Ford Motor Company is continuing to trim the fat and transform itself into a lean, mean fighting machine by offloading its long underperforming Mercury division. The Mercury division has long gotten the leftover table scraps from the mainstream Ford brand. The Milan, Mariner, Mountaineer, and Grand Marquis are all thinly veiled rebadges of the Ford Fusion, Escape, Explorer, and Crown Victoria respectively.
“Mercury originally was created as a premium offering to Ford and was an important source of incremental sales,” said Ford in a press release. “However, the continued strength of the Ford brand – particularly during the past three years – has accelerated the migration from Mercury to Ford for many customers.”
[…]
Ford Motor Company will wind down Mercury production in the coming months and expects to cease all production in the fourth quarter of 2010.With the laggard Mercury brand now out of the way, Ford Motor Company will now “fully devote its financial, product development, production and marketing, sales and service” to the Ford and Lincoln brands.
If I needed money, I’d tell you what I’d do
I close a division down so I could save a buck or two
Ford’s closing down ol’ Mercury
Bye-bye to good ol’ Mercury
Gonna shut down Mercury soon all the doors will just be closed.
Anybody remember that Steve Miller Band classic Mercury Blues!? (wmcduff does) The past is finally losing touch with the present, or is it the other way around? I remember having the hots for a tricked out Cougar when I was a teenager. Oh well, end of another era.
Honestly, Ford should of done this 30 years ago. Most of the Mercurys since the late 70’s were simply rebranded cars from another Ford division.
For the most part, we won’t be missing anything.
“If I had money, I’d tell you what I’d do
I’d go downtown and by a Mercury or two.
I’m crazy ’bout a Mercury, I’m crazy ’bout a Mercury.
I’m going to buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road.”
I am going to miss Mercury. My parents drove Mercuries. I drove a Mercury. I went to prom and picked up my date in my parent’s Mercury Grand Marquis. That was a fine car and it had a large engine on it. You could get that car going surprisingly fast. It wasn’t just a Crown Vic. That car had soul.
#3 “Most of the Mercurys since the late 70’s were simply rebranded cars from another Ford division.”
I used to own both a 1992 Mercury Topaz and a 1992 Ford Tempo. Which one was the nicer car? The Mercury. Don’t knock the rebranding. The rebranded cars had more features and the driving experience was better.
Still, there are always Lincolns for the luxury market. I guess that is where Ford plans to concentrate for the luxury cars.
About TIME! I find it retarded that motor companies make 2 versions of the EXACT SAME CAR, just with diff names. Lets see… Ford Thunderbird = Mercury Cougar… Ford Taurus = Mercury Sable… Dodge stratus = Chrysler Sebring. GMC sierra = Chevy Silverado. WTF? No shit. Cut the fat indeed.
I don’t know why they bother to maintain separate brands anyway. I suppose it might be as a means to placate dealerships who might be a Mercury dealer but not a Ford dealer.
My 2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid has 25K on it and my average MPG is over 40. This hybrid SUV has been flawless in every way during its first 12 months. Although a closely related twin to the Ford Escape Hybridb, anyone who has driven both of these two vehicles will tell you that the Mercury version is superior across the board. Much quieter, much smoother ride, and they just look better. I think that from a business perspective, having two very similar models in two brands is no longer supportable, since the Mercury is the higher priced model. But I am hoping that they will bring some of the positives from Mercury back into the Ford models. Others in my family have driven Mercuries for over a decade and found them to be far more reliable than others. Moving from my Saturn Vue to the MMH was the most dramatic improvement, vehicle to vehicle, that I have experienced in my life of driving.
I thought it was gone years ago. Now. Buick. Oldsmobile (still here?). Pontiac (gone?). How about GM and Chevy trucks? Why? Waste of resources, but the UAW loves the redundancy, I guess. When I grew up in the fifties, I knew all the makes and models, and still do for all the fifties and sixties cars. Now? I have no idea….
Benjamin:
I used to have a 2000 Mercury Mystake, I mean Mystique. It was no better than a Contour: a very crappy car.
The improvements to the rebranded Mercs got less and less as time went on.
#9 “I used to have a 2000 Mercury”
I never had a car that new. Maybe Ford lost something in the 21st century. Mercury Mistakes always looked like someone dented the door panel to me. Hated the look of them, so maybe that is why I never liked the Contour/Mystique.
