Ford Said to Plan End of Mercury After Seven Decades

Source: Bloomberg

Ford Motor Co. is preparing to wind down the Mercury line, created in 1939 by Edsel Ford, after sales plunged 74 percent since 2000, said two people familiar with the plan.

The automaker’s top executives are preparing a proposal to kill Mercury to be presented to directors in July, said the people, who asked not to be indentified revealing internal discussions. Mercury, losing two of four models next year, will be starved of products and promotion, the people said.

Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally emphasized the automaker’s namesake brand as he revived the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy. The timing of Mercury’s demise depends on how fast executives can convince the brand’s dealers, who also sell Lincoln models, to close or merge with Ford showrooms, they said.

“Mercury is a forgotten brand,” said John Wolkonowicz, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Many Americans probably already think it has been discontinued. Mercury was too similar to Ford from the very beginning.”


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1h410vKJYgQ&pos=5

And where does Ford get off planning the end of celestial bodies, anyway? :shrug:

Ford is making good cars. People are buying them. Mercury is superfluous at this point. People willing to shell out top dollar for a car will go BMW, Benz, Lexus, Cadillac, Acura,, even Hyundai Genesis.

Where does it end?

that planet has been there for billions of years. What right do they have to just blow it up?
And where could there be any kind of financial incentive to go all Death Star anyway? Are there vast amounts of high grade aluminum there? May Mercury looked at them strangely, like that Orion bastard does to me every night.


Edited to add:
My doctor explained to me that this is about a car, and not a planet. Guess that means my meds are getting upped AGAIN.

I thought that was Mercury.

I can't recall when I last saw one in circulation.

1949 Mercury Club Coupe (series 9CM) in Rebel Without a Cause

For years, Mercury just sold gussied-up Fords. There's no point anymore. Ford's own cars are higher trim, and because Lincoln is really more a near-luxury than luxe brand, there really isn't any space for Mercury. It's pretty much completely redundant.

a '68 Mercury station wagon, had a 390 V8 engine IIRC. But I agree with their decision.

Agree as well and felt it was inevitable.

nt...

some trim it is the same as a Ford.

EVERYTHING that could go wrong with it has gone wrong.

great and gets 30 MPG around town but starting to get a little rust. I can say it has been the most reliable car I have ever owned by far.

is a lemon. It's too bad, I like the style of the car and it's luxurious inside. I just wish it would run, haha.

edit: added word

Why do automakers insist on selling the same damn car under multiple brands?

In the mid-90's I was at a Ford dealer and basically had the salesman insisting I wanted to Mercury Sable and not the Ford Taurus at about a $4000 premium - the dude couldn't give me a single reason other than "prestige" of which the Mercury had none.

Sort of funny, I got the same trash at Toyota and Honda dealers too. "Dude, if you want to convince me this Acura isn't a Civic, maybe you shouldn't park them twelve feet apart from one another."

GMC pickup instead of a Chevy for a couple grand more.

to re-fuel that thing

And for others, they are the upscale brands like Cadillac, Lincoln, and Acura.

multiple brands --> {Ford's own} dealers with similiar products
competing with each other .

......................
or sometimes, left over
from a merger

instead of my brand and someone else's, I win. Doesn't matter which one I sell you, as long as you think you are comparison shopping, looking at just my brands.

My good friends first car was "Mabel the Able Sable". I bet I'll remember that until the day I die.

I think that recently the Mercury line had actually really started to distinguish itself from the Ford and Lincoln line in terms of styling. They've been putting out some really distinctive models lately.