles produced
during the five years under Lelands leadership were less than 3,000. After
the war, the company's factories were retooled to continue to manufacture luxury
automobiles.
The company encountered severe financial troubles during
the transition, coupled with body styling that wasn't comparable to other
luxury makers, and after having produced only 150 cars in 1922, was forced into
bankrupcy and sold for USD$8,000,000 to the Ford Motor Company on February 4
1922, which went to pay off some of the creditors. The purchase of Lincoln was
a personal triumph for Henry Ford, who had been forced out of his second (after
Detroit Automobile Company) company by a group of investors led by Leland. Ford's
company, renamed Cadillac in 1902 and purchased by rival General Motors in
1909, was Lincoln's chief competitor. Lincoln quickly became one of America's top
selling luxury brands alongside Cadillac and Packard. |
