The Detroit News is reporting that Ford has called a press conference on “brand and product strategy” for later today. It is widely believed that The Blue Oval will use the conference to announce the wind-down of its Mercury brand. Fresh updates as they occur...
UPDATE: The WSJ [sub] confirms that Ford’s board made the decision to axe Mercury. According to their sources, Ford “hopes to merge many of those dealers with existing Ford dealerships or shut them.”
UPDATE: Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports from the press conference, quoting Ford’s Mark Fields as saying
Given our improving financial situation, it really allows us to absorb the short-term cost of discontinuing Mercury… We’re very proud of Mercury’s history, but we’re now looking forward.
CNN Money confirms that the death of Mercury will mean more vehicles for Lincoln, as it paraphrases Ford’s Derrick Kuzack as saying:
Over the next several years, Lincoln will get seven all-new or drastically changed vehicles
And if rumors of the small Euro-Mercury getting a Lincoln badge instead is true, get your barf bags handy.
Ford Axing Mercury? About time they did something right.
Now keep the momentum going and ax Lincoln as well…after all, Lincoln has even worse sales than Mercury…
And while they’re at it, ax the Ford brand. Wait. Never mind.
With the mediocre appliances Ford has come out with in the past 5 years…that may not be a bad idea.
You need to go back on your meds, Silvy. Those “mediocre products” are increasingly eating Gov’t Motors’ lunch!
Who outsold who last month?
And what other automaker shared the same fleet percentage as Ford of 37%
Fleet sales of GM’s four core brands rose 44 percent compared to a year earlier, representing about 38 percent of the automaker’s total volume.
Ford’s fleet sales, meanwhile, climbed 32 percent last month thanks to increased sales of trucks to commercial customers.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100602/AUTO01/6020390/1148/auto01/Chrysler+sales+up+33++for+May++Ford++GM+rise+23+++16.6+#ixzz0pkgiUCW2
Certainly let’s compare!
The Mustang trounced the Camaro.
The F-Series continued to reign over the Gov’t Motors truck line (Chevy and GMC combined).
Focus outsold Cobalt yet again.
Fusion beat the Malibomb.
Besides, Ford is the automaker with momentum right now, with the Fiesta launch and upcoming new Focus. It also has a clearer vision — finally — for what Lincoln should be, versus Cadillac’s seeming death spiral.
What does Gov’t Motors have coming? The Cru-Z-Woo… and the looming battery-fire-in-your-garage that is the Volt.
One thing I’ve noticed over several years now is that while Ford managed to secure the lincoln.com domain (they had been using lincolnvehicles.com), they never seemed to put much effort into obtaining the mercury.com domain from Hewlett-Packard. To me, that was a sign of doom going back at least a couple of years.
Back when the Big 3 dominated the industry, there was room in the market for a dressed up Ford. Those days are long gone, time for Mercury to go. I’ll bet most people won’t even notice that they’re gone.
+1 Correct. I do miss Oldsmobile but after decades of “platform sharing” I realize that an LTZ trim package Chevy with leather is likely about as good as GM would be doing with Oldsmobile if it was still around. If I was really going to buy a Mercury Milan for example, I’d be just as happy with a loaded Fusion.
mercury died when they killed to rwd cougar and the grand marquis
Funny you should mention that, the second best kept secret in the industry, they still make the Grand Marquis. The first best kept secret of course is they still make the Town Car.
Both are only secrets to people who rarely frequent taxis.
i stand corrected and it says all that needs to be said about the secondary brands of ford
If GM could kill Pontiac which has 100,000′s of sales, what’s taking so long with Lincoln and Mercury?
Mercury was a dead brand walking at least since that Sean Penn movie with the same title came out in 1995.
441Zuke may be wrong about Grand Marquis, but right after the failure of the 1996 Taurus/Sable, the 1997 decision to ax Thunderbird, Cougar and Probe led to Mercury’s doom. Remember that this was a time when Ford boosted investment in big trucks, almost none of which got the Mercury label. Then there was Premier Auto Group and Mazda, plus all the other digital businesses Jacques Nasser was buying when he took over as CEO.
Talk about ADD! Mercury suffered from all of the above. Nasser supposedly wanted to kill Mercury, but the Ford family prevailed. Their stay of execution seemed justified after GM shelled out billions to dealers to shutter Oldsmobile. Then Nasser got canned and the heat was off Mercury for awhile.
Mullally has no emotional ties to dear old Edsel I. When 10-year sales numbers go from 400K to under 100K and less than 1% market share, plus the brand has no cache with non-AARP buyers, what other business decision is there to make?
