OT: Ford Announces End of Mercury Brand
As a proud owner of a still-running, beautiful 1985 Mercury Grand Marquis... Sadness.
I think it says a lot about the Mercury brand that I see MANY Grand Marquis' of the same general vintage on pretty much a daily basis out on the road. They're tanks. With veloor couches inside.
I suspect my neighbors, or at least a few people I know, built your Grand Marquis. The Ford plant where they build that vehicle and the Crown Victoria is scheduled to close by 2012 (factory had the best quality, apparently, in North America...)
Probably. It's got a nice green maple leaf sticker on the inside of the door.
Mercury's sales were down year over year for the past few years now and over time it became another example of badge engineering. Ford had to keep Mercury up for as long as they did because their dealers feared that they would lose significant volume because and couldn't sell Lincolns on their own.
However, Ford also did announce that all the people working on Mercury would be resourced to help the Ford and Lincoln brands develop further and also Lincoln is going to get a few new cars to add to their current lineup. If the new Lincolns can compete with the best, this should keep the dealers happy and profitable (hopefully) in the future.
I have always seen commercials for Mercury, Lincoln, and Ford and thought so myself "why are three companies making the same cars?" I can't think of one reason for them to keep the line other than for the name recognition. This move makes complete sense to me. A few years ago I wouldn't even consider buying a ford, but they finally seem to have some solid cars and understand what consumers want. The new Ford Mustang I recently drove was balls to the walls awesome. The 4 or 5 year old Ford 500 my dad has for his company car is absolute crap. Obviously those are two completely separate cars, but even looking at the Taurus now makes the 500 look like a steaming dump. Good move Ford.
Sheesh, man, every car brand my parents ever owned when I was growing up is disappearing. Among the cars my parents drove: an Olds Cutlass Cruiser (and that was my first car too), Pontiac Parisienne, Mercury Mountaineer, Plymouth Voyager, and now my dad has a Sable and my brother has my grandpa's old Bonneville. If it weren't for the Chrysler brand literally nothing would be left.
About fucking time.
The Sloan model is dead. Chrysler is next.
if the GMC brand might be next to go... kinda surprised GM didn't do away with it during the restructuring..