When Ford owns Jaguar, is a Jaguar a Jaguar?

No. So says Ford's admission Tuesday that it is "reviewing its position" on its luxury automakers.

"People can't help thinking that what they're buying is a Ford," says Burnham Securities auto analyst David Healy, who estimates that Jaguar has socked Ford with $15 billion in losses since 1987.

So goes Ford's 20-year dalliance with luxury. It's been a flop from the get-go, despite some success from Swedish unit Volvo. Ford's Premier Auto Group, the trio of Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover, lost more than $2 billion last year. Jaguar's struggles accounted for most of that loss.

Jaguar management has been hounding Ford for a cash infusion, which Ford just can't afford. While Volvo has been profitable and Land Rover remains a European favorite, Ford has too much capital tied up in trying to turn around its North American operations to keep them aboard.

Coming off a March $848 million sale of Aston Martin, a high-end carmaker the company owned at least a part of since 1987, Ford has set its sights on grabbing cash from its luxury lines. Analysts expect all three Premier Auto Group units to go. Healy figures the company will likely recoup the $12 billion it spent buying the three brands, but the billions in losses over the past two decades is money down the drain. "When you buy into a brand, it's tough to make it your own," says Jesse Toprak of Edmunds.com.

Back in the late 1990s, Ford saw luxury cars as a growth area that would help balance the overdependence on trucks, so it scooped up Aston Martin, Volvo and Land Rover to supplement Jaguar. Also in the plan: to bring exciting design elements to the company's domestic brands, helping them to stand out against the competition. "But we just haven't seen that," Toprak says.

While Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people ) was able to create its Lexus brand from scratch and take control of molding its image, Ford tried to get into the luxury market by writing a check. Meanwhile, Ford's own luxury division, Lincoln, lost market share. One wonders what might have been had the company stayed away from deals in favor of investing more in Lincoln.

"Doing it by acquisition has never been successful," Healy says. Mercedes had the same problems with sales and brand image when its maker, Daimler-Benz, bought Chrysler. Now that deal's getting unwound. Buyouts that involve big guys swallowing little guys, such as General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) taking over Isuzu, don't create confusion. Neither do supplemental moves that merge different product lines of similar price ranges, as when Chrysler (nyse: DCX - news - people ) bought American Motors to get its Jeep line.

Mixing an established luxury brand with an established mass market manufacturer turns consumers off. So Ford is apparently set on a low-frills ride as it makes its Way Forward. When a company loses $12.6 billion in a year, as Ford did in 2006, expensive toys like Land Rover, Jaguar and Aston Martin become unaffordable luxuries.