Quote :

"DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co (F.N) will eliminate its Mercury brand which has seen sales and investment plunge in recent years, closing out a vehicle lineup created in the 1930s by Edsel Ford, the automaker said on Wednesday. Ford declined to disclose the cost of eliminating the Mercury brand, but said it expected to shift those resources to expanding its Lincoln luxury brand and did not plan job cuts. Ford plans to cease Mercury production in the fourth quarter. Mercury, established to serve as a bridge between the mass market Ford brand and Lincoln, has seen sales dwindle from a peak in the late 1970s. Its U.S. market share has been ebbing for several years and is now less than 1 percent. The wind-down of Mercury, coupled with Ford's planned sale of its Volvo car unit to China's Geely, reduces Ford to just two brands like Toyota Motor Corp and further distances the automaker from its past multibrand strategy. Ford said the Mercury decision would not change its forecast to be solidly profitable in 2010. The Ford board of directors approved the Mercury decision on Wednesday."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100602/bs_nm/us_ford_mercury

I don't see what the point of Mercury was anyway, not for cars of the past couple decades.

6/2/2010 6:02:42 PM

If I had money, I tell you what I'd do.

I wouldn't buy a mercury.

[Edited on June 2, 2010 at 6:11 PM. Reason : .]

6/2/2010 6:10:14 PM

good riddance

and

OLD

6/2/2010 6:23:42 PM

merc is now is the subtle car between the flashy new ford designs and the over the top grills of the Lincoln... i think they had the oldest average buyer of any car out there.

6/2/2010 6:33:06 PM

It's about time.

6/2/2010 6:37:31 PM

nothing decent since the marauder anyway

6/2/2010 7:26:56 PM

It's frustrating to see the domestic automakers calling it in for some of their brands for decades and then wondering why sales decline. Chysler did it with Plymouth, GM with Oldsmobile and Ford with Mercury.

Shameful.

Regardless, it doesn't matter anymore.

6/2/2010 9:23:31 PM

^pontiac too

6/2/2010 9:38:38 PM

Pontiac was a victim of the recession. Pontiac actually had unique models (G6, G8, Solstice [differed enough in appearance from the Sky])

6/2/2010 10:11:21 PM

wait...pontiac is gone?

lol

6/2/2010 10:34:49 PM

Sky > Solstice

6/2/2010 10:44:30 PM

They need to bring back Edsel.

6/2/2010 10:46:12 PM

Quote :

"It's frustrating to see the domestic automakers calling it in for some of their brands for decades and then wondering why sales decline. Chysler did it with Plymouth, GM with Oldsmobile and Ford with Mercury. "

i think it's shameful that the some of those brands were ever even created. i can't imagine how inefficient/costly is it for these companies to market essentially the same vehicle so many different ways.

6/3/2010 12:02:27 AM

those brands were big when US automakers had a very large market share

6/3/2010 1:19:35 AM

It provided the illusion of choice to consumers.

6/3/2010 1:32:44 AM

^ consumers are dumb

which i realize you aren't disputing

6/3/2010 8:07:02 AM

Quote :

"i think it's shameful that the some of those brands were ever even created. i can't imagine how inefficient/costly is it for these companies to market essentially the same vehicle so many different ways."

That statement is accurate for Mercury and Saturn, but not Pontiac, Plymouth and Oldsmobile. Brush up on your automotive history

6/3/2010 9:38:26 AM

Dont think its accurate for Saturn either

6/3/2010 9:41:52 AM

Yea man, mercury did a great job of sucking down extra business overhead and canabalizing sales from other ford brands. Why in the world would they want to shut it down>??!?!?!

6/3/2010 9:44:10 AM

^^Eh, GM didn't need a new car company to shake their image problem. GM never made money off Saturn. It was a dumb idea and was flawed by some of the most bland car designs ever seen.

6/3/2010 10:12:10 AM

The point is Saturn never was created or intended to market rebranded vehicles.

6/3/2010 10:22:09 AM

yes Saturn was independent for a few years until the corporate assclowns took over and just gave them rebadged Chevy models

6/3/2010 10:43:00 AM

Saturns had some serious fans/brand loyalists.

I think it was a great idea, from a marketing perspective. GM fucked it up because they didn't give it the attention it needed. Too many other BS brands to breast-feed.

