RIP Ford Mercury ?

[F Body]

The Blue Oval has called a press conference at 3 PM EST that will announce the demise of the Mercury division

Mercury was founded in 1939 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level-luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick (and former Oldsmobile) brand which GM killed.

Suppose 71 years ain't bad

[F Body]

My favorite Mercury, pictures taken at the 2010 AACI Spring Nats

[HardRockCamaro]

The writing has been on the wall for a long time, the cars were just rebadged Fords.  Much like Pontiac there is just no point in that.  It's extra cost to design, manufacture and market the same item.

I did wonder if Lincoln could survive but I don't think Ford can get rid of them as they'd have nothing to face Cadillac with.

[F Body]

Comfirmed

Over the last ten years, Mercury's sales numbers have plummeted, and currently, the brand only accounts for 0.8 percent of Ford Motor Company's overall market share.
In a press conference this afternoon with Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, and Derrick Kuzak, group vice president of product development, the automaker has officially announced that Mercury will be discontinued in the fourth quarter of this year.

[Roadkill]

I'm surprised it hasn't happened earlier, TBH . . .

[philoldsmobile]

not supprised, there is no reason for mercury to exist, in much the same vein I'm still suprised vauxhall over here hasn't re badged as opel...

[nick69]

No reason for Alfa to exist, they are shit!!

Id rather have an Mercury any day.

[philoldsmobile]

100,000 people a year might disagree with that..

but mercury is parallel to vauxhall and opel, no distinct models just a name, thats very inefficient. Alfa is a separate brand making separate cars, although owned by fiat, no alfa is a badge engineered fiat or vice versa

its sort of the same deal with Lincoln, although lincoln has a better badge image, so is more commercially viable as it steals customers from mercedes and BMW, as opposed to ford. people buying a mercury sable for example would probably otherwise have bought a ford contour - aside from a grill and headlight change, the same car.

mercury have had a really weak line up since the late 90's proper mercuries finished in the early 80's. GM have been culling brands for a while, if these companies want to survive, they need to work on a commercial scale. in the same way, the death of oldsmobile and pontiac were absolutely inevitable. buick will follow, no doubt.

i predict in 5 years, the big three will comprise of;

Cadillac chevrolet

Lincoln Ford

Chrysler dodge

Jeep are independent now i believe, and no one cried when hummer went to bed, and GMC will probably hit the road too, as again, its just chevy.

[HardRockCamaro]

Jeep is still part of Chrysler and hence belongs to Fiat.

Forthcoming "soft" Jeeps such as the Liberty will use Fiat engines I believe, and there will be Alfa branded SUV's using the Liberty's platform.
There will be a mini Jeep based on a stretch Panda platform.

Frankly the whole thing makes me shudder...

On the plus side, Jeep have confirmed that the Wrangler will not share its platform with anything else as it is considered too important because it is:

A) the best selling Jeep in their entire range (amazing for such a niche, hard riding, noisy, inefficient and old fashioned vehicle) with sales dropping just 3% in 2008 when the rest of the Chrysler range plummeted 32-56% (industry average was 36%)

(B) It is the vehicle upon which the reputation of the entire Jeep range is built.  As one journalist said "Jeep *is* the Wrangler".

Jeep should have been spun off, although there were rumours of several buyers lining up when it looked like Chrysler might go under.  It's a *very* valuable brand.

[Gator]

Die Alpha Die

[nick69]

Quoting: Gator

Die Alpha Die

Hehehehehe