The best cars made by Ford that aren’t Fords

In the 120 years since its founding, Ford has produced many impressive cars under its own name. 

But there are also many highlights among what we might call non-Fords – models from brands either created or acquired by the parent company which did wore different badges.

Here are 30 examples, arranged for your convenience in alphabetical order.

Driven by anglophile Henry Ford II in one of his final decisions, Ford bought a majority stake in Aston Martin in 1987, and assumed complete ownership in 1993. In the latter year, Aston revealed its new DB7 to the public, heralding a new direction for the brand, and the car went on sale in 1994 as a coupe. A convertible, known as the Volante, was introduced two years later.

Through Ford’s ownership of Jaguar, the DB7 was initially powered by a supercharged 335bhp 3.2-litre version of the latter’s straight-six AJ6 engine. A new 420bhp 5.9-litre V12 (Aston’s first unit of this type) was added to the range in 1999.

Visually, the DB9 appeared to be an update of the DB7, and it shared the earlier car’s V12 engine, though with a power upgrade to 450bhp. Its structure, however, was completely new. This was the first car based on the new VH platform, which Aston said made its bodyshell 25 percent lighter yet twice as torsionally stiff as that of its predecessor.

The DB9 was also the first car built in Aston Martin’s new factory in Gaydon, Warwickshire, where it remained in production all the way from 2004 to 2016.

Perhaps best known for its role in the James Bond film Die Another Day, the V12 Vanquish was introduced in 1999 with the 5.9-litre engine also offered in the DB7. At 460bhp in this application, its output was 40bhp greater than in the older and narrower coupe, which Aston felt was suitable.

The 450bhp version of the same unit in the DB9 made the distinction between the two models less obvious, so Aston increased the output to 520bhp for the 2004 V12 Vanquish S. Along with revised gear ratios, this raised the top speed of the rare S (only 1489 were built) to a claimed 200mph.

Aston Martin has been using the Vantage name for more than 70 years. The model launched in 2005 is unusual in that it was developed entirely during the period of Ford ownership. More of a sports car than any of those mentioned earlier, it was powered initially by first 4.3-litre and then 4.7-litre versions of a V8 engine loosely based on one developed by Jaguar, and later available with the 5.9-litre V12 from the DB9 (pictured).

Available in many varieties, with coupe or roadster bodies, it was sold until 2018. Nearly 25,000 units were built – a very small number in Ford terms, but extraordinarily high for Aston Martin.

The Virage was introduced in 1988,and was available as a coupe or a convertible (the latter known as Virage Volante) and was usually powered by Aston’s 5.3-litre V8 engine, which was nearly 20 years into its long production life.

As an option, Aston Martin would raise the capacity of the engine to 6.3 litres and make the car wider. The present King Charles III, then Prince of Wales, commissioned a unique version with the larger engine but the standard body width.

Lincoln has been Ford’s luxury division almost constantly since 1922, but for a short time it ranked second to the even more exclusive Continental brand. Continental’s only model was the Mark II, which was priced higher than any other American car of the time, though reputedly quite a lot lower than the cost of building it.

The experiment lasted only from 1956 to 1957. Thereafter, Continental became a model name for Lincoln, as it had been before. But for that brief period, Ford had produced what may still be the grandest car in its more than century-long history.

Ford owned Jaguar between 1990 and 2008. The second S-Type, introduced in 1999, was not only named after a Jaguar of the 1960s but also looked slightly like it (at least from the front), which did not go down well with everyone. Despite this similarity, though, it was a thoroughly modern car, praised for its comfort, refinement and interior quality.

The range of engines extended from a well-regarded, and remarkably quiet, 2.7-litre V6 diesel to a supercharged 4.2-litre V8 with an Eaton supercharger. The latter produced nearly 400bhp, which the rest of the car could deal with very easily.

Few modern Jaguars have been as thoroughly, and unfairly, reviled as the X-Type, though this was mostly because it was seen as being an uprated Ford Mondeo. The two cars shared the same platform, which would hardly raise an eyebrow today, but many people were unwilling to accept it back in 2001.

Available as a handsome saloon or an even more elegant estate, the X-Type was available with front- or four-wheel drive (both extremely unusual in Jaguar history), and at one point you could buy a new one for slightly less than £20,000. It was Jaguar’s best-selling car, but it didn’t catch the public imagination in the way it might have done, and was abandoned without a successor after eight years.

The last Jaguar introduced under Ford’s ownership was a replacement for the S-Type, but had not even a vestige of the earlier model’s retro styling, though had some of the earlier car’s underpinnings. It was designed by Ian Callum, and many judge it one of his best main-market designs.

Customer choice, however, was similarly wide, with saloon and estate bodies, and several petrol and diesel engines including another supercharged V8, this one measuring 5.0 litres. The V8 produced over 500bhp in the XFR, and a mighty 542bhp in the XFR-S.

