REPORT: Ford To Kill Mercury

[Newf]

I said that about Acura for more then one reason

1. Design, wtf are they thinking lately. The TSX isn't "that bad" but the oder designs on TSX and TL even RL were so much better.

2.. Way too $$$ now to even consider, at least here in Canada, MDX for ie, it's nothing more then a upscale CRV, and it's $$$

3. They are purposely holding back features on Honda's like HID, memory seats, 6speed trannies and AWD so you are forced to go Acura if you want those things when competitors like Mazda 6, Ford Fusion, etc have these as options and the Accord does not.

they way I see it, Acura is doing more damage to the brand I'm more likely to buy between Honda/Acura then good.

 

[PakmanMP5]

i said that about acura for more then one reason

1. Design, wtf are they thinking lately. The tsx isn't "that bad" but the oder designs on tsx and tl even rl were so much better.

2.. Way too $$$ now to even consider, at least here in canada, mdx for ie, it's nothing more then a upscale crv, and it's $$$

3. They are purposely holding back features on honda's like hid, memory seats, 6speed trannies and awd so you are forced to go acura if you want those things when competitors like mazda 6, ford fusion, etc have these as options and the accord does not.

They way i see it, acura is doing more damage to the brand i'm more likely to buy between honda/acura then good.

preach

 

[Olestra]

I said that about Acura for more then one reason

1. Design, wtf are they thinking lately. The TSX isn't "that bad" but the oder designs on TSX and TL even RL were so much better.

2.. Way too $$$ now to even consider, at least here in Canada, MDX for ie, it's nothing more then a upscale CRV, and it's $$$

3. They are purposely holding back features on Honda's like HID, memory seats, 6speed trannies and AWD so you are forced to go Acura if you want those things when competitors like Mazda 6, Ford Fusion, etc have these as options and the Accord does not.

they way I see it, Acura is doing more damage to the brand I'm more likely to buy between Honda/Acura then good.

On #2, yes they are $$$ but you can also get an $8000 rebate on an MDX in the fall.

#3, agreed! It's BS. Our RDX does not have rain sensing wipers/auto headlights. My Mazda3 does...

Funny, you still bought a Honda though.

Back on topic, I think Mercury is useless and this is a smart move by Ford. I wouldn't even know Mercury still existed if I didn't read auto news.
I don't even know where to go if I wanted to buy a Mercury in Canada. Do we still even have it in Canada?

 

[Newf]

On #2, yes they are $$$ but you can also get an $8000 rebate on an MDX in the fall.

#3, agreed! It's BS. Our RDX does not have rain sensing wipers/auto headlights. My Mazda3 does...

Funny, you still bought a Honda though.

I was wondering who was going to say that

woman wanted one. If Mazda ever comes out with another Mazdaspeed 6....she can keep the honda

 

[R-X-R]

thats good. now kill Buick and put some extra effort making current vehicle much better.

 

[prof15]

sorry, not to clarify my rant. I meant their design. I hate it when I see a TL or TSX on the road now. just makes me throw up a little in my mouth.

Oh ok.. yeah that make sense. The new tsx is not really bad, but it could be better. The TL and RL in the other hand..fail

thats good. now kill Buick and put some extra effort making current vehicle much better.

Now that I think about it they can still kill it here in the US and still make it for China and the other markets where it have demand.

 

[Newf]

this just proves how "important" mercury is. Even with a thread stating it's demise, we are all talking about something else

 

[prof15]

wow I never seen this car before..where did it come from? haha lol...

 

[genericuser]

it was a photochop of a marauder.

They should have made a drop top.. it would have been awesome.. the regular marauder was pretty damn cool as it was.

 

[Tungsten6]

Gay.

 

[genericuser]

On the plus side this means we won't have to see the rebirth of the mercury tracer!

 

[prof15]

it was a photochop of a marauder.

They should have made a drop top.. it would have been awesome.. the regular marauder was pretty damn cool as it was.

so USATODAY is using photoshops of mercury for their articles.. fail I guess they are not decent enough as they are to be on their articles. lol...

 

[genericuser]

actually, upon some further research, apparently back in 2002, they did tour the auto shows with a marauder convertible concept.

so that might not actually be a photochop.

 

[tunersteve]

It's official now. End of 2010 Mercury is done. Good riddance!

They're going to expand Lincoln, which is a good move. Maybe Ford will grow slightly as well, and that wouldn't be a bad thing for them. Lincoln is also getting EcoBoost options on every one of their vehicles.

 

[Rogue]

it was a photochop of a marauder.

They should have made a drop top.. it would have been awesome.. the regular marauder was pretty damn cool as it was.

a V6 Accord had a quicker 0-60 than the Marauder...

 

[tunersteve]

a V6 Accord had a quicker 0-60 than the Marauder...

But the Marauder rolls through tha 'hood better. And it takes 24's like a champ.

 

[genericuser]

a V6 Accord had a quicker 0-60 than the Marauder...

I know.. I liked it though

 

[coolmazda5]

Mercury, A Eulogy: Death By Indifference

​

Seven decades after its birth, Mercury is dead. We don't mourn the loss, but we don't rejoice, either. To be honest, we don't feel a thing. Do you care? Does Ford? Does anyone?

