The Mercury Sable and Ford Taurus assembly line in Chicago in 2007. (Chicago Tribune/Scott Strazzante)
By Jerry Hirsh |
In a meeting with industry analysts Friday, Ford Motor Co. Chief
Executive Alan Mulally declined to confirm reports that the automaker
is about to kill its Mercury brand, but he also didn’t go out of his
way to deny the expected strategic move.
“We have shared in the past that we continue to look at our portfolio
of brands and specific nameplates themselves, but we have nothing new
to add to that,” Mulally said. Earlier in the meeting he talked about
the automaker’s “laser-like focus on the Ford brand.”
And Mulally, a former Boeing Co. executive credited with guiding Ford
through the recession without having to join rivals General Motors Co.
and Chrysler Group in a bankruptcy reorganization, also talked about
Ford’s strategy of simplifying its operations by focusing on fewer
brands and by developing vehicle platforms that can be used worldwide.
He noted that the new Ford Fiesta, which goes on sale in the U.S. this summer, shares about 65 percent of its parts with the models of the Fiesta sold in Europe and China. The upcoming new-generation Focus that goes on sale here next year will share as much as 85% of its content with similar versions of the compact car sold in other regions of the world.
Such a strategy allows Ford to spread design and development expenses across a great number of vehicles sold, Mulally said. As a standalone American-designed and -built vehicle, the Focus would have sold about 150,000 units annually, he said. But as a global vehicle, Ford spreads it development expense across sales that will approach 2 million. And the automaker also derives economies of scale and other efficiencies by having the various regional versions share the same platform and other components, he said.
Analysts say that dropping the struggling Mercury brand is part of a move to focus the automaker’s design and sales efforts on its Ford and Lincoln lines. Ford officials have previously said they planned to push Lincoln over Mercury in design and development decisions.
Mulally “has shown little mercy when forced to make decisions that set the company up for long-term growth. Closing this historic brand, while bittersweet, is yet another tough, but good decision,” said James Bell, an analyst with Kelley Blue Book, the auto pricing information company.
A move to shutter the Mercury brand would follow previous moves in recent years to shrink the number of brands Ford produces. In March, the company sold its Swedish Volvo division to Zhejiang Geely Holding Co. of China. Previously it shed the Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin nameplates.
Killing off brands has been part of the formula GM has used to revive its business over the last year, shutting down its Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer divisions and selling off the Saab line.
Mercury is down to just four vehicles, the midsize Milan sedan, the Mariner and Mountaineer SUVs and the giant Grand Marquis sedan. Production of the Grand Marquis will end when Ford closes the Canadian factory where the car is built next year. And while Ford has said it plans to build a new generation Ford Explorer, it has been silent on any plans for the Mountaineer, the SUV’s Mercury-branded sibling.
Mercury was established in 1939 by Edsel Ford, son of founder Henry Ford, to fill what he considered a void between the automaker’s mass-market Ford brand and the upscale Lincoln line. Sales peaked in 1978 at 579,498, but have fallen precipitously since then. Mercury sold only 92,299 vehicles last year. By comparison, the Ford brand sold about 1.4 million vehicles last year.
SCORE!!! The value of my 1989 Mercury Sable is on it’s way UP! Can you say: COLLECTOR’S ITEM BABY!!!!!
Remember the old days with the Canadian variants of the Mercury-Ford that were a combination both features in a car nicknamed the Merd. Chrysler was also at fault with the Plodge.
“You gotta take Mercury off your list.”
Not good news at all. Not because we have a Merc or are thinking of getting one but because our local Lincoln-Mercury dealer is a family-owned, single-brand dealership. My wife drives a Lincoln and we are very close to getting a new Lincoln for her. Should this dealership close and sell out to the local Ford mega-dealership it will be time for shop for a different brand of car.
OH MY GOD ! I love my Mercury Grand Marquis, My husband and I were looking to trade it in for a new one, but now I may have to do as the previous person is doing. Trying a different brand of car. This is such a shame.
Maybe Ford should stop making the gas guzzler trucks instead.
I, should have known when they were talking up the 2011 Explorer and there was no mention of a 2011 Mountaineer.
Time to look somewhere else.
That’s really a shame! I bought a Mercury Tracer in 1999 and it is still going quite strong with nearly 100k on it. It has never required a major repair of any sort. Quality stuff!
I hope this doesn’t happen. I have 80,000+ miles on my Mountaineer. It was a great buy, looks like new and runs beautifully.
Can you say Lada? That’s the only car brand left in the former USSR. That’s what happens as the government tightens the strangulation of the free enterprise system. You’ll be able to afford less and less while you’re paying more and more for things that you used to buy as a routine.
The Mercury cars you all are raving about are simply rebadeged Ford products! That Mountineer is just an Explorer with more trim, nothing more.
Who still drives American made cars? No me for one. Switched to a Honda, have had no problems since. Quality comes from Japan, no Detroit.