XJs were available throughout Ford’s ownership of Jaguar, but only one was developed from scratch and sold during that period. Despite styling which echoed that of the original model, this one – introduced in 2003 and codenamed X350 – was the most radical of them all.

That’s because it was the first mainstream Jaguar based on an all-aluminium structure, and was therefore lighter than the previous XJ despite being larger. The long-wheelbase version introduced in 2005 (pictured) was the longest Jaguar to date. The next XJ, which looked very different, was developed during the Ford era, but did not go on sale until Jaguar had been sold to India’s Tata Motors.

The prototype XJ220 had a V12 engine and four-wheel drive, so the fact that the production version had a 3.5-litre V6 (admittedly boosted by two turbochargers) driving only the rear wheels was seen as a disappointment.

Despite that, this was the fastest road-going Jaguar ever, easily capable of over 200mph. Three decades after its 1992-1994 production run, during which fewer than 300 examples were built, it is still regarded as one of the world’s finest supercars.

The most recent – and perhaps the last ever – Jaguar sports car with the letters XK in its name was introduced in 2006. Like the earlier XJ saloon, it had an aluminium body, and its styling was noticeably sharper than that of its immediate predecessor.

It was initially available only with a 4.2-litre V8 engine, though a 5.0-litre unit of the same layout was added in 2009. As with the XF, a supercharged version, fitted to the XKR-S, had a maximum output of 542bhp.

Ford bought Land Rover from BMW in 2000. Despite its name, the Discovery 3 (also known as LR3 in some markets) was the first model in the second generation of this enduringly popular Land Rover. Introduced in 2004, it exceeded all previous versions in terms of refinement, and of course its off-road ability was formidable.

The Discovery 4 (or LR4), which came along five years later, was essentially an update of the same vehicle, but by the time it arrived Land Rover was out of Ford’s hands, having been sold to Tata.

The most successful of the three generations of Lincoln Capri was the first, produced in the 1952 to 1955 model years. It was powered by the original 5.2-litre version of the new Lincoln Y-Block engine, the first overhead-valve V8 used by any Ford brand.

The effectiveness of both the car and its engine were demonstrated in two very different forms of motorsport. Capris dominated the stock car class in the Mexican Carrera Panamerica road race, taking the top four positions in 1952 and 1953 and the top two in 1954. In 1952, a single example won its class in the three-day Mobilgas Economy Run, and finished second overall by a curious metric called ‘ton miles per gallon’.

Lincoln produced Continentals from 1940 to 2020, though with several gaps. Even if you don’t include the Mark II (which, as mentioned earlier, didn’t carry Lincoln branding) the nameplate is one of the most respected in the North American auto industry, and perhaps always will be.

Not all Continentals were equally impressive, and there’s a case for saying that some of the magic was lost after Lincoln was obliged to downsize in 1980. But the extravagant design of the earlier models, and the mighty heft of those built in the 1970s, were certainly memorable, though perhaps no longer relevant in a new age.

PICTURE: 1940 Lincoln Continental convertible

Even in the depths of the Depression, some American brands were able to find customers for luxury cars in the 1930s. Of these, Lincoln’s Model K was a worthy rival to similar models produced by Cadillac, Chrysler, Duesenberg, Packard and a number of European manufacturers.

It was initially offered with a V8 engine, but V12s (redesigned several times in the early years) were introduced in 1932 and eventually took over. By the end of the decade, the Model K became untenable simply because the world had changed. “We did not stop producing luxury cars,” said Ford Motor Company president Edsel Ford (1893-1943). “People stopped buying them.”

PICTURE: 1936 Lincoln Model K Convertible Victoria by Brunn

Lincoln entered the full-size luxury SUV sector with the Navigator in 1998, one year before General Motors did the same thing with the Cadillac Escalade. The Navigator is now in its fourth generation, and although it can’t match the Escalade’s sales it is currently in a strong second place in its class, ahead of rival models produced by Infiniti, Lexus and Jeep.

Until now, Navigators have been available with either rear-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, but rear-wheel drive is being discontinued for the 2024 model year.

The harsh truths of the Depression era made it necessary for Lincoln to create a mid-price alternative to the luxurious Model K. This could have had unhappy results, but the Zephyr, introduced in the 1936 model year, was a marvel. Unibody construction and aerodynamic styling (fortunately less controversial than that of the earlier Chrysler Airflow) were state-of-the-art, and the car was unique in its class in having a V12 engine.

The V12 was unrelated to similar engines produced by Lincoln in the 1930s, and was in fact derived from the Ford flathead V8. Reliability could have been better (it was said that “a lingering puff of smoke at a stoplight meant a Zephyr had just left”), but the car was a sales triumph all the same. Without it, Lincoln might have gone out of business before the Second World War.

Apart from a brief pause in the late 1990s, Mercury built Cougars almost continuously in eight generations from 1967 to 2002. The most exciting was the first, a muscle car equivalent to (but not a badge-engineered version of) the Ford Mustang, powered by V8 engines ranging in size from 4.7 to 7.0 litres.

