Ford to finally kill Mercury???
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Again…
The same rumor for years now.
After claiming they have new products coming out, now we hear Mercury might be gone soon.
That means no new “small car based on the new Focus”.
Would you miss Mercury?
Would you buy one if they had new models ?
Mercury has been dead for years. The only reason to keep them was to give poor lincoln dealers something else to sell. Maybe lincoln will have enough product on their own. It is long overdue.
I will miss it. I own a Milan and it has been a great car. But I didn't intentionally go out looking to buy a Mercury, and I suppose if I had a Fusion it would be pretty much the same. Right now Mercury is like #2 or 3 in the JD Powers surveys. It seems like a waste to throw that away. I wish Ford would make Mercury like what Audi is to VW. More upscale and cool, but not necessarily an older buyer. Keep Lincoln for the geezers. But if Ford is only going to rebadge Fords, and not give them any distinctive models, there is no point in dragging out it's demise.
From a marketing view point, extensions are almost never a good idea. If they must, a standard product (Ford) and a premium product (Lincoln) is enough. Short answer. No and no.
Can you kill a Zombie car co?
Started to wonder if you were alive Vince!
Mercurys, the few that there are now, haven't been much more than slightly fancier Fords. The styling differences usually limited to grill, headlamps and tail lamps. The interiors are nearly identical. Mercury is essentially Ford's Buick, but Buicks don't look like Chevrolets. GM at least makes an effort to alter the sheet metal sufficiently so that the cars look different. No one would deny that a Buick Entourage isn't essentially the same car underneath as a Chevy Traverse, but the shapes are different enough, and the interior of the Buick is significantly plusher than the Chevy. Ford IS starting to do that with Lincolns that share engineering. A Ford Taurus looks NOTHING like a Lincoln MKS, and the Flex looks nothing like the MKT. However, a Fusion and Milan are nearly identical. The MKZ is also way too close to the Fusion to warrant the higher price.
Unless Ford spent some money to make Mercurys truly unique, it's better to spend the resources to further develop the Lincoln line, so that their dealerships would be viable. Lincoln would have to compete with Buick in the mid-priced field, and Cadillac at the upper end. I think this is doable – Lexus does this now. The only problem is that their current cars are competitive with Buicks but priced like Cadillacs. An MKT is about $9000 more than an Entourage, and an MKZ is about $7000 more than a LaCrosse (An MKS is about $13,000 more). The other issue with Lincoln is the naming convention. People are confused about how to pronounce the names ("Mark Z"? "M-K-Z"?). I think Ford says it's not pronounced "Mark" – but why have the "MK" a different size than the Z, T, S, or X? I'm a car guy, and I had to go to the Lincoln site to verify that the big crossover was MKT – I thought it was MKX. Personally I think it would be better to go back to names such as Continental and Zephyr. Or perhaps Keep the Mark (but spell it out), and use a number to represent the model….a Mark 3 to complete with the BMW 3-series, a Mark 6 to compete with the Cadillac XTS and Audi A6.
Alive and well, thanks .
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…… I think the Ford Motor Company was the LAST ones to find this out!
Mercury HAS BEEN dead for some time since FMC invests NOTHING into it. FMC treats Mercury like GM treated Saturn towards the end. The difference is that Ford is doing a MUCH worse job with Mercury. At least Saturn had gotten some new and different models near its end. How much money did Ford waste keeping Mercury around and doing nothing with it?
There are no vehicles that I would consider buying from Mercury now. I liked the last Milan ALOT, but the new one lost a lot of its edginess. I'm sure the current line of Mercury cars are nice and well built but there's just not enough difference between their few cars and the Fords to justify their existance.
I just think that it's hilarious that Ford is just realizing this now, and last year they said they were'nt getting rid of them, but EVERYBODY ELSE kinda knew Mercury was a gonner.
If Mercury had a Cougar and a Capri, maybe even a cyclone, I'd be all for it.
These days, however, if the offerings aren't unique, buyers won't check for you when they could just go with the company's base brand and get essentially the same thing. Times have changed, inflation is too high, attention spans aren't the same. There's barely money to market one car properly, let alone differentiate all these cars from one company in the exact same segment.
Cars are offering the same features, same engines, same everything. This kills any clear definition of any brand's personality or hierarchy. There was a chance with Pontiac, but so much damage was done BEFORE the economy bombed that GM just didn't have it in them anymore.
Anyway, all that to say is that Ford may as well pull the plug. So many of us barely know Mercury is still in the game. Kinda like Isuzu.
I'd much rather Volvo lived on under Ford than Mercury, or even Lincoln.
Unless Ford can give it a new direction, like GM is doing with Buick, then good riddance. It is confusing, redundant and irrelevant right now.
"I'm crazy about a Mercury". Remember that song?
Doesn't that sound silly in 2010?
It sounded silly in 2000. Even the most recent Cougar (which I admit, I liked for five minutes) was, well, for cougars.
😉
If Mercury had become the performance division (SVT) instead of latching on to the idea that they could use the brand name to charge more money for a Ford car…that idea might have had legs.
Now, Mercury is useless. Ford needs to sacrifice it regardless of emotional attachment. They should try to sell the brand to the Chinese and make some money. Maybe they'll be crazy about a Mercury in China.
I wish they had kept Mercury, and targeted hip city dwellers and retiring baby boomers with small niche vehicles like the Mini Cooper, Scion xB, volvo xc60 and C30, wagons and crossovers, and would allow for far more contemporary yet expressive designs then what you get at Ford. Sort of a mix of Citreon, Peugeot, Volvo, and Mini.
this is simular to what Dodge and Plymouth used to do. Badge Engineering 101. Mercury used to be the higher end versions of the Ford products (Escort vs. Tracer)
Good plan, now please focus your efforts on Lincoln.
Mercury has been gone from the Canadian market since, I believe the end of the nineties (see how eventful it was). Nobody noticed because nobody cared. Unless Ford decides to pump some serious money into providing Mercury with unique and interesting new products, why drag it out any longer? I have memories of my father's gigantic olive green Grand Marquis with the hidden headlights and vinyl roof. That's good enough for me.
I agree with Education. If Mercury could transition to unique appearing (based on family platforms) vehicles that would be smaller and hipper, I think you could see a real turn around. A new Capri small convertible to take on Miata (RWD please), a small MINI competitor, and a Krug like small SUV would really make waves and separate it from Ford.
FoMoCo could make their biggest mistake ever…
…since the MKZ-Milan-Fusion came out, Lincoln got 3 new models while Mercury LOST one;
yet Merc STILL outsells Lincoln (like always).
Good thing FoMoCo is re-evaluating Lincoln too!!
Just do it already. They are flogging a dead horse with this one.
Ford has been quietly drowning Mercury since the 1980s.
Lincoln is the new Mercury anyway, just restyled Ford models.
I vote to rebadge all current Lincolns as Mercurys and have Ford create two or three great rear wheel drive cars (awd optional) to carry the Lincoln banner. No pandering to everyone by Lincoln.
If anyone remembers, Ford brought out the Merkur line which brought over European Ford models- the XR4 and the Scorpio. They were good cars at the time, but did not go over well in the U.S. They were sold through Lincoln Mercury dealers. I guess Ford thinks that it learned from it's mistake. I think the mistake was bad marketing or being a little ahead of the time.
Ford killed Mercury decades ago when Mercury became nothing more than a tarted up Ford.
An expanded Lincoln line would give Ford the market coverage it needs in high-volume near luxury cars.
Now that Ford (like GM and Chrysler) is selling ALL of its brands from single dealerships, there's no need to give dealers any badge-engineered vehicles that confuse buyers and drive them to Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc.