RIP Eddie Bauer, 1991-2010 (Trucks and SUVs, That Is) - The Car Connection (blog)
When the 2011 Ford F-150 goes on sale in October, truck shoppers will be confronted with the usual panic-inducing array of choices: powertrain choices, bed choices, cab choices, audio choices, even trim-level choices. Eddie Bauer is dead, so far as Ford SUVs and pickup trucks go. For more than two decades, Ford and Eddie Bauer held a lock on mini-branding in the SUV world. In the 1990s, the Eddie Bauer package was one of the swank options to be applied to Ford's SUVs and pickup trucks. -based Eddie Bauer had its own brushes with insolvency, which left the brand tarnished in a decade of financial and directional struggles. Acquired by catalog specialist Speigel after that company's own 2003 bankruptcy, Eddie Bauer went through Chapter 11 twice in the past ten years, once in 2005 and once in 2009. A Ford executive told High Gear Media at this week's preview of the... For the 2011 model year, Ford's own Web site makes no mention of any Eddie Bauer models, neither a 2011 Eddie Bauer Expedition nor a 2011 Eddie Bauer Explorer. Source: www.thecarconnection.com
