Over the past few years, Ford Motor Company has taken some “me time” to focus on the Ford brand and, in the process, dropped luxury car brands Aston Martin, Land Rover and Jaguar, and closed the doors on the less luxurious Mercury. And they’ve definitively put some money behind the Surprise Press Conference and Built Ford Tough campaigns. In the mean time, GM’s Cadillac is playing with the big boys (BMW, Mercedes, Audi), and Ford’s last luxury vehicle, Lincoln, is stagnant.

Enter Lincoln’s saving grace, the 2013 MKZ, and a (sort of) commitment from Ford Motor Company to a luxury car. But skeptics are saying that in order for Lincoln to really play in the luxury sandbox, they’ll need to invest in updated technology and remodel the cars so they don’t look like a cleaned up Ford Focus. Even fans of Lincoln can’t stand their alphabet soup style names.

It will be interesting to see what Ford is able to accomplish with this once beloved and iconic car brand. Will they find a way to differentiate it among the luxury car brands, or will lack of Marketing and R&D send this brand the way of the Mercury?