R.I.P. Mercury

[Harry P.]

Just heard the news... Mercury will be history soon.

http://www.leftlanen...ad-by-2012.html

http://mobile.wxyz.com/w/main/story/11277715/

and many other sources...

[Nick Winter]

lets see from the big 3 thats,

Oldsmobile,

Pontiac,

Mercury,

Impearial,

who's next GMC (oh god please not GMC)

[whale392]

Plymouth is gone too Nick; so is Saturn.

[Scalper]

Forgot Plymouth.

[Eric Stone]

Doesn't surprise me, to be honest. I'm actually surprised they're still around.

I'm still bitter that GM kept Buick and killed Pontiac. It sucks when any car company goes away (except maybe Yugo), but to me, Pontiac had cooler models and more style than Buick in recent years. I'm not sure where Mercury stands in the world these days. I think a lot of could-be Mercury buyers are probably driving Lexus/Infinity/Acura cars instead of Mercury/Buick/Chrysler.

[Harry P.]

According to what I read, Mercury yearly sales are lower than they have been in decades. Ford is going to push the Lincoln brand. Lincoln will be getting the cool new models (and hybrids)... and gradually Mercury will be phased out by 2012.

[The Modeling Hermit]

I'm sad to see this, but not surprised. We've had too many years where parent companies have essentially just rebadged the same model. In this case the Mercury was just a rebadged and minor cosmetic chamges, and then had a higher pricetag added to it over the Ford varient. The thing is basically a Ford, so why would people pay more for it. Companies could get by with this practice back in the 50s and 60s, where there were major styling differences, and a car name had a status to it, but that's all chanfed now.

[Foxer]

I was sad when they killed Kaiser

[peter31a]

No loss to us. Mercury's been gone from Canada for a few years now. Still a shame though....

[highway]

who's next GMC (oh god please not GMC)

Nick, don't you know GMC stands for Generic Made Chevies!! Seroiusly though, it's sad to see some of these fine names go by the wayside. My first car was a 1976 (special because that is my birth year) Mercury Cougar XR7 and my car during my senior year of high school was a 1979 Pontiac Firebird.

[MikeMc]

But Ford did not borrow to save the brand...hard but smart decision making

I just bought another Sable...just a Taurus rebadged.....

[george 53]

Dam! Now there ain't NO reason to like Fords!

[Harry P.]

Personally, I think FoMoCo could and should have revived the line by offering a Cougar permutation of the Mustang.

I agree 100%.

[Nick Winter]

Dam! Now there ain't NO reason to like Fords!

Now I have the same problem.

[highway]

The current Mercury lineup only includes three models ... the Milan, the Mountaineer and the Escape.

I hate to tell you this, but the Escape is a FORD, not a Mercury! The Mercury is called the Mariner.

Mercury Mariner:

Ford Escape:

[highway]

Post has been edited ... thanks for over-correcting me to an insane degree!

You're quite welcome! I only really knew that because my mother in law just bought a 2008 Mariner, and she was looking at the Escape, too!

[Wheels]

It's sad because it affects people's jobs.

Let's face it, for too long automakers have had too many nameplates.

They should have focused on exsisting brand names rather than coming up with new ones.

I liked the Cougar idea though.

[Aaronw]

I can't really see how Mercury's demise will affect that many jobs. On the production side, I would imagine that the capacity that's now being used to build Mercurys will simply be used to build their Ford equivalents. On the retail side, I don't think there are many stand-alone L-M dealerships left.

I definitely agree with you; the manufacturers have been overloaded with marques for too long. Having a large portfolio of brands pretty much became meaningless about the time that the differences between the vehicles sold under the different brand names became strictly cosmetic.

I don't think the cosmetic aspect was a bad thing, but when it basically just comes down to a name plate and very minor option / cosmetic differences it was pretty pointless.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder so I could see sales of a Camaro vs Firebird or Mustang vs Cougar that have the same car under the skin but major styling differences.

