Greatest move ever?

Toooooooooo late. This goose not gonna lay an egg

Mercury has “style-conscious customers” … ?????????

Name one!

Mercury is bringing in so many new customers that would never go near a Ford dealership,” Peter Horbury, Ford’s North American design chief, told The Detroit News.
——–

What is this guy smoking?? Mercury barely HAS customers.

Sounds like sticking a piece of chewing gum into a hole in a dam. It’s a band-aid fix. I’d bet money that Mercury will be gone by MY 2011.

What a joke! I just can’t believe this company with all these pathetic attempts to create “new” products lol How can you respect a company like Ford? How can you respect someone buying a new Ford these days? As soon as the warranty runs out these cars become miserable lemons requiring frequent and expensive repairs. Ford is having so many of its parts built by other companies who gave the lowest bid and this is where the quality and reliability will suffer greatly. Lower grade steel,plastic, even lower grade glass. It all looks ok when new, but 5 years from now the poor quality will begin to show and by that time the warranty is long gone and Ford can only laugh at the suckers stupid enough to buy their cars. Any person with a bit of intelligence will stay clear of Ford, and thankfully there are more smart people in this country than stupid people.

Yes. The noughties version of pin stripes and a landau roof; just a little cosmetic stuff for dealer mark up.

This is a pathetic attempt by management to stop the rumors of Mercury’s demise long enough for them to properly shut down the division. Imagine being a Mercury dealer feeling as if you are left out there to die, so in comes Ford with this “hot news about our interest in Mercury”!

Nonsense planet_tree hugger, Ford can build a quality vehicle, they just happen to be dated and undesireable.

They should rename it. Edsel comes to mind

The only alternative I see going on here is that FORD eventually kills all FORD cars, except the Mustang but keeps MERCURY and Lincoln to sell the cars. MERCURY cars are typically better overall from FORD cars at only a modest price hike (a grand or two) add flexibility of NOT being able to lean on trucks and large SUVs and it could keep MERCURY around.

I really doubt that will be the case, but it makes some sense, given FORD’s predilection to continue selling trucks like it’s 1999.

Blakkarr try to sell your ideas to Ford family: don’t you see the corporate name resemblance to company ruling family?

planetdrive:

“there are more smart people in this country than stupid people.”
You clearly don’t live in the U.S.

Fletch “Ford can build a quality vehicle, they just happen to be dated and undesireable.”
That’s it!

Blakkarr: I agree with you. Ford: Trucks and SUVS, plus Mustang. Mercury: Cars. Lincoln: real luxury cars, not rebadged fords.

MERCURY:

Bring back the Marauder name, on the Interceptor car….

Add a 5.4L engine (DON’T do a 4.6 engine in case the 2nd gen Marauder didn’t teach you anything.)

BOOM sales will happen vs. VOGA that sounds like Yoga….sleepy time, quiet looking, don’t buy me car.

Autonut,

I’ll keep trying but no one listens.

I saw the Voga Milan at a show a year back. It honestly was a stunner. Stopped people in their tracks. Had a stainless steel roof and everything. Don’t think that option will make production but it sure looked good.

Here it is, turdlets: http://digiads.com.au/car-news/latest-MERCURY-news/Mercury_Milan_Voga_20060510/photos_0.html

Scarface03, f*ck you (as a term of endearment) it was f*king brilliant paragraph! I did not masturbate, but nearly pissed my pants.

Ford is obviously taking the 20% Mercury sales increase to heart and trying to create something special with their existing models, at least until the Euro-influenced Fords arrive in the next few years and drive Mercury out of business.

Scar: I think Lincoln and ford should be further apart than the two non-scion toyota divisions.

HAHA THIS BRAND SHOULD HAVE GONE OUT WITH THE DINOSAURS. WHO THE HELL BUYS THIS **** ANYWAY.

This is just an attempt by Ford to make Mercury more female oriented. From what I understand, the brand already appeals more to women than men (although the female model in the commercials sure does appeal to men). Ford is just doing some additional fine tuning to expand on Mercury’s demographic (what little actually exists). I think it’s an excellent tactic to keep Mercury going for the time being. However, it isn’t a formula Ford should rely on if it plans to keep Mercury around in the future.

It still amazes me that these so called “style conscious” customers are totally ignorant to the fact that they are actually driving a Ford in Mercury drag. You would have to be a total idiot not to notice the similarity between the products. I guess if it’s working for Mercury now, so be it. I would still like to see the Ford Corporation give Mercury its own portfolio of unique, upscale products. The products can share platforms with Ford brand vehicles, but the Mercury products would need their own unique look and feel to make them distinctive.

Blakkar actually the price differance between brands isn’t 1-2k nor has it been for years, more like a range of $215 to $685. Mazdaman I agree with your point that Mercury is basicly a female friendly ford. I think that Toyota and Lexus arn’t to far apart in their offerings when comparing to Ford, Mercury and Lincoln.
I will say that I am very dissapointed with the production MKS though. It was a totally differant model from the rest all the way up to the production version, then they blew it, way to much like the sable and taurus.

