Posted on 05/27/2010 1:10:15 PM PDT by Red Badger
Ford Motor Co. is preparing to wind down the Mercury line, created in 1939 by Edsel Ford, after sales plunged 74 percent since 2000, said two people familiar with the plan.
The automaker’s top executives are preparing a proposal to kill Mercury to be presented to directors in July, said the people, who asked not to be indentified revealing internal discussions. Mercury, losing two of four models next year, will be starved of products and promotion, the people said.
Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally emphasized the automaker’s namesake brand as he revived the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy. The timing of Mercury’s demise depends on how fast executives can convince the brand’s dealers, who also sell Lincoln models, to close or merge with Ford showrooms, they said.
“Mercury is a forgotten brand,” said John Wolkonowicz, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts. “Many Americans probably already think it has been discontinued. Mercury was too similar to Ford from the very beginning.”
Mulally also is unloading Ford’s European luxury brands, after the automaker failed to achieve a goal to have them generate one-third of automotive profits. Ford in March agreed to sell Volvo to China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Co. It sold off Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin in the last three years.
Detroit’s Departed
Mercury would join Pontiac, Saturn, Oldsmobile and Plymouth among the departed Detroit brands of the 21st century. Sales will end within four years, one of the people estimated. General Motors Co., as part of its U.S.-backed reorganization last year, sold or closed four of its eight brands sold domestically.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
No, the Cougar was the Mercury analog to the Thunderbird. It was related to the Mustang early on, but even then it was bigger, heavier and less performance oriented.”
The Cougar evolved over the years... It was the upscale counterpart of the Mustang. It had the sequential tail lights of the T Bird, but was based on mustang. It later became the partner to tbird.
Being a hatchback, those where fine.
Shame, shame and shame. I have a Mercury and I love it.
Not if you owned one.
“The Topaz was great, the Mystique was fun(stick). “
Now don’t get carried away. The Tempo/Topaz was not a good car. The Mystique/Contour had a lot of reliability issues too.
Turnpike Cruiser. What we all need (w/o any tolls though).
That was a Mustang with a different grille and rear...............
“A long since sold pet project car of mine:”
Very cool. Did you finish and sell, or just lose interest?
Which motor did it have, sort of looks like a V8 in the open hood pic, 351, 289?
Oooops, nevermind, got to the 289 open hood pic! :)
As I said, early on it was tied to the mustang, but that only lasted a few years. I’ll have to check on whether it stayed linked during the 1974-1979 period or not, but I am pretty sure the cougar was tied to the t-bird much longer than it was to the mustang. It seems to be a Ford thing to have models experience scope creep. The t-bird was originally a corvette fighter.
I wound up selling mostly due to resources and some other things going on that didn’t allow me to really do anything with it.
It was developing transmission problems also. I found it a good home via Ebay a couple years back. A collector in the middle of OK bought it within a few hours of it being posted. He sent a truck out here to SC a month later. It had the stock 289. It ran decent. The car had been sitting in a barn for over a decade. The factory radio still worked, albiet AM.
Maybe when money gets better, I can get another one. I would love to have an Eliminator.
Used to be known as a Ford with lockwashers.
Ya, that '68 Cougar I had sure looked cool, but mechanically, it was a total POS. The retractable headlights would freeze shut in the winter, the sequencial tail lights would go bad because the trunk leaked and the little cam motor that ran the lights would burn out, the front suspension was crap, and you could watch the fenders rust. That is just the problems I can remember off the top of my head. I know there were more. I got rid of it when it was only 4 years old and never missed it a bit.
From a quality and mechanical standpoint, I'll take today's vehicles over any of those 'cool looking' cars of yesteryear.
Hehe ... I remember always spending our summer vacations pulling various Airstream trailers with various big Mercury cars when I was a kid. Great vacations to historic and patriotic sights all over the country. We were blessed.
Yes, in Europe it was known as the Ford Sierra. The performance version had a Cosworth-tuned engine, I think.
My goal is to get an Airstream and refurbish it to help me live homeless as a ski bum.
Had a little red Topaz that we drove all over the country. Never had a problem with it. The Mystique was mine for a few years until my daughter drove it to college. She drove it for several years until she started working with Ford and bought an Explorer Sport. We then sold it to a friend for his daughter. They loved it too. You can get a good/bad car anytime. Helps to be able to have it checked out by an engineer before you get it too.
I don’t know if I should tell you this or not ... we have a Mercury Monterey ... minivan.
We really like it, but I had no idea the original Monterey was a sedan!
My six-foot Finnish friend reports good things about the Fiesta. The five-door diesel gets nearly 50 mpg. I drove a Mondeo from Siena to Venice and it was fun but cramped by American standards (in Italy, it was considered mid-size at the rent-a-car company). By any stretch, the Fiesta would be a sub-compact in the US but it’s a lot more fun than the Honda Fit or Toyota Scion, especially when souped-up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.