Mercedes Benz sold 141,356 SUVs, and crossovers during the first half of this year. Ford’s Lincoln division sold 42,893. The gulf has persisted, more or less the same, for decades. Lincoln will never close the gap. It raises the question of why Ford supports a luxury line at all.

The core of Lincoln’s problem is that the brand has little respect among luxury buyers. Mercedes, on the other hand, shows up on more than one top 100 brands global-brands lists based on brand value.

Most of these brand values are based on sales. Internationally, Lincoln is no match for Mercedes at all.

Ford has starved Lincoln, which is understandable based on its sales and the billions of dollars of investments it has made and will make into the electric-vehicle market.

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That leaves brand building for Lincoln unaffordable.

Lincoln’s product lineup is remarkably small, which makes its sales challenge extremely difficult. Lincoln has no cars at all. It relies entirely on SUV and crossover products. And, among these, it only has four models.

Lincoln’s future is behind it.

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