(AP) DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. will announce Wednesday that it plans to kill its 72-year-old Mercury brand, according to two people briefed on the decision.
The automaker (NYSE) plans to add models to the Lincoln lineup to give dealers more products to sell, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the official announcement has not been made.
Ford has scheduled a conference call with dealers and a news conference for late Wednesday afternoon. The company said in a statement that the conference would be an important product and brand discussion.
Mercury, which sells the Milan midsize car and Mariner midsize sport utility vehicle, has been suffering for years from a lack of new products and advertising support from Ford.
Its sales peaked in 1978 at more than 580,000 vehicles but just over 92,000 Mercurys were sold last year.
So far this year, the Mercury brand has captured less than 1 per cent of the U.S. market, while the Ford brand has 15 per cent.
The decision to “give Lincoln more product” obviously means that Ford is managing the dealer wind down, cautiously trying to avoid big lawsuits that could stymie their current momentum.
As I mentioned in a previous thread, combining Lincoln into existing Ford dealers would make more sense, like in Canada.
Stand-alone Lincoln stores sound unviable.
I agree about Lincoln. My guess is that they’ll get Ford product to sell if they want it.
Now what’s ol’ Alan Jackson going to sing about???
Lord, she’s crazy about a… a… a…
…a Ford Truck
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2yXWFgxES4&NR=1
Has the Mercury Girl given her opinion of this news?
Sad news, but only becuase I remember how differentiated Mercurys were in my youth. With what they are today, I guess it’s overdue.
The Mercurys of the Steve McGarret era were some good-looking cars. They still hold up well today.
Mercury is officially dead. Lincoln will get the Merc Focus. Time to resurrect the “Versailles” nameplate?
MKV for the win.
How about “Small Town Car”?
jdizzle
FUNNY!
Sanjeev is probably right, but your’s is really funny.
@jdizzle:
They can call it a Villager! Oh wait…
They would sell a lot of Villagers to families because we all know that it takes a Villager to raise a child.
My 1st ride was a 1972 Mercury Cougar XR-7 with a transplanted 351CJ. One day I went to pass another car, and trompped it. All4 ventri valves suck open, and at 80 MPH, both wheels spun – as I passed the other car.
I was so surprised and frighted I pulled over and turned off the car. The other driver caught and looked at me like I was out of my mind. That engine ate 3 FMX trannys, I donated the car to my brother when I went off to college.
It was over decade old when I got, and must have been near 20 when it was retired. I sure miss it (but not on black ice).
Bye Mercury, you will be missed more than just me.
The first Mercury I remember was my dad’s 1965 Montclair with a breezeway window. He bought it from a friend in 1969, after throwing in the towel on schlepping a family of five around in a trusty old VW beetle. It was unstoppable, fast, and would probably still be around had the body not rusted right off the frame.
This shouldn’t be this big of news…we have known about this for a long time.
Remember when Ford announced that they are (foolishly) killing the Panthers? Well…without the Grand Marquis, there is no Mercury.
For the first time in history, you have made a relevant point. The Grand Marquis (And for a short period, the Mountaineer) was the only thing keeping Mercury alive in the last decade.
Mixed feelings – I liked Mercury in theory, just like I liked Pontiac and Saturn in theory. Still, neither myself nor anyone I know ever bought or owned a Mercury. Guys in my family tend to drive pickups, and the women in my family, which it seems like have been Mercury’s target demographic of late, would just get a random Asian sedan. This makes excellent business sense, although it seems to exacerbate the blurring of Ford and Lincoln we are seeing (i.e. Taurus and Lincoln’s similarly optionable sedan whose alphanumeric I actually can’t remember and refuse to look up on principle).
As sad as I am to hear that they have officially declared their intent to discontinue the Mercury brand, they should have done it earlier, back when the brand still had some dignity, instead of letting it die a slow, painful, unforgettable death.
On a side note, they should have Jill Wagner do the Ford and Lincoln commercials. Don’t toss her aside. ;)
In general, dropping Mercury makes sense. But our local L-M dealer has a good reputation, while I know more than a few people who intensely dislike our local Ford store. Hope Ford doesn’t transfer the Lincoln franchise to them.
I’ll take your Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer and raise you a Mercury.
Chrysler it’s your play, do you wish to call or raise?
Over the years, Chrysler has already shut down DeSoto, Imperial, Eagle (which had been AMC before Chrysler bought that company) and Plymouth. I don’t think it has much left to put in the game.