The 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser was one of the coolest looking cars ever to come out of Detroit. Rare, but Oh, so cool!
But like others have said, once Mercuries just became rebadged Fords, it was time to pull the plug. It is now well past time to do so. Sad, but necessary.
Oh, and #8….GM pulled the plug on Oldsmobile in I think 2001. Pontiac last year. Buick, still going strong…the best selling US make in China. I never understood why Buick sold so well, but, historically it often was #4 in US production.
I never understood why GM insisted on selling light duty trucks under the GMC name as well as some heavier commercial trucks under the Chevrolet name.
You know they should have shut down Mercury a long time ago. They were nothing but Ford clones anyway. What’s with creating your own competition in house? Maybe this will help get new models out the door faster.
I asked my wife to name a single Mercury car name.
“Cougar” was the only one she remembered.
This is a good move for Ford.
Mercury manufactured badges, not cars. Ford are adopting a European model of marketing cars, by building on their marque, centralising design, dispersing production. It could very easily relocate Ford HQ to Europe.
One of my high school girl friends had a Maroon 1963 Mercury Monterey. It had a rear window that rolled down. Ethel, me and the Merc….good times…good times.
#15 Cool. That is pretty awesome: http://conceptcarz.com/view/photo/400852,8895/1963-Mercury-Monterey_photo.aspx I want one.
#11 “I never understood why GM insisted on selling light duty trucks under the GMC name”
The GMC pick-up trucks have an extra quarter ton capacity in the suspension than their Chevy counterparts. That is what the difference is. The Chevy 1500 can hold 1/2 ton, but the GMC 1500 can hold 3/4 ton. The 2500 is Chevy 3/4 ton and GMC 1 ton and the 3500 is Chevy 1 ton and GMC 1 1/4 ton. I don’t care either way. I love my Ford F150.
#15 Monster
Whoa! With a car like that who needs a hotel room?!
#17 Onamonapea,
We didn’t!
I owned a 73 Monterrey and a 77 Monarch. The equivalent Fords did feel slightly downmarket but functionally were the same. That Monterrey was a boat! Miss that one.
OH – and the Merc in the headline picture – Gorgeous!!
After most of his kids moved out and got married and started families of their own, my grandfather bought himself a brand-new Mercury every three years. They were unexciting cars, but comfortable and smoooooth rides.
It’s sad to see Mercury go but I never did fully understood the double-branding of Ford and Mercury.
Sure, it was cheap to change a little chrome and call a a “Ford” a “Mercury” but it doubled the marketing costs. And who really cared if their car was a Bobcat instead of a Pinto?
I _think_ the original strategy of Mercury was like the Toyota-Lexus marketing strategy but I’m not convinced that’s a good idea, either. Why not just have a top-end Toyota? Is anyone confused that a Lexus is really just a Toyota?
Car salesman wisdom: “It’s hard to get a redneck out of a Ford.”
Against my better judgement, I bought a new Aerostar in 1985. Three replacement transmissions later (2 after the warranty expired), 1 oil pump ($900 out of warranty), 1 instrument cluster ($1100 but covered by warranty) later, I said ENOUGH.
But lately, with all the talk about Ford being a world class company now, with award winning products that snobby europeans bought in droves, I was thinking of giving them another chance. Then my daughter rented a Focus for a month after an accident… what a piece of crap. SLOW. The A/C didn’t work well enough to keep the cabin cool during the day. (This is in May… forget August.) It sort of felt like you were riding around in something made out of cardboard stuck on top of a skateboard.
Yuck. No thanks.
>> Faxon said, on June 3rd, 2010 at 8:40 am
>> but the UAW loves the redundancy, I guess.
Be sure to ice down your union-bashing intellectual groin after that stretch! 😉
ubiquitous talking head,
I keep hearing about how much better American cars are but I finally went back to American (a Jeep) and the repair bills where KILLER! Seriously, the repair bills on the Jeep where more than my current car cost. (I always buy used with cash — it’s the only way IMHO)
I loved the size, layout and offroad ability of the Cherokee but holy smokes it cost us a ton of money to maintain.
On the other hand, my mother took her Lincoln to something like 225,000K with no major repairs. She’s replaced it with a Toyota and at 125,000K she’s already had a couple of expensive issues.