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Is Mercury going to go away?


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After seeing this...

 

 

...and with the lack of product at the NAIAS and Chicago Auto Show, it makes me think that Mercury is going the way of the Oldsmobile. I read an article way back about how Ford was encouraging L/M dealers to also get Mazda. Now I (think) know why, I just hope I'm wrong...

 

Has anybody heard anything?

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I don't think Mercury will be going away for two main reasons:

 

1. The company very publicly announced in October or November that Mercury was on the chopping block but got a reprieve. They see that Mercury draws in different customers than Ford or Lincoln, and I'm sure the cost of dissolving an entire brand far exceeds what they would like to spend. (Perhaps they learned a thing or two from the death of Oldsmobile?)

 

2. If this was a decision that was announced only three to four months ago, I would imagine that prior to that, very little (if any) development work was being done on new Mercury production or concept vehicles, probably for the majority of 2005. Ford probably halted any development because they knew discussing the future of Mercury was on the agenda later in the year. Thus, they wouldn't have anything to display at this year's auto shows for Merc.

 

I hope I'm right, but I agree with you ... articles like this aren't encouraging!

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Nothing is certain... But the L-M dealer body is too large for all luxury cars. They need a volume brand... And one only needs to look back at the Nasser days, when Mercury was nearly killed, to see what damage it did to the Lincoln side of the house. Now while combining Mazda and L-M delaers does start the ball rolling again I don't think it's going to happen because the Mazda/L-M dealer merge is occouring far too slowly. Maybe in a distant future...

 

But I do suspect we're going to see Mercury and Lincoln realign, with Mercury taking a smaller role and Lincoln becoming the dominate player. With this I suspect we'll see Mercury leave some higher segments as Lincoln expands, for example the Montego for the MKS. But I also believe we'll see Mercury go downmarket again with a premium Focus-size entry, ala Acura RSX.

 

I'l forgive Mercury for missing this years autoshow season considering the rollout the past few years: Mountaineer, Monterrey, Montego, Milan, Mariner, all introduced back-to-back-to... And the Meta1 was planned to this year, but I think production capacity issues and the need to concentrate on the MKS in Chicago deep-sixed it (for now).

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Nothing is certain... But the L-M dealer body is too large for all luxury cars. They need a volume brand... And one only needs to look back at the Nasser days, when Mercury was nearly killed, to see what damage it did to the Lincoln side of the house. Now while combining Mazda and L-M delaers does start the ball rolling again I don't think it's going to happen because the Mazda/L-M dealer merge is occouring far too slowly. Maybe in a distant future...

 

But I do suspect we're going to see Mercury and Lincoln realign, with Mercury taking a smaller role and Lincoln becoming the dominate player. With this I suspect we'll see Mercury leave some higher segments as Lincoln expands, for example the Montego for the MKS. But I also believe we'll see Mercury go downmarket again with a premium Focus-size entry, ala Acura RSX.

 

I'l forgive Mercury for missing this years autoshow season considering the rollout the past few years: Mountaineer, Monterrey, Montego, Milan, Mariner, all introduced back-to-back-to... And the Meta1 was planned to this year, but I think production capacity issues and the need to concentrate on the MKS in Chicago deep-sixed it (for now).

 

Kris, your comments are spot on.

 

Ford had big plans for Lincoln, but stumbled big time and is now in the process of building back the brand with a new plan on new platforms that will take some time to materialize. If Ford had cancelled the Mercury brand the dealers would have died.

 

For some of the sceptics, I can say that I think Ford has been doing a good job of intelligent differentiation for Mercury. If their data show they are reaching a somewhat different buyer (more female, for instance), and can do it through cost-efficient differentiation, then why not? And if they get a few unique products, then that would also help. Also, Lincoln dealers have spent money sprucing up their facilities, so if they really take their role seriously, the Mercury buyer could have a higher quality purchase and service experience than if they bought the equivalent Ford (this is still spotty I think).

 

Lincoln becoming the dominant volume is going to be a long pull from the bootstraps. The Town Car poisons the brand image but has provided volume. Thankfully, it appears to be going away although it looks like Grand Marquis might be in the showroom for a while. Lincoln has done a good job of differentiation on the interior, but will have to provide more sheet metal differentiation and luxury features from the base platform than it presently does to really break away in volume.

 

So I think Mercury is around for quite some time....

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With the Freestyle on and MetaOne out, that's it for Mercury. Why?

 

1. no crossovers at all for Mercury, other than the tired Mariner (Ford and Lincoln have new ones coming)

2. Lincoln is going downmarket, with little room for Mercury as an upscale Ford

3. No large SUV (Ford and Lincoln have refreshed ones coming)

4. No sportscar (no Cougar on the horizon)

5. No convertible (again, no Cougar)

6. No minivan (RIP Monterey, no Merc version coming)

 

What's left? The tired Mariner, the tired Mountaineer, the extremely tired GrandMa, the ok Montego and Milan (which have nothing but trim differences from Ford and Lincoln versions). Ford's gonna kill it.

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What's left? The tired Mariner, the tired Mountaineer, the extremely tired GrandMa, the ok Montego and Milan (which have nothing but trim differences from Ford and Lincoln versions). Ford's gonna kill it.

 

Mariner refresh for '07, all-new for '08.

 

Mountaineer just got a full makeover with the Explorer.

 

Grand Marquis I'll give you. But it's no more tired than the Crown Vic or Town Car.

 

Montego is new, refresh in another year.

 

Milan is brand new.

 

Your same argument could be applied to killing half of Ford's or Lincoln's lineups too.

 

Fact is, until Lincoln is seeing 300,000 unit volume on its own (not anytime soon), Mercury isn't going anywhere.

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  • 3 months later...

went to licoln dealer to test drive milan with daughter, attached was a mazda dealer......ended up with mazda 6I instead. much for sporty looking for kid. dont know if lincoln dealers picking up mazda s will help lincoln sales. not much to see at lincoln dealer anymore imo. done with navi s now after having 4 of them and seeing the 07 s really sent me out of the buying mode. price tag didnt help either.

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