Mercury “Superb” anyone ?

And the car looked different, with form following function. The old custom car builders did a thing where they dropped the body down over the frame rails and the 1949-’51 Mercury had a bit of that for better handling. Those were the cars known by auctioneers everywhere these days, as “the James Dean car,” since he drove a Mercury of that vintage in the seminal teen angst movie, “Rebel without a Cause.”

Mercury got the idea from the late, great marque of Hudson, who dropped the body so far over the rails, it ensured that Hudson dominated the first few years of NASCAR, back when stock car racing was really just that.

For Mercury to come back, it would have to somehow divorce itself from being something that middle-aged (or older) white people drive instead of a Buick. Mercury tried that with the most recent Marauder and it failed. Given how far back you have to go to remember when Mercury was anyone’s idea of a performance car – the days of the original Cougar perhaps, when it was a fairly successful race car in the Trans Am – the task is so Herculean as to be almost impossible.

But the truth is they feel cheaper because they ARE cheaper.

It’s like that old joke, “Do these pants make my but look big? Whadya mean ‘Look big’? It is big”. (Or something like that).

Dynamic: I don’t think the Euro-Fords should (can) replace Ford’s lineup because they’re too small, too expensive to make, and WAY too light on the beancounting. These cars are better off on a small-time brand with narrower sales aspirations.

Think WalMart vs. Target. Or WalMart vs. Pier 1 Imports.

Agreed. I was only suggesting selling Euro Fords instead of US Fords.

Thanks, Sajeev, for putting in an article much of what many of us constantly have to put in forum posts. The bulk answers to the whole gaggle of predictable Euro Ford queries are:

1. It’s not as simple as people think.

2. America has blown off Euro Fords previously.

The logic of making Mercury a division for trickling these cars over here-even to test-market them-has been a screaming point for myself and others for years. Mercuries are SUPPOSED to cost more than Fords, and are even marketed toward a young, hipper crowd than Ford/Chevy/Dodge plays to. These are the people that truly associate imports with pseudo-elitism, and see that most domestics are either too “blue collar” or are cursed by the ongoing (and essentially obsolete) perception of “domestic inferiority”.

As Lincoln moves upmarket-and it must, soon-Mercury becomes possibly the most exciting division of Ford North America. We know Alan Mullaly wants to bring in some of the Euro Fords, and we also know that mainstream buyers don’t crave these kinds of drivers’ cars like enthusiasts do.

Fine. Bring ‘em as Mercuries, in smaller allotments and without having to do massive retooling and investment that requires 500,000 units/year to break even. The dealerships are proven, and there’s about to be a large gap between the back-to-the-basics Fords and the forthcoming Lincolns.

Well put. And the Euro-Fords aren’t gonna appeal to boomers, they’re gonna appeal to GEN X and Y folks who are trained to buy imports.

The conflict of interest between the old perception of Mercury and its potential with a new era of import-minded buyers isn’t very strong. (IMO)

But since Ford doesn’t really have an immage either -excpet to the extent it’s seen as crap, why not just do this with Ford and jettison the LM division.

Trying to sell the Euro Fords with regular Fords is just as stupid as selling Merkurs (as mentioned in the article) with Sables and Cougars.

That lineup needs a separate brand to ensure its success, or it shall fail like all the others. And Mercury is an unknown quantity waiting for a real product lineup to go with.

Yes and no. To boomers, and anyone older, we know that it’s suppossed to be an upscale Ford. Time was (in the 50s and maybe 60s) it was different enough to actually make one thing he had moved up by getting a Merc. Today, Mercury is to Ford as Dodge and Plymouth were to each other. Though, Merc still goes to the trouble of changing the grill and coming up with a separate model name – usually something starting with the letter M.

For younger people, I agree that there is basically no brand image at all. No problem then, forming a new image where none exists, or it’s only a shadow of it’s former self.

But since Ford doesn’t really have an immage either -excpet to the extent it’s seen as crap, why not just do this with Ford and jettison the LM division.

Sounds good. But who besides car enthusiasts knows that? Considering I know several non-car people (GEN X) who think Toyota owns the popular Infiniti brand, they have about zero knowledge of who makes a Mercury, much less what it stands for. When I tell them that I own a Mercury, they look at me funny…like I just spoke a different language they can’t comprehend.

Times have changed: Mercury isn’t doomed to mess up its transplants…its completely doomed no matter what it does.

There’s only one hope for rejuvenation. And being an unknown quantity is both a good and bad thing.

Sure it does, Mercury is slightly nicer Fords for the person who wants something like a Ford offering a lot of vehicle for the money but a touch different and upscale. Every time Ford tries to make Mercury into something else it is a disaster.

The recent attempt to make it the Ford brand for women is a complete dud as that branding exists only in the minds of a handful of FoMoCo highly paid experts.

In any case, there is no way on this earth for Mercury to be reasonably spun into Ford’s European Brand in the US. As far as going after VW’s throat, the Japanese are already all over that one.

Nino –

Aaron

The Aura is based on the same platform as the Pontiac G6 and is built here.

The new Vue is also built here, so neither one of them are imported. I believe that the new Vue and the Sky are EXPORTED to Europe.

As much as I like the Euro-Fords, IMO when the same (few)models get over to the states, they usually lose something in translation. The first gen Euro Focus hatch looked much sportier than what we got in here. The suspension looks jacked up, lack of any subtle styling.
A notable exception to this impression were the Merkur from the ’80’s. They took those straight off the Autobahn and plopped them state-side!

All the more reason for a cohesive brand strategy with transplants across the board.

Yeah, I know, when pigs fly. :)

The problem for Mercury is that its product line seems to exist as a low-cost way of keeping Lincoln dealers alive. Lincoln being a more expensive product and not exactly setting the sales charts on fire, the Lincoln dealer network’s survival would be in serious jeopardy without Mercury. I’m not sure if Ford is in a position to jettison both divisions (although to some extent it would seem like no great loss).

No question it will take a long time to get the brand developed, but Mercury is starting from scratch in my book.

A-M-E-N.

Bring it on!

Brand image in the customer’s mind takes decades to develop and even longer to change. Maybe your idea would work on Fantasy Island :).

This time: no other choices, no wiggle room.

That’s how you do it.

It’ll take a bit of a mindshift on Mercury to implement Sajeev’s plan. Maybe enough so that it would be better to start with another name/brand altogether.