Otis, so glad you think that Japan has the quality cars. I for one would never be caught in one. I have driven Mercury’s since my first car in 1974, a Capri. I also have had a Cougar and most recently the last two were Gran Marquis. As the Gran Marq owner above states, it has never needed any major repair and runs like a champ. Is a 2002 model. I plan on keeping it still for some time. The one before that ran forever. When I do buy another car, it will be a Ford. Sad the Mercury will be gone by then, but the Mercury’s are built on the Ford frames as each of their brothers. Just a little more jazzed up. Ford keeps coming out with better products all the time. Keep your Japanese cars Otis. I want to be assured when I’m behind the wheel that my car maker cares about me too, not just their profit and hide flaws in their cars.
We have owned (and still own) Mercuries (among other makes), and they have been great cars and SUVs. I never understood why Mercury and Ford had such lame advertising and the Mercury brand was never supported very well- actually, the advertising was and is horrible. If Ford/Mercury looked at import brand advertising (mostly highlighting features and bit some red neck or bimbo just talking), I am sure sales would improve. America does make some great cars these days, but the terrible advertising is like a lead boot.
This has nothing to do with “government strangulation.” They are down to four models and poor sales. If anything it is the free-enterprise system working well. If it’s not working, you get rid of it and move on. I never thought of Mercury as the in-between compared to Ford and Lincoln. It always looked like a cheap version of Ford models. There are too many poor performing brands out there. Reducing the clutter and focusing on fewer models will make car companies stronger and their products better. You don’t see foreign car companies carrying several different brands with several different models. There are usually the basic brand (Honda) and luxury (Acura). Each has several well designed and manufactured models. No clutter.
The Mercury brand has all the same mechanical parts of the Ford.The difference between the two is all cosmetic.The fender,grill, wheels,etc might be slightly different in looks,but your Mercury is really a Ford.Ford dealers honor the factory warranties on all Mercury and Lincoln products.This is a cost saving measure by Ford and its a smart move.
I’ve been driving an American car for the past 10 years, and it changed my perception of US built cars compared to some of the disasters of the 70s and 80s. I currently drive a 20 year old Oldsmobile that I’ve owned for 10 years and which has over 200k miles on it. And I have not had any serious problems with it, only minor ones you would expect. Talk about total cost of ownership! I have had experience with asian cars as well, and I will concur they are well built and trouble free… for at least the first 5 or 10 years. But after that, it’s a sharp decline. They don’t have the tough, never-say-die character of some of the late 80s to early 2000s American cars.
Despite that my Oldsmobile continues to be in excellent mechanical condition, I have been looking at getting a new car. I test drove both the Cadillac CTS and the Jaguar XF, and I could not believe how cramped they were. I have more head and leg room in my Oldsmobile, and in the XF I can’t even sit in the backseat without rubbing my head against the headliner. I’m not spending $50k for that.
I have been planning on buying a Grand Marquis for awhile, and now I will proceed post haste. You just can’t find roomy sedans anymore, especially since half the vehicles produced these days are SUVs… Plus the money I’m saving on the Marquis’ reasonable price I can put back into the car with some aftermarket upgrades to the interior I have planned to up its luxury quotient. And I’ll still come out ahead price-wise, with more reliability than an off-the-shelf luxury car, I expect.
On a side note, it is quite something to see how Volvo is now owned by a Chinese company, Jaguar by an Indian one… and so it will go as economic power flows from the former USA to China/India etc. Not that I have anything agains their success, but if we don’t re-embrace free enterprise, the USA is going to have a tough road ahead. The world is full of has-been nations that used to be the main players on the world stage… Greece, Spain, France, England… and soon the USA.
And people must not get confused with the current economic crisis. If you look back in history, every such crisis from the past few centuries has always originated from the banking system. It is not free-market, free-enterprise capitalism that is the problem, it is the banking system, and the two should not be confused. The fault of the banking system lies with the basis on which it operates, which goes all the way back to when modern banking originated in renaissance Italy… I could elaborate, but this is a car website after all ; ) so you’ll have to do your own inquiries, if you are so inclined.
It’s about time. Although my family regularly drove Mercury vehicles (Tracer, Topaz, Sable), I always wondered why Ford (and the other US Automakers) would continue to make vehicles with very little difference between them and sell them under multiple names, inflating their advertising and marketing budget. Ford and Lincoln is enough.
And as far as Ford not making “gas guzzling trucks…”, you think the Grand Marquis is a model for fuel efficiency? Besides, Ford’s survival in the past 30 years has been its line of trucks. Say what you want about the automaker, their trucks are of better quality than most in the entire industry.
I own two classic Mercury’s (Meteor & LN7). At one time I owned a Mercury Zephyr. When I went to buy a new car several years ago I wound up buying an import. I didn’t want to, but Ford didn’t have much to offer in the way of small economy cars.
Mercury’s problem is that it no longer makes anything for singles or younger drivers. Lincoln/Mercury cars look like they are designed for senior citizens. While it is good that they go after that segment why aren’t they offering any small sporty cars?
Several years ago another car brand asked the question “when you turn your car on does it return the favor?” Lincoln/Mercury’s stale product line leaves me saying NO.
Can you say Lada? That’s the only car brand left in the former USSR. That’s what happens as the government tightens the strangulation of the free enterprise system
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