In terms of North American brands under management, they still lead the way (tied with GM).
4 Chrysler
4 GM
3 Toyota
2 BMW
2 Daimler
2 Ford
2 Honda
2 Hyundai
2 Jaguar Land Rover
2 Nissan
2 VW
1 Mazda
1 Mitsubishi
1 Porsche
1 Subaru
1 Suzuki
Make that six brands for Chrysler once Fiat and Alfa arrive (as announced by Marchionne).
Imperial wasn’t a full fledged brand. It did not have it’s own dealer network. So Chrysler has shut down 2 longstanding brands (DeSoto and Plymouth) and one short time brand (Eagle) which was a bridge between AMC/Jeep and Chrysler’s takeover of Jeep.
Fiat and Alfa will not be managed by Chrysler at all. They may provide a sales channel but they will have no authority over the brands so they can’t be counted as part of Chrysler’s responsibility. Toyota had more responsibility over Chevy Cavaliers sold in Japan since they had the Toyota brand on them than Chrysler will for Fiat and Alfa.
Chrysler registered Imperial as a separate make for the 1955 model year. It treated Imperial as a marque separate from Chrysler through 1970. The public, however, literally didn’t buy it, as the car was regularly referred to as the Chrysler Imperial.
@th009 Or will it be 8 brands under Fiat (including Ferrari and Maserati)?
Go ahead and get rid of Mercury, but let’s make sure we keep Jill Wagner!!
+1; got that right.
The only problem is that Mercury sales have fallen by 50% since she became the Mercury Girl in 2005.
I suspect it might have been worse without her.
Or maybe bring back Kate Jackson? (which might justify resurrecting the Cougar???)
Yeah, really, what’s left to shed? Fiat has few choices. They can either keep Jeep or sell it, revitalize Dodge and Chrysler if they can, or shut ‘em down if they can’t. If the latter happens, I seriously doubt there will be another round of Fed cash forthcoming.
Jill?
Noooooooooooooooooooo!
Sure, everyone agrees she’s hot, but who among us bought a new Mercury?
Keeping Lincoln makes sense if they upgrade the product and the dealership experience along with it. There are lots of profit dollars to be made selling relatively few vehicles to those who are willing to pay for something a cut above.
Toyota needs Lexus.
Nissan need Infiniti.
Honda needs to FIX Acura.
Ford needs Lincoln to maximize the return on platform investments.
Mercury, on the other hand, lives in a no man’s land with Buick, Saab and other “near luxury” pretender brands. As mainstream vehicles have pushed their feature and style content upwards and traditional luxury brands have extended their lines downwards, there really isn’t a home for stuck-in-the-middle brands.
RIP Mercury, you were mistreated as a child and ignored as an adult. Rest in peace for sure.
John…
What has happened at Honda!??
The designs coming from that company recently have really got me to worrying.
And your right about these companies needing the second tier for extended sales of chassis and such.
What bewilders me is how many on TTAC bash Ford for this platform sharing, yet are blind to how much it is done.
It’s such commonplace, it’s silly to read when it is realized.
Not only within a company like Lincoln and Ford, but between competing companies as well.
Ford shares with Fiat.
Hell, they ALL share, or they die.
The cost is to high not to.
Let’s hope Ford awakens and dumps the Taurus SHO and replaces it with the Fusion SHO.
Just let the Taurus be the Avalon fighter and NOT more.
I think you are wrong about Buick, however.
I think we are going to see a revival here.
Chevy will be the blue collar car, Caddy the performance…and Buick the tweener.
Part blue collar, part performance.
Between both.
Not sure if it will work, but that’s what is happening.
More than likely we will end up with another Mercury here, IF they cannot keep then distinct enough.
Buick will have to hold a solid pricing slot between Chevrolet and Cad.
If not, IF this becomes muddled like Ford/Mercury?Lincoln is now it’s over.
The trouble is the dealerships keep looking at what colors the others have and start demanding their own…and the whole thing ends up looking like muddy water.
That’s a nice eulogy, John. It sums up Mercury’s lot in the marketplace perfectly.
Always the odd traditionalist, I will miss Mercury. Why??? Well, for several reasons. My extended family on my mom’s side are Ford people, and there have been and still are, many Mercury’s in the family. As a kid my grandparents and aunts and uncles owned several Cougars, later replaced with Grand Marquis, Sables and a Montego. My first car lot job at 21 was at Sesi Lincoln-Mercury of Ypsilanti, MI, a rather large and successful store. I