By Gunnar Heinrich

Ford's CEO Alan Mulally has made no bones about his feelings that the Blue Oval does not need a global luxury marque under its label. That has meant a cleaning of the Premier Auto Group house. The first marque to go was Aston Martin; sold off to Middle Eastern investors. That said, Ford still retains a relatively small share in Aston Martin.

The company has no plans to retain any shares in either Jaguar or Land Rover once their sold off, a company spokesman recently revealed.

"We're selling the business because we need the money and we need the focus," Head of Ford Europe Lewis Booth told the Detroit News. "So, we're not going out there with the intention of keeping an equity stake."

FoMoCo anticipates spinning off both British icons by the early days of 2008. That would leave one marque left in the PAG stables - Volvo - whose fate is still under "strategic review."

[Source: Detroit News]