It also seems like a lot of unneccessary duplication, I don't see why they feel the need to give each brand a copy of each car, and their own dealer network. Offer one or two high end Mercurys, not offered under the Ford brand and sell them right alongside the Fords.

[fumi]

I'm not surprised Ford is killing Mercury. I'm surprised it took them this long.

At least GM tried to reinvent Oldsmobile as an import fighter before finally dropping it; for a long time Mercury has been selling the same cars as Ford with different grille, lights and bumpers for practically the same price. Why spend all the money to maintain a separate brand when it is fighting over Ford for the same customers?

[Tony T]

As was mentioned, Mercury has been gone from Canada for several years now. At first, Grand Marquis and Cougar were still sold alongside the Fords, and all the dealers became Ford Lincoln dealers. Being a car guy, it was weird to see a new Mercury that wasn't sold here when someone from the US was driving around, usually a Mercury SUV, or Sable.

Ford has played smart, and made a sound decision. Too bad for the Mercury buffs.

I think that historically there are somewhere near 2000 car manufacturer names that have gone by the wayside, and Mercury is just the latest.

[Modelmartin]

I am sure Art can write a dissertation on Mercury. My impression is that Mercury was introduced to bridge the gap from Ford to Lincoln. Fords were pretty basic back then and Lincolns were top of the line. I believe all Lincolns from '20 to '48 are considered full classics by the CCCA except the Zephyrs. That is quite a gap to bridge in a product lineup.

Mercury's problems started when it became a badge engineered Ford and Fords became more luxurious. When was the last time Mercury had a unique home grown vehicle to sell? How about a different wheelbase then the similar Ford product?

Dumping the badge was way overdue.

By the way, Harry, That "Cougar" is kind of ugly! The nose looks like some of those 80s-90s Rivieras. It would probably sell in the dozens!

Edited May 29, 2010 by Modelmartin

[Art Anderson]

I am sure Art can write a dissertation on Mercury. My impression is that Mercury was introduced to bridge the gap from Ford to Lincoln. Fords were pretty basic back then and Lincolns were top of the line. I believe all Lincolns from '20 to '48 are considered full classics by the CCCA except the Zephyrs. That is quite a gap to bridge in a product lineup.

Mercury's problems started when it became a badge engineered Ford and Fords became more luxurious. When was the last time Mercury had a unique home grown vehicle to sell? How about a different wheelbase then the similar Ford product?

Dumping the badge was way overdue.

By the way, Harry, That "Cougar" is kind of ugly! The nose looks like some of those 80s-90s Rivieras. It would probably sell in the dozens!

Mercury was started, in 1939 as a mid-price range car, to compete, most likely with Oldsmobile, then the lower end of the mid-priced GM cars, to give Ford buyers an upscale choice without having to spring for a Lincoln Zephyr or the even loftier KB series. For 39-40, Mercury was its own car, albeit conventional Ford underneath, but with unique styling (no sheet metal sharing between them and Ford yet), a wheelbase some 6" longer. Those were at least a moderate sales success for Ford Motor Company, as they gave Lincoln dealers a lower priced car to sell alongside the Zephyr. For 1941 though, Mercury shared its body shells with Ford, while retaining the longer wheelbase (6" longer in the engine bay area) and considerably up-trimmed from the level of the lower priced Fords. This continued through 1942, and 1946-48. Styling of what became the 1949 Mercury began in 1943, as Ford and others could see the light of victory at the end of the tunnel that was WW-II, so preparations for postwar cars got underway. This body styling was at first considered for Ford, but as the car developed, it became apparent that it would be too large, too heavy and a bit too pricey for Ford to compete with Chevrolet, so a smaller car was designed in a hurry to become the "shoebox" Ford, the larger design becoming the Mercury, and the lower line Lincoln series. As Ford prepared an all-new body design for 1952, Mercury (as well as Lincoln) became once again, a larger version of a Ford, longer trunk, longer front clip, and in the case of Lincoln, a lengthened body shell, but with a ton of interchangeable parts, the unique styling touches of the '52-54 Mercs and Lincolns notwithstanding. This same pattern was repeated for 1955-56, a longer, more luxurious and more powerful Ford, basically.