Jill Wagner is a biscuit!

I’m looking up top at the Milan Voga on the left and a Malibu ad on the right in the same color.

Guess what, Mercury: you lose. You wouldn’t lose if that were a 2008 Mercury Mondeo, though.

Geez,
Two hundred posts about how redundant Mercury is. Did any of you buy one? Do you own a Mercury dealership? If not, why the hell do you care?

Are you closet Mercury fans? I mean, we all love neat cars….and if you don’t like these, DON”T ****ING BUY ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let it go people!

(same reply to the twelve thousand, nine hundred posts about how Ford doesn’t bring the Euro cars over….not like any of you 12 year olds could or would buy one.) Not when Toyota has a box with wheels that can be riced up for only an extra 12 grand.

Honestly, I don’t know why I bother…………..

I always thought a trim line was what women did to their…well you know. Come to think of it this is pretty much the same thing. It may look nice, but blindfolded on a test drive…

MERCURY just needs a clear mission and backing to follow through. That said, I’m just pushing for MERCURY because I hate to see an division get shut down. But to be honest, If it’s gotten go. Just be sure to invite me to the funeral.

I really would have liked to see a new Mustang-based Cougar.

…bummer…

This is like rearranging deck chairs on the sinking Titanic.

johnnyc: when you’re doin’ some ‘diving, you don’t want to get caught in thickets

Blakkar: I’d like to see a new cougar that shares nothing but an egine (the biggest one) with the mustang.

I say that because the Cougar was originally a clone of the Mustang. With FORD’s lame reluctance to use IRS on the Mustang and the fact the Cougar always looked cooler to me than the Mustang, I wanted such a car. It’s something that could be done in very short order and not strain FORD’s lacking resources very much to do.

The Mustang is a remarkably good car, It isn’t a straight up sports car so running against a Vette or Viper is a bad joke. so, not really knowing or caring about your feelings about the Mustang, I’ll just take what you’ve said as your personal and honest Opinion

The Messenger concept a few years back might be what you are imagining. That would be a good alternative as well. It basically amounted to a Corvette by FORD through Mercury. Maybe a C4 Corvette.

Also, that “biggest engine”, The 5.4L V8, Which is just a re-equipped truck engine block, is the second worst engine choice for the Mustang and almost any other car. It worked for the FORD GT but still was not used fully. The new engine of note would be the 5.0L “Hurricane” V8 due to be used for the 2008 model year (I think.. need to check that) but the engine is set to make “at least” 350HP to as much as 400HP.

VOGA? DONT THEY MEAN VULGAR?????

Blakkar: ford blew its Viper-sniper wad on the GT, which I believe it had to tack back for QC.

I meant, the Cougar should have one engine choice, equivalent to the top-of-the-line Mustang engine

take back

Yeah, in that regard the FORD GT was rather disappointing. FORD needs more experience in building super cars or sport cars in general. More they needed to build the FORD GT in one place, in AMERICA would have been nice. I thought I read somewhere that the FORD GT was being assembled by SALEEN. Even though I Totally ignore the S7, bad @$$ as it is (That car is a $200K easily not nearly $400K), they can build a good product. Of course, apparently I was wrong.

Actually, for the COUGAR I was hammering out the proposal for the top engine (For a Cougar ELIMINATOR or XR-7) to be that 6.0L V10 developed for the Cobra concept and said to be the engine for the GR-1. The Base engine would be the Hurricane 5.0L V8. Add IRS and you’d have a car that might scare some tough people.

Give us a killer cat FORD!

Blakkar: I’d be interested, as my mid-life crisis car

VOGA: Void Of Generating Attraction

^ oops correction

VOGA: Void Of Generating Attention

VOGA: Vehicles Of Geriatric Attraction

VOGA: Violently Offensive Gilded Automobiles

Mercury has a great American heritage. Anyone recall that Mercury started what is now the flip-top “Funny Car” class of dragsters? The very first flip-top funny cars were 1966 Mercury Cyclones driven by Dyno Don Nicholson and Fast Eddie Schartman. Anyone remember the Woods Brothers Mercury’s that dominated NASCAR super speedway races in the ’60’s and ’70’s? I recall the 1965 Mercury Park Lane was the Car of the Year from either Motor Trend or Car Life! 1967 Mercury Cougars won several Trans-Am races. Big Mercs won the famous Pikes Peak races in ‘63 and ‘64. Merc’s were very different from Fords through most of the ’50’s, ’60’s & ’70’s, with unique styling, their own dashboards, even some of their own V8’s. Brother-in-law owned a diesel Lynx in the ’80’s that got 60+ mpg! V8 Merc’s used to dominate the Mobile Ecomony Runs in the ’50’s and stood the world on its head with the introduction of those beautiful ‘57 Turnpike Cruisers. Mercs are still sought after by the Hot Rod crowd, i.e. James Dean Merc, Lead Sled Merc. Mercury has a proud heritage, Ford just needs to get their act together. Americans want to buy American, they just need better choices. We don’t need to lose more American brands. Merc sales have been up recently. Mr. Mulally, bring back the Merc!