Do those questions seem cruel, or silly, or perhaps a little ignorant? Take a moment to remind yourself of what we're dealing with: We are talking here about Mercury, the FoMoCo middle child, Ford's gap-filling brand between brands. It was created to fill a marketing niche, to deliver a product that solved a problem that no one was even sure existed. (Question: When your brand's only remaining sexiness is found in its spokesmodel, isn't it time to throw in the towel?)

For seventy years, Mercury has been defined not by what it is, but by what it is not. The brand and make no mistake, this is a brand and a badge, not a car company in the traditional sense was the brainchild of Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's revered son. In the late 1930s, he worked closely with Bob Gregorie, Ford's first design chief, to design a quasi-marque that would fit between Ford and Lincoln. (Wert once joked that "Mercury was created so Jews in metro Detroit could buy a Ford without actually buying a Ford." Funny or not, the line holds a modicum of truth.) After much deliberation, the project was named after a wing-footed Roman god and messenger. It was thought that the name would represent dependability, speed, and skill.

The car that resulted, the 1939 Mercury Eight, a.k.a. the Super Ford, was one of the most aerodynamic cars of its era. It sported a 95-hp flathead V-8 that made ten horsepower more than the blue oval's Ford-branded unit, and it was one of the most aerodynamic American cars of the era. It was also one of the first cars designed using a full-scale clay model. By the end of '39, over 17,000 cars had rolled off of Ford's assembly lines. Ten years later, the iconic, bathtub-shaped '49 Mercury coupe arrived; when James Dean drove one in the 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause, he helped create the brand's one true, capital-M, pop-culture Moment.

​

Contrast that car the very definition of rebellious 1950s cool, and a seemingly indelible, unkillable image with the last unique Mercury, the last car the brand sold here that wasn't a rebadged, home-market Ford: the 1999-2002 Cougar coupe. The Cougar was based on the Contour/Mondeo platform and rumored to have only ended up as a Mercury because Ford dealers felt that it was positioned too close to the Focus. It was noisy, rough, cheap, and suffered from piss-poor build quality. The first Cougar, introduced in the late 1960s, was a goofier-looking, plusher Ford Mustang. The last was an afterthought of a sports coupe that reminded you of a Toyota Celica in heavy makeup. Save the badge-swapping bit, there's almost no connection between the two. They could have come from completely different companies.

The presentation didn't help. Slogans like "imagine yourself in a Mercury" and "more of everything you want" imply a staggering amount of vagueness and indifference, as if Ford didn't know what the cars were supposed to be. The model names chosen, things like Sportsman, Monterey, Voyager, and Sun Valley, are all over the map. As a result, Mercurys became something people bought without planning. You didn't necessarily need a Merc, but with few exceptions, you didn't lust after one, either. You just kind of ended up there.

It wasn't all bad. The brand went through several strong periods, but the moments we remember, like Parnelli Jones racing a Marauder up Pikes Peak in 1965 or the NASCAR Marauders, were happy accidents. Cars like the Commuter Wagon (a pillarless, four-door station wagon) and the Turnpike Cruiser (a fat, ugly '50s highway barge) just seemed like desperate, stabbing attempts at providing the brand with something different just for the sake of being different. For decades, Mercury seemed like the place where Ford's weird ideas and half-starts went to die, or maybe just be ignored.

The Toyota/Lexus model a brand for normal people, a brand for people with more money, and nothing else has proven to be the most efficient and profitable approach to car building, but it also provides a lesson in the nuances of platform sharing: If you're going to try to sell different versions of the same car, you need to make people feel like they're actually buying something different, something real. Something aimed at a human being, not a demographic hole.

At the same time, you have to offer something specific, something that the average consumer views as unique. Mercury currently sells nothing but thinly disguised Ford products, cars tarted up and filled out with what appear to be option and trim packages and little else. The current lineup is a bland assemblage of vehicles that says nothing to no one: Milan, a massaged Fusion. Mariner, a massaged Escape. Mountaineer, a massaged Explorer. The Grand Marquis, the last non-fleet iteration of Ford's storied Panther platform. None of them have a base price over $30,000, and all feel like little more than optioned-out versions of the Fords from which they sprung. (This is a flip of the problem from the brand's '50s/'60s golden era, when its cars were luxurious enough to butt up against Lincoln's territory.) Put most people behind the wheel and slap a blindfold over their heads, and they probably won't be able to tell the two brands apart.

In the end, there is good here. Mercury's death is a reassuring repudiation of both badge engineering and platform prostitution. The statistics, too, are encouraging the brand's current market penetration is a staggeringly low 0.8 percent, which shows that the American consumer is not wholly stupid. It offers hope, and it suggests that carmakers can no longer expect to play cut-and-paste with badges and reap benefits.

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Mercury is dead. Forgive us if we don't shed any tears.



[Jalopnik]

 

[mikeyb]

With Mercury now being put out to pasture Ford can build up the Lincoln brand.

 

[Outlawstar98]

Good, never liked anything they put out.

My mom is planing on buying a Lincoln MKZ, they are awesome cars.