And he wants to move up the price scale to luxury sedans and sport utility vehicles, just as Honda and Toyota started doing in the 1980s.

FORBES: Speed Kills

Ford delegated to Magna both the interiors and exteriors for the 1998 Lincoln Navigator, the hot-selling luxury offshoot of the Expedition sport utility.

FORBES: Component king

Until now the only collaboration between VW and Porsche has been the Porsche Cayenne, which is a luxury version of the Touareg, a sport-utility vehicle made by VW. As the two companies get closer, Porsche's technology could boost the appeal of VW's more expensive models.

ECONOMIST: Volkswagen and Porsche

Lincoln luxury brand made a killing during the 1990s selling super-sized Navigator sport utility vehicles.

WSJ: Would You Drive This Car?

The German luxury-sedan stalwart is losing even more of those younger buyers to rivals' sport utility vehicles and smaller sedans.

WSJ: German Luxury Car Makers Target Young

In contrast, Porsche is in line for a bumper year, after the German luxury-car maker sold its entire annual 25, 000 production run of its new sport-utility vehicle before they were released to dealers.

ECONOMIST: Half measure