Insiders say Mercury closed by 2014
 

BREAKING: Insiders say Mercury closed by 2014

In a way, it's surprising it lasted as long as it did. I think all of their cars are re-badged Fords now anyway.

For as long as I can remember (15-20 years), Mercuries have been just rebadged versions of Fords, optioned with higher trim packages and sold for about the same price. That's a pretty inexpensive way to run a car division, but evidently, also a somewhat pointless one.

I'll miss seeing the wider variety of nameplates on the road, but oh well.

It's about time. Say what you will about the dead GM brands, they all had some unique cars and unique versions of each badged engineered car.

Mercs literally just rebadged Ford for decades, since the 80s I think.

jkp1187 -

I remember reading that Ford was trying to do this years ago, but the Mercury dealers threatened to sue, so they backed off. I definitely agree with the article when it says 2012 instead of 2014. Whenever I have seen a date on a shutdown plan, it's usually sooner than that.

CarloSW2

What could the dealers actually sue for? All FoMoCo would have to do is not approve of new contracts for dealerships when it comes time to renew, and there's little they could do. It would be dirty, but effective.

texanidiot25 -

I think the Ford signs contracts with dealers where it agrees to deliver "X amount of product Y". If Ford stops making Mercuries, it would be in breach of contract.

When GM was in bankruptcy, it was a lot easier to get rid of Hummer/Pontiac/Saturn because they were protected.

But I don't have the legaleze correct. There are people that can explain it better than me.

CarloSW2

Huh? Thought they'd done that years ago.

I remember it definitely cost GM billions to shut down Oldsmobile at the beginning of the decade, exactly because of those requirements. There are also some very tortuous laws in some states designed to protect franchise owners at the expense of the 'mother' company.

Moon Unit will be orphaned?!? :(

Moon Unit won't be orphaned, he can play with his Taurus brothers and sisters freely now. No "Mercury's only" signs anymore. ;D

Good riddance. This will save ford some money on advertising.

So I shouldn't put Mercury on my list? :D

Or maybe you should -- the Mercury Milan is a nice car. And you might be able to get some fire-sale prices :D

I like my Mercury Villager quite well. Funny thing is, it's not a rebadged Ford, but a rebadged Nissan with extra goodies; kind of the Cadillac of the Nissan Quest.

Never could understand why companies would homogenize their products so much. I've never owned a Saturn, but I always thought it was cool how they were nothing like other GM cars.

L-series was an Opel, and their smaller ones shared drivetrains with a few other GM compacts.

Also, it's cheap to platform share. The days of companies truly competing against each other in their respective groups are gone. GM says "You have this platform, these engines, and this goal", and it goes from there. Back in the day though, there was always great competition with in GM to one-up the other brand. Buick vs. Olds vs. Cadillac, or Pontiac vs. Chevy, as well as GMC Trucks and Chevy trucks (up until the 70s, both has widely different drive train options).

This of course, costs lots of money to develop each brand's unique items.

That was my thought too, but I'm more in tune with GM rebadging than Ford.

I guess I don't see the extra massive cost of having more brands when just rebadging. Seems like it would be a way to give a wider range of customers what they want with very little added cost.

mercury was supposed to be a cheaper version of the ford, no rebadging.
Now that ford has been cheap for a long time..why have an even chepaer mercury. :rolleyes:

I am disappointed in the crown vic and marquis going away. Thery had one more engineering feat to conquer, and that was half shafts and independent rear. they finally got a strong steering rack in 2003, the p71 car has been welded everywhere all my cars fail like little kids in an adult world...
it is a real shame. My country: almost a winner, then kill yourself.
:confused:

bgd73 -

I think it's the other way around. Mercury was supposed to be the luxury division that added goodies and co$t more than Fords.

CarloSW2

yeah mercury was supposed to be like Buick, ie the poor mans Cadillac. And there are a few little things on the Villager that set it apart from the quest. It's a shame the quest wasn't a more popular rig, there's a lot of ingenutiy built into it. Of course it weighs in at 2 tons and has a 150 hp 3 L which paled in comparison to the Voyager and the GM minivans of the time; both had more power, less weight, and more recognition. And to be quite honest, the 3 L used in the Villager is a bit old school, and the EPA listed economy isn't all that great; chock it up to a low geared tranny. But it is quite reliable, and the engine has been around in one form or another since the early 80s so if I wanted to I could turbo the thing cheaply using parts from other Nissan VQ30 engines.

One thing I like is that ford insisted on making the oil filter easier to get to and making the engine non-interference in case of a timing belt break. sounds like a great idea to me :D

Looks like it is now official -- the Ford Bd. of Directors voted to kill Mercury today.

Ford kills off Mercury brand to focus product line - MarketWatch

But they are diverting the money and resources into Lincoln.

Even if they knew they were going to have to do it, it was probably better for them to wait until now to kill the brand -- if they'd done it last year, they would've been easily lumped in with GM and Chrysler.

I have to admit a bit of pride in Ford for not accepting welfare from the gov't. Makes me respect them more than government motors and nopar.

As much as I might miss the Mercury brand in coming years, at least Fords aren't as low on the scale as a chevy IMO

Makes me think of when GM killed the Caprice. It seemed they had the market for cop cars and taxis, everywhere you looked.

I've always been a GM guy but same here, I have respect for Ford for not taking the bailout.

No, Frank Zappa may be gone but I think Moon's mom is still alive. ;)

In other planetary automotive news: Our Galaxy is long gone, both the Comet and the Meteor have evaporated, Vega and the Pulsar (no longer stellar) are burned out, Saturn recently has died out, Mercury to follow. (Full story at 11. <LOL>)

Cressida (a moon of Uranus) also fell out of circulation.

We can still see an occasional Eclipse, however.

I'm waiting for someone to do Uranus. (I might be tempted to buy one, based on the name alone.) And if they ever make a Pluto, the no-frills model would have to be named the Goofy. :rolleyes:

I think dumping Merc is a smart move, and yet I'll kinda miss it.

Take Moon Unit for example. The differences between it and the Taurus, styling-wise, are so small as to make the whole effort a colossal waste of time and money. Same thing with the Tempo/Topaz- the unlit "light bar" across the front of the Spaz being the only real difference :rolleyes: So back in the day they surely didn't put enough effort into differentiating the Mercs from the Fords.

But recently, I think the Merc designs have been fresh and nicely differentiated from the Fords.

Isn't that how it always goes- they put in a great effort right before killing it off (think Fiero, the whole Pontiac division, etc.)

P.S. Moon Unit got it's name because if it was jacked up with mudders it looks like it would make a great lunar rover.

It's probably the phenomenon of "one last push to see if we can get it to work, that way no one can say we didn't try."

I just hope Ford doesn't take a huge bath on closing franchises the way GM did with Oldsmobile. Of course, there probably aren't many (any?) solo-Mercury dealerships (though I know of a Lincoln/Mercury but not Ford dealer in Pittsburgh,) so maybe that'll make it easier for them. (Don't know the particulars of how to shut down franchises.)