Yes, Ford used to own Mazda, Jaguar and more, once upon a time

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What do Aston Martin, Mazda, Volvo, Land Rover and Jaguar all have in common? The answer: All of them belonged to Ford at one time — and none belong to Ford today.

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Most were part of the Premier Automotive Group, or PAG. It was dreamed up by Jacques Nasser, Ford’s CEO at the time, to give the company’s blue-collar portfolio a bit of black-tie stardust. But eventually, they all had to be set free again.

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Ford wasn’t alone. For a while, all the American automakers had a weird hankering to own something European — General Motors bought Saab, while Chrysler purchased Lamborghini. But while it might have been an interesting idea, it certainly wasn’t a good idea. Nobody made any money with the brands they bought, and Ford lost billions when it sold the ones it owned.

Despite the losses, there was a bit of a silver lining to Ford dumping its premium brands when it did. They found new owners just before the financial crisis of 2008, giving Ford a quick shot of cash. Like GM and Chrysler, Ford initially asked for government help, but thanks to a major financial overhaul that included selling the former PAG companies, it squeaked through without taking a bailout.

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The Story of PAG

Jacques Nasser started as a financial analyst at Ford of Australia in 1968, and worked his way up to become Ford’s CEO in 1999. It became a rocky relationship: Nasser had previously done some skillful cost-cutting at several of Ford’s global offices, but he couldn’t stem the company’s sharp loss of market share, and was shown the door in 2001.

Nasser had been Ford’s vice-president in 1996 when he floated the idea for the Premier Automotive Group. He’d already overseen the purchase of Aston Martin and Jaguar, and in 1999, the new division became a reality. In 2001 it moved to its new headquarters in Irvine, California – the building now houses Taco Bell’s offices – and would include Land Rover, Volvo, Lincoln and Mercury as well.

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Those last two barely unpacked their bags before Ford pulled them back out of PAG, to better differentiate the import brands from its domestics. It didn’t help. The PAG companies were supposed to become a team effort, but each was so different that their business models couldn’t easily be meshed. And when Ford began swapping components between them, including basing the Jaguar X-Type on the Ford Mondeo platform, many felt it cheapened the premium brands.

None of the PAG brands had been money-makers going in, and they didn’t do any better when packed together. Nasser intended PAG to generate a third of Ford’s profits by 2005, but it never happened. Total figures were never released, but it’s estimated the boondoggle lost as much as US$50 billion. When Alan Mulally arrived as CEO in 2006 to turn Ford around, PAG was top on his list of mistakes to correct. Aston Martin was the first to go, followed by Jaguar and Land Rover. Volvo hung in until 2010 and was the last to be sold.

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Lincoln

Lincoln was an independent company when Ford bought it for US$8 million in 1922. Ford was making only the Model T, and Lincoln would help it compete against the multi-brand strategy used by General Motors. Ironically, Lincoln was founded by engineer Henry Leland after he’d started his first auto company, Cadillac, and then sold it to GM.

Over the years, Ford also created some brands of its own: Mercury and Merkur; Continental (briefly its own marque apart from Lincoln); and the ill-fated Edsel, a three-year flop initially meant to be its own division. Of all Ford’s creations and acquisitions, only Lincoln remains.

Aston Martin

The British automaker was founded in 1922 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford (Aston was the hill-climb where they raced). Ford bought it in 1987 but never revealed how much it paid.

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According to a New York Times article published at the time, the purchase was to be of mutual benefit: it would “give Aston Martin access to Ford’s financial resources while allowing the 400-employee company to retain its character and management,” and in turn, provide Ford “an opportunity to enter the high-image specialty market where Aston Martin has earned an outstanding reputation.” Ford sold it in 2007 to a consortium of investors and car enthusiasts for US$925 million.

Jaguar

The company that became Jaguar started out making motorcycle sidecars in 1922. Ford bought it in 1989 for US$2.5 billion, but it took a while for the Detroit automaker to make that decision. Originally it looked at buying Alfa Romeo, but lost it to Fiat. Ford then planned to buy Jaguar and Saab at the same time, but finally figured it couldn’t afford both. General Motors was also looking at Jaguar, but Ford got there first. GM ended up buying Saab, which didn’t work out very well either.

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In 2008, Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover together for US$2.3 billion to India’s Tata Motors, which still owns it. The two British automakers became the combined Jaguar Land Rover under Tata’s ownership.

Land Rover

The company traces back to Maurice Wilks, chief engineer of Rover, who built a prototype of a Jeep-style vehicle to use on his farm. Rover liked it enough to put it into production in 1948. Through a series of mergers, Rover became part of British Leyland, but that eventually fell apart. The Rover Group was spun out and sold to British Aerospace.

That aviation firm sold it to BMW in 1994 for approximately US$1.2 billion — much to the surprise of Honda, which held a stake in Rover and was planning to buy more of it. But Rover Group turned out to be a money pit. BMW took it apart, kept Mini, and sold Land Rover to Ford in 2000 for US$2.8 billion. Ford sold Jaguar and Land Rover together for US$3 billion less than what it paid for the pair of them.

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Volvo

The Swedish automaker was created in 1927, and bought by Ford for US$6.45 billion in 1999. Ford was selling about 200,000 luxury models a year. Nasser thought that by rolling Volvo into PAG he could increase that to a million a year, since Volvo was likely to sell more copies than pricier Jaguar or Aston Martin.

Volvo had never been a large manufacturer. Prior to Ford’s purchase, there had been plans for it to be sold to Renault and then Fiat; there were also rumours that Volkswagen and General Motors were interested. Volvo’s sales never boosted Ford to that one-million sales model, and it couldn’t turn a profit. Ford sold it in 2010 to Chinese automaker Geely for US$1.8 billion.

Mazda

Mazda was never part of PAG, but it had a longer relationship with Ford than any of those other companies — dating as far back as 1969, when the two collaborated on transmissions. Ten years later, Ford bought shares in the Japanese automaker, and by 1996, owned enough stock to control it.

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The ownership was largely to their mutual benefit. Models like the Ford Focus, Escort, Explorer and Volvo S40 carried Mazda technologies, while Mazda retrimmed the Ford Ranger and Escape to sell as the Mazda B-Series and Tribute. Mazda built its MX-6 and sibling Ford Probe at its plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, which now belongs to Ford. But the financial shakeup that started with PAG’s dismantling cut through the entire company, and Ford sold its majority ownership in Mazda in 2008.

Rivian

While Ford doesn’t own this electric-vehicle start-up, it formed a strategic partnership in 2019 by pumping a US$500-million investment into it. Amazon and Cox Automotive have also invested in Rivian, which plans to build vehicles in an old Mitsubishi plant in Normal, Illinois.

Ford has said it intends to use Rivian’s “skateboard” platform – the electric driveline and wheels – as the basis for some of its electric vehicles, which could include a Lincoln sport-utility or F-150 pickup. In a press release, Ford also said that even though it has invested heavily in it, Rivian “remains an independent company.” Perhaps it learned something from Premier Automotive Group after all.