Next up was the 1957 Mercury. With engineering of the greasy stuff very common with Ford, and of course, the upcoming '58 Edsel Citation series, this new Mercury was very unique, sharing very few components or parts with Fords. Mercury continued for '58 with a facelifted car, then an all new body shell came along for '59, and was heavily facelifted for 1960. But, 1960 was the end of the line for a unique full-sized Mercury. From then until 1967, all Mercury's were badge-engineered Fords, until the first generation Cougar, which while Mustang-based, was longer, heavier, and more luxurious than the ponycar, and shared no sheet metal with Mustangs.

Basically, Mercury gave Lincoln dealers something less expensive to sell, to get people into the showrooms, and at least expose them to the luxury Lincoln, much like Cadillac dealers often co-marketing Buicks alongside the "Wreath and Crest". Chrysler did the same thing, most Chrysler dealerships were co-branded with Plymouth, Dodge being their free-standing money-making marque. Increasingly, just as with Oldsmobile, Mercury was seen as the car for the middle-aged and elderly, and as the late Harley Earl once observed, he could "sell an old man a young man's car, but he could not sell an old man's car to a young man". With Lincoln developing a younger image with the very popular 1998 and later Town Car (elderly buyers tended to hate that one for several years--too rounded, to jelly-bean like for their tastes), and the 1986-98 Mk VIII series based on the very successful Fox Platform Tbird shells, and the 1999 LX, Mercury simply could not get sales traction anymore. Once Lincoln moved into SUV's and sports performance mid-size sedans, the handwriting was on the wall, Mercury would not survive, but many writers seem surprised that the marque lasted as long into this century as it has.

So, Mercury, once known as the customizer's favorite sheet metal canvas, with flashes of brilliance and high performance, slowly, like Oldsmobile, became just another example of Detroit "badge-engineered label slapping".

Art

[Jim Gibbons]

Thanks for the Mercury history, Art.

It's sad that another name goes into the history books, but when a product offers nothing different other than a badge and a name, it's time to bow out.

There's a local dealer here in the Hudson Valley that has sold Lincoln, Mercury, and Saab since the 50's. I imagine he must be a little nervous, even with Spyker's purchase of Saab from GM in February. Another local dealer is now down to only Buick with the demise of Pontiac. Buick sells more cars in China than in the US. Looks like there might be some available real estate here in the near future unless these dealers get another franchise to support them. That's where I think the greatest employment impact will be; not at the manufacturing level, but at the dealers.

[Jim Gibbons]

BTW, Harry, I liked your rendition of the Cougar. I assume you'd include the sequential turn signals in the rear view? It would've been a potential boost to Mercury sales, IMHO. Considering the current Mustang's popularity, an upscale version with the retro styling would be a winner.

[Joe Handley]

Thanks for the Mercury history, Art.

It's sad that another name goes into the history books, but when a product offers nothing different other than a badge and a name, it's time to bow out.

There's a local dealer here in the Hudson Valley that has sold Lincoln, Mercury, and Saab since the 50's. I imagine he must be a little nervous, even with Spyker's purchase of Saab from GM in February. Another local dealer is now down to only Buick with the demise of Pontiac. Buick sells more cars in China than in the US. Looks like there might be some available real estate here in the near future unless these dealers get another franchise to support them. That's where I think the greatest employment impact will be; not at the manufacturing level, but at the dealers.

I'd hope that Ford would atleast give the guy the chance to sell cars and trucks from Ford, Mazda, and/or who ever else they still might own. Same with the guy now only selling Buicks too.