Exciting cars are not, of course, generally as popular as more conventional ones. Production numbers of the very different fourth-generation Cougar (the first available with saloon and estate body styles) averaged nearly 200,000 from 1977 to 1979, a figure no Cougar before or since could match.

PICTURE: 1970 Mercury Cougar XR-7

The Spoiler II was a special version of the third-generation Cyclone with better aerodynamics. It was built in very small numbers at the beginning of 1969 in order achieve homologation for NASCAR racing, in which its reduced drag would be very helpful.

The same principle applied to Ford’s own Torino Talladega, which was much more successful on the tracks. The Spoiler II won several races, though, and is now one of the rarest and most sought-after Mercury models.

The Eight was the first model produced by Ford’s Mercury division, and the only one available to the public before the US entered the Second World War. Deliberately styled to look a bit like the Lincoln Zephyr, but much cheaper than that more upmarket model, it was offered as a saloon or a convertible, and was powered by the by now very familiar Ford flathead V8 engine.

65,000 examples were built for 1939, the first model year. Production stopped during wartime, but the Eight returned in 1946, and remained Mercury’s only passenger car until 1952.

PICTURE: 1941 Mercury Eight Club Convertible

Mercury used the Marauder name for large V8 engines designed and built by parent company Ford, and for three high-performance full-size sedans. The first of these were available from 1963 to 1965 and in 1969 and 1970.

In their time, they were exciting cars, but decreasing demand persuaded Mercury to abandon the idea after that, only to bring it back early in the 21st century. The new car’s 4.6-litre Modular engine was by far the smallest used in any Marauder, but by no means the least powerful. Sales were disappointingly low, and production was abandoned in 2004 after just two model years.

The third-generation Range Rover was the only one sold during Ford’s ownership of Land Rover, though most of the development work was done by previous owner BMW. Early versions therefore had BMW engines, but in time they were replaced by Ford and Jaguar units.

While both the preceding Range Rovers were upmarket 4x4s, this one took the idea so much further that it was promoted almost exclusively as a luxury vehicle. Its off-road ability, rarely mentioned, was nevertheless prodigious

A new direction for Range Rover was revealed in January 2004, when the Range Stormer concept made its debut at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Smaller than the flagship model, it showed that Ford-owned Land Rover was considering a move for Range Rover into more affordable territory.

The production Range Rover Sport which followed in 2005 was related to the Discovery 3, and was smaller and less expensive than the regular Range Rover. The formula clearly works well, since a third-generation Sport has recently gone on sale. An all-electric version is due soon.

Troller might mean very little to anyone outside South America, but it was a Brazilian manufacturer of sturdy and highly admired off-road vehicles. Ford announced in 2007 that it was buying the brand, and was therefore in control when the existing T4 was thoroughly redesigned.

Any chance of T4s appearing in other parts of the world died when Ford Brazil ceased production in 2021, and closed the Troller factory.

Ford acquired Volvo in 1999 (adding it to the now defunct Premier Automotive Group) and sold it to Geely in 2010. Roughly halfway between these events, in 2006, Volvo introduced what may be its most unusual model of the 21st century so far.

The C30 was a small, sporty, coupe-like hatchback, a type of car Volvo was not previously known for. Although it had a mixed reception, it was greatly admired in some quarters. Despite this, Geely decided to call a halt in 2012, when the C30 was still in its first generation.

The third and last V70 was the only Volvo of this name developed and introduced while the company was owned by Ford. Available only as an estate (the saloon equivalent was called S80), it was offered with five-cylinder engines, as its predecessors had been, but in this case customers could take a step in either direction by choosing a four or a six instead. The most extreme unit, matched to all-wheel drive transmission, was the turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six, which latterly produced 300bhp.

This was the last car recognisably derived from the celebrated 850 estate of the 1990s, although mechanically the two models had very little in common. The V90 which succeeded it in 2016 was much more obviously a member of a different generation.

The XC60 was introduced in 2008 as a more compact alternative to the XC90 SUV. Development costs were kept down by the fact that it was based on the same platform as almost every other Volvo in production at the time, along with owner Ford’s Mondeo, Galaxy and S-MAX.

The sale of the brand two years later meant that Geely reaped most of the benefit of the XC60. In 2011, it was already outselling almost every other Volvo by more than two to one. Annual sales would peak at over 160,000 before the second-generation model came along.

Although SUVs were nothing like as common in the early years of the 21st century as they are now, public interest in them was increasing rapidly. Volvo’s first vehicle of this type attracted a lot of attention from the moment it was first displayed, and enthusiasm remained high after it became available in 2002; it had been in development for several years even before Ford’s ownership.

The XC90 soon became Volvo’s best-selling model, a position it held until it dropped behind the much cheaper V50 in 2007. Although its popularity continued to diminish after that, Geely saw no reason to replace it until 2015.