Mercury, on the other had, should have gone away 40 years ago. How long has it been since badge engineering was a good idea?

6/3/2010 11:41:01 AM

^^^quite true.

6/3/2010 11:42:48 AM

Quote :

"Dont think its accurate for Saturn either"

Quote :

"The point is Saturn never was created or intended to market rebranded vehicles."

yeah, saturns may have been bland and uninspiring, but they have (had?) a fairly loyal following (myself included) because they're great basic cars...they get you where you need to go and, by and large, they're reliable in doing it...repairs are (were?) generally cheap when necessary

6/3/2010 11:48:55 AM

good riddance.

This will be good for a resurging Ford. They're finally making cars that people want to drive, and the timing is excellent considering Honda and Toyota are making more and more generic looking cars, and both have had reliability issues.

6/3/2010 8:46:03 PM

^^thing for me was, I never saw the point in buying a new Saturn when you could buy a used Honda.

6/3/2010 10:20:05 PM

Quote :

"Saturns had some serious fans/brand loyalists. "

like my parents...

I never understood it. The interior was plastic and garbage. Engines weak. Design horrible. Worst
of all, for the price of a saturn during its last few years (prior to GM shutting it down) one could buy a much
better designed and quality honda civic or toyota.

6/3/2010 10:33:12 PM

though i agree with this from the business standpoint, it kills the possibility of a future marauder... which makes me

RIP Mercury

6/3/2010 10:54:07 PM

people were loyal to Saturn because of the 90s models that were tanks. then Saturn started to get rebadged crap and it took a little while for people to figure that out

6/4/2010 3:18:37 PM

Quote :

"thing for me was, I never saw the point in buying a new Saturn when you could buy a used Honda."

and i never saw the point in buying a used honda when you could buy a much newer used saturn for half the cost...mostly, though, this:

Quote :

"people were loyal to Saturn because of the 90s models that were tanks. then Saturn started to get rebadged crap and it took a little while for people to figure that out"

no doubt...the best saturns were the ugliest ones

Quote :

"The interior was plastic and garbage. Engines weak. Design horrible."

to an extent...first point is right-on

second is arguable...weak compared to what? my saturn, for the most part, gets me where i want to go just as quickly as everyone else, even if they're in a sports car...i can keep up with traffic and even speed around 80-90 if i want to...who cares if it takes me 9 seconds to get 60 instead of 5?

third...yes and no...in regards to the interior, the designs are BAD...exterior is a matter of taste, i think...i've had few issues with my saturn's exterior and more minor ones with its interior...i don't really care how it looks and i've seen uglier cars

as noted, though, the "saturns are awesome" argument really only holds for the 90s and early 2000s...past that, you're buying a chevy with even worse interior, if that's possible

[Edited on June 4, 2010 at 3:27 PM. Reason : .]

6/4/2010 3:27:24 PM

^The Saturn engines were notorious for horrible NVH ratings. I suppose some people don't care about that but even for a used car I'd rather have a Honda with a jewel of an engine over a Saturn. But I understand to each his own.

6/4/2010 3:41:25 PM

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_16aEfR-4HkE/SirdWtW4-BI/AAAAAAAAAAc/qivessYd5AA/s1600-h/Capri_03.jpg

[Edited on June 4, 2010 at 3:49 PM. Reason : u]

6/4/2010 3:48:55 PM

Quote :

"nothing decent since the marauder anyway"

That sums it up. Hell, the only worthwhile vehicles they made in the past 10 years were the Marauder and the Cougar. Everything else was a Ford with a different badge--and even as much as I like my Marauder and the name heritage, they could have given more or less the same treatment to a Crown Vic and pulled the Galaxie 500/XL name out of mothballs, and had a very similar effect. The Cougar could have dropped into the Ford lineup as a plug-in replacement for the Probe and perhaps also for the slow-selling Escort ZX2 (it was a Ford in Europe). Make those changes and you have to go back to, as in redneck350's post above, the early 80's Capri to find a vehicle with any appreciable differentation other than grille/taillamp and other very minor tweaks.

RIP Mercury though. 1939-2010.

6/6/2010 12:36:46 AM

6/9/2010 4:50:22 PM