There is nothing that Mercury sells that is different than Ford. Mercury should cease production immediately.

Of course it does well! Just as well as Ford. The guy is there for a few months, he not going to piss off the family and state that their offspring screwed up the company

why buy a mercury?

HAHA. I laughed when i saw the headline. Mercury used to have sweet trucks in the fifties. Back then their were actually a seperate division. Now however there just cookie cutter fords.

You know, why not rebadge the sweet looking kinetic designs from Europe and sell them as Mercury’s here? That way, Ford won’t have to choose between the Kinetic designs and the Red, White, and Bold designs. Keep the RW&B as Fords, and the Kinetic as Mercury’s. That would rock!

Why buy a Mercury?

They’re different. You see less of them on the road, they’re a little more refined than Fords, and you get a more upscale dealer experience.

I’d take a Milan over a Fusion.

How uneasy would anybody working for Ford be in these times? Ford is lost.

I can’t wait to read all the comments for this article from the LLN faithful. It’s like watching a brutal sporting event, only without rules. American cars suck! No, Japanese cars suck! No wait, Europe Sucks! It’s beyond me why the CEO’s for these companies don’t just read our LLN opinions and make it so. Okay, one more, just for fun… Europe Sucks! Let the games begin.

my exgirlfriend drove a Mercury Mestique and there was nothing upscale or good about it. It felt really cheap like any Ford does.

If I had a bug up my butt to get a Fusion, I’d buy a Milan because it looks way better. Other than the Milan’s looks, what the hell is the reason to buy a Mercury or go to the showroom? There isn’t even anything interesting to admire there.

In truth, though, if I really had a bug up my butt to buy a Fusion, I’d get a Mazda6 or wait for the next gen Mazda6 because Ford thinks I am not worthy of their new Mondeo.

RHead actually makes sense here. The Mercury’s actually look a little better than their Ford counterparts. The problem is they steal sales from each other and do not persuade anyone without the Fusion on their list to buy a Milan. There’s too much extra expense keeping Merc around, and no appreciable gains to the bottom line.

Oh, and dmbpearl…we calls em as we sees em.

So’s the war in Iraq. What this brand needs is an enema.

A Mercury is a Ford with nicer carpet. The only thing that keeps this pointless division alive is the threat of endless legal action from the L-M dealer body if they try to fold it.

If Mercury were actually “doing well” they would have some product planning going.

As for Euro Mercs… gee, the Merkur was a big hit. Let’s do that again.

maximus- that’s what happens when you are driving at least a 7 year old car that was the clone of a Topaz.

TomF- Euro Ford has come a long way, and has had better product than the U.S. Look at the new Fiesta and Mondeo.

The model who pimps Mercury in Northