Ford to Announce Discontinuation of Mercury Brand; Edmunds.com Expects Ford to Keep Most Customers

The Journal of Business ^ | 5/27/2010 | Business Wire

[Military family member]

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Bloomberg has reported that Ford will soon announce the discontinuation of the Mercury brand. When Mercury shuts down, Ford is likely to keep most of its customers, according to Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information.

Edmunds.com’s cross-shopping analysis indicates that 46 percent of Mercury shoppers currently consider Ford vehicles, and that Chevrolet and Honda are also popular alternatives.

[pnh102]

Amazing. Ford did not need a czar to tell them to do this.

[mrmeyer]

They should have done this years ago.

[unkus]

Amazing. Ford did not need a czar to tell them to do this.

---

FUBO!!

[SuziQ]

Dang, and I was looking into buying a Mercury Mariner!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

It's hard to distinguish the big Ford from the big Merc.
Wasn't always that way.

Remember the “breezeway rear window” on the mid 60s Mercury sedan ?

[Thurston_Howell_III]

I’ll miss Jill Wagner most of all.

[prisoner6]

Ripped from Steve Miller, Alan Jackson

Well if I had money, tell you what I'd do
I'd go downtown, buy a Mercury or two
Crazy bout a Mercury, Lord I'm crazy bout a Mercury
Gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up & down the road

Another piece of AMERICA lost!

prisoner6

[mrmeyer]

LOL - not to date myself but that's before my time.

In years past, Mercury offered luxury features that the Ford product line lacked at the time. This stopped being the case about 15 years ago. Why pay more for a Mercury when Ford offers the same platform with the same features for less? The only difference between the two is purely cosmetic. The overhead cost to keep Mercury never made much sense to me.

[alloysteel]

The Mercury brand was orginally introduced (about 1938) as “the Ford that Henry Ford would build, if it weren’t for the competition”. For many years, the Mercury was a bigger, somewhat more powerful, and much more glitzy model than the equivalent Ford version, and carried a mystique that was hard to match, especially after the James Dean legend got all bound up in the marque.

Bigger than the Ford, but less glamourous than the Lincoln, there finally grew to be so much overlap, the Mercury nameplate kind of sank into the woodwork. They have not had a distinctive model since about the time they quit building the Cougar, and that was just a restyled Ford Thunderbird.

[grjr21]

As long as I can keep my Hot Rod  Lincoln

[xzins]

The sum total will be more lost jobs.

[Dan Nunn]

LAST STAND-ALONE MERCURY FRANCHISE CLOSES, FORD CUTS MERCURY ADS, December 17, 2007.

Today marks a milestone for Ford’s Mercury brand, and it could be one that foretells the future of the slumping marque. Community Motor Co. of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania — the only stand-alone Mercury dealer in the country — resigned its Mercury franchise today.

[snip...]

Ford continues to deny that the Mercury brand will be discontinued in the near future, but these reports only add fuel to the fire that Mercury could be dead by 2012.

Prescient! Or obvious :)

[GunsAndBibles]

I’d love to pick up a ‘95 Cougar with the 5.0 V8 and do some creative tuning work on it; a 500hp mom and pop car. Way better styling than the T-bird IMO.

and no- I don’t want a 95-year old cougar - so git yer mind out of the gutter

[WOBBLY BOB]

same here...

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[Dan Nunn]

The sum total will be more lost jobs.

What?! This is the UAW. Jobs are never lost. Only furloughed.

[DemforBush]

I know it's silly, but I'm gonna miss the Gran Marquis. Ford already stopped selling the Crown Vic (except fleet sales), a couple years ago.

There's just something about a big American sedan with a V-8 up front, power to the rear wheels, and enough cabin and trunk space to hold half of Minneapolis.

[ken5050]

They should drop the Lincoln also..have you ever seen one lately...just a gussied up Taurus..

[Jack Black]

They have not had a distinctive model since about the time they quit building the Cougar, and that was just a restyled Ford Thunderbird.

And later a restyled Mustang, (circa 1971?) I think. A friend had one of those and it was fast and fun.

[prisoner6]

The last one I wanted was a '68 Cougar Exterminator(IIRC?)

Tricked up 'Stang with a dual ratio differential along with a bigger block before the 'Stang. (390? 427? 429?)

FWIW I had a brand new '68 'Stang convertable with the California package, 289 2bbl(sigh) and C-4(another sigh) and LUSTED for the Cougar version.

prisoner6