Junkyard Find: 2011 Mercury Mariner, Last Gasp of the Mercury Brand Edition
Ever since I found one of the very last Oldsmobiles in a Denver car graveyard, I’ve been keeping my junkyard eye open for other final-year-of-marque Detroit machinery. We’ve got the 1998 Eagle, the 2001 Plymouth, and the 2010 Pontiac, and now it’s time for one of the very last vehicles to wear the Mercury badge: this 2011 Mariner Premier.
Ford announced the demise of the Mercury brand in June of 2010, and the Milan, Grandma Keith Grand Marquis, and Mariner staggered on long enough for a few of these cars to get 2011 model year designations.
The Wikipedia entry for the Mariner states that the final Mariner came off the Kansas City line in October of 2010, but this truck’s build tag shows a December assembly date. Some Grandma Keiths were built during early 2011, and I’ll keep looking for one of those.
This Mariner appears to have suffered some sort of front-end collision, followed by an especially brutal front-body-and-engine removal after it arrived at the junkyard. Normally, I wouldn’t photograph a junkyard vehicle this torn up (which is why you don’t see the WRXs and Evos that I find every so often in Denver yards), but ’11 Mercuries are nearly impossible to find.
The Premier was the upscale trim level of the Mariner, itself an upscale version of the Ford Escape. After 72 years of the Mercury brand, it came down to this. I’ll find a 2010 Saturn and a 1997 Geo next, if anyone cares.
Don’t forget the 6-disc CD changer and satellite radio!
Back in the 1960s, when men sloshed on Studd Cologne and made women weep, Mercury was pitched as “the man’s car.” By the middle 2000s, Dearborn wanted some of the ladies’ money, so Mercury ads targeted women.
For links to 2,000+ additional Junkyard Finds, check out the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Put 220K miles on a '05 Ford Escape 4WD while living in upstate NY. Only issue was sway bar came loose twice and front rotors would warp every 90k miles. Had the 6 disc CD player blasting while buzzing the NY Thruway. Traded it in due to the tin worm and busted A/C. Replaced with '12 Escape which has had more niggling issues, but will hold on to it. None of the new cars have CD players for my 3ft stack of CDs.
Flex fuel badging meant that thing had the Duratec 30. I can see why someone was anxious to yank it out of the engine bay, they last forever. My parents have a 2011 Escape and I have a 16. Yes the interior is nicer in mine but I don’t see it lasting as long as this older gen