Mercury could be facing the Axe

[Prius]

It is rumored that Mercury could be getting the Axe from Ford. From what I see, Alan Mulally is taking a similar approach to what Carlos Ghosn did to Nissan, and is trying to bring them back by cutting away all of Ford's unprofitible branches, instead of the traditional thing of closing plants and laying off employees. Apparently he is thinking of getting rid of Mercury as a part of that. He has already sold Aston Martin.

According to here, Mercury dealers are only selling 6 vehicles a month.

And here is where I got the rumor about Alan Mulally cutting Mercury
http://today.reuters.com/news/articl...&from=business

[Pando]

Less than an hour ago, on UCP:

I think I'll stick to making comments instead of threads.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

In all fairness, this one is quite relevant...

And it's a bit of a shame, but they're all the same cars underneath. So... meh... maybe if they just shoved the Marauder into Ford's lineup as a Crown Vic GT or something, then they could easily do away with Mercury.

When all is said and done, what's the point in having so many offshoots selling the same cars? Mercurys are just Fords at higher prices. They used to be individual, and even trendsetting- the Monterey was an exceptional car for the time, and the Cougar was one mad little pony car.

[Prius]

Mercury is reminding me A LOT of Plymouth and Oldsmobile. They were big back in the day with their peformance cars, but now, those are gone, and now all they have left is a bunch of badge-engineered crap. The new Fords are pretty much the same on price and equipment. The only difference that Mercury has is the badge and the grille. And with al the market overlap with Ford, I can see Mercury joining Oldsmobile and Plymouth in the scrapheap. There is too much market overlap, and Mercury's doing nothing but losing money, so maybe it is time for them to say goodbye.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

Even back in the '70s badge engineering was around... IIRC, the Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda were the same car chassis-wise... though I'm not 100% on that.

Individuality is no bad thing, but couple that with a lack of charisma and you've got something that's dead in the water.

[Prius]

Pretty much. But that is the thing, badge engineering it fine, as long as the changes are more than just taillights and grille, and the cars are aimed at different markets. Oldsmobile, Eagle, and Plymouth are all examples of badge engineering gone completely awry. Hell, with the Neon, Chrysler didn't even car to change teh name! They sold it as the Dodge and Plymouth neon. THis is what I think Chrysler should have done:

Never created the Eagle brand. instead, the Talon/Premeir should have been branded as Dodges.

They should have marketed Dodge like they Did Eagle, base it strictly on peformance. Their marketing of Dodge focusing on innovation only made matters worst for Plymouth.

THe Neon should have been a Plymouth model only.

THe Prowler shouldn't have been made. It only added to the confusion. It was a nice car, but it just confused people even more.

Plymouth should have gotten an LH car.

Plymouth should have been marketed like Dodge, focusing on value and innovation.

Well, I guess I have been rambling on abotu nothing. But I see a striking resemblance between Mercury now and Plymouth jusst before it was axed. Ford and Mercury nnow are so simmilar, that now the only thing people are paying for now when buying a Mercury is the badge.

[IWantAnAudiRS6]

I like it as just Dodge and Chrysler, to be honest. Plymouth added confusion and little new to the mix. I always thought Eagle was designed as a more luxurious brand for the modern person, too. But there we are.

I hope Buick hang in there. I have a strange liking for the Park Avenua Ultra- the 2003 model.

I couldn't give a toss about Mercury, though. And the sooner Lincoln dies, the better.

[092326001]

Mercury was a really nice brand
However, after the Marauder was killed off, there's nothing that intrests me anymore. Mercury is just deadweight right now.
But Mercury cars have always been nice. I like the Grand Marquis/Marauder quite a bit. But Ford should just modify the Mercury models into their current line up.

[fpv_gtho]

Even back in the '70s badge engineering was around... IIRC, the Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda were the same car chassis-wise... though I'm not 100% on that.

Well do you call that badge engineering, or platform sharing? Badge engineering i thought was exactly that, just new badges. Years ago we had a scheme here in Australia where all the manufacturers producing locally started badge engineering each others cars. We had Corolla's and Camry's with Holden badges, Commodore's with Toyota badges, Falcon ute's with Nissan badges and Patrol's with Ford badges.

Platform sharing seems to be the next step after that, ala Chrysler 300C, Dodge Charger/Magnum.

[092326001]

The Dodge Charger needs to die.
It's too hideous to live.

[The_Canuck]

The Dodge Charger needs to die.
It's too hideous to live.

Meh, just wait for the challenger...

[Timothy (in VA)]

Personally, I hope this rumor turns out to be false. But you probably expect me to say that . I recall this rumor being around years ago, even before Plymouth bit the dust, and Mercury's still here. It seems to me that it could still be possible to save Mercury, but that would require a complete overhaul of their lineup. I think Mercury should concentrate more on performance and less on luxury; leave that to Lincoln.

Unfortunately, it's been years since Mercury has turned out any product truly worth getting excited about (the Marauder is an exception). The brand may have sunk too low for Ford to consider it being worth saving, especially considering Ford's current financial state.

[jcp123]

They've been saying this for years, and some of the reasons may even be true, I don't know...but being the nostalgic type that I am, I hope they don't, and hope they bring Oldsmobile back as well. Oldsmobile, until the 60's, had a lock on the same type of customer that BMW has now; it was GM's forward-thinking, near-luxury brand, and it seems to me it would only be right for Olds to have been the brand to head up the fight against them. Things like power steering and automatic transmissions were "beta tested" on Oldsmobiles before they went on other brands, even Cadillacs! Plymouth...they have a good, storied history and I wish they hadn't killed it, though I must agree I'm not sure where it fits into the Chrysler Dodge structure. Perhaps it'd be a good outlet for el-strippo model Dodges and Chryslers? That's more or less what it was before they sexied it up in the 60's as a performance brand...

[Zytek_Fan]

Well, the Mercury brand hasn't been all that popular in the past few years, especially if all the Mercury models are an exact copy of Ford models.

Just wait till they axe Lincoln

[kingofthering]

They won't axe Lincoln, it's undergoing a revival.