Posted on 05/27/2010 9:11:13 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Ford Motor Co. is preparing to phase out its 71-year old Mercury brand, adding to the list of storied Detroit nameplates that reached the end of the road in recent years as the industry has become more competitive.
Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally and his top lieutenants have won the backing of key members of the Ford family and are expected to seek approval from the car maker's board to kill Mercury after years of dwindling sales, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.
Mercury was created in 1939 by Edsel Ford, the son of legendary founder Henry Ford. It was prompted by General Motors Co.'s strategy of building a "ladder of brands" that included Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. That allowed GM to appeal to a wide range of customers and move them up the brand and price ladder as their incomes rose, enabling GM to pass Ford as the world's largest auto maker.
Mercury would be the latest Detroit brand to die since 2000. As part of its bankruptcy restructuring last year, GM shut down its Pontiac and Saturn divisions, and Hummer appears to be headed for the same fate. Earlier this decade GM phased out Oldsmobile and Chrysler Group LLC killed off Plymouth.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFj0fARgdSo
Alan Jackson Mercury Blues
(robert l geddins/kc douglas)
Well if I had money
Tell you what Id do
Id go downtown and buy a mercury or two
Crazy bout a mercury
Lord Im crazy bout a mercury
Im gonna buy me a mercury
And cruise it up and down the road
Well the girl I love
I stole her from a friend
He got lucky, stole her back again
She heard he had a mercury
Lord shes crazy bout a mercury
Im gonna buy me a mercury
And cruise it up and down the road
Well hey now mama
You look so fine
Ridin round in your mercury 49
Crazy bout a mercury
Lord Im crazy bout a mercury
Im gonna buy me a mercury
And cruise it up and down the road
Well my baby went out
She didnt stay long
Bought herself a mercury, come a cruisin home
Shes crazy bout a mercury
Yeah shes crazy bout a mercury
And cruise it up and down the road
Well if I had money
I tell you what Id do
Id go downtown and buy me a mercury or two
Crazy bout a mercury
Im gonna buy me a mercury
And cruise it up and down the road
That being said, I suppose it's time for a tax payer-funded backing of the brand to the tune of several hundred billion dollars.
With Steve Miller blaring through the stereo, of course...;)
---
[As recorded by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen]
My pappy said, "Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln".
Have you heard this story of the Hot Rod Race
When Fords and Lincolns was settin' the pace
That story is true, I'm here to say
I was drivin' that Model A.
It's got a Lincoln motor and it's really souped up
That Model A body makes it look like a pup
It's got eight cylinders, uses them all
It's got overdrive, just won't stall.
With a 4-barrel carb and a dual exhaust
With 4.11 gears you can really get lost
It's got safety tubes, but I ain't scared
The brakes are good, tires are fair.
Pulled out of San Pedro late one night
The moon and the stars was shinin' bright
We was drivin' up Grapevine Hill
Passing cars like they was standing still.
All of a sudden in a wink of an eye
A Cadillac sedan passed us by
I said, "Boys, that's a marvel to me"
By then the taillights was all you could see.
Now the fellas was ribbin' me for bein' behind
So I thought I'd make the Lincoln unwind
Took my foot off the gas and man alive
I shoved it on down into overdrive.
Wound it up to a hundred-and-ten
My speedometer said that I hit top end
My foot was glued like lead to the floor
That's all there is and there ain't no more.
Now the boys all thought I'd lost my sense
And telephone poles looked like a picket fence
They said, "Slow down! I see spots!
The lines on the road just look like dots".
Took a corner, sideswiped a truck
Crossed my fingers just for luck
My fenders was clickin' the guardrail posts
The guy beside me was white as a ghost.
Smoke was comin' from out of the back
When I started to gain on that Cadillac
Knew I could catch him, I thought I could pass
Don't you know by then we'd be low on gas.
We had flames comin' from out of the side
Feel the tension, man, what a ride!
I said, "Look out, boys, I've got a license to fly"
And that Caddy pulled over and let us by.
Now all of a sudden she started to knockin'
And down in the dips she started to rockin'
I looked in my mirror; the red lights was blinkin'
The cops was after my Hot Rod Lincoln.
They arrested me and they put me in jail
And called my pappy to throw my bail
And he said, "Son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln!"
'51 Rod
'Chopped '49
My young children love that song and in fact I have a Hot Rod Lincoln.1996 Mark viii Silver Anniversary with a slightly warmed over Cobra engine.Makes telephone poles look like a picket fence.;)
I am glad to hear that.Thank you.
Every marque that goes by the way-side has multiple effects:
1) drives the price down
2) drives the price up
3) Makes us reminisce for the good old days
4) pisses us off
5) all of the above
2000 Cougar... an excellent ride.
2000 Cougar... an excellent ride.
PING
Very good. I guess the pimped-out cars of today don’t really have much on some of them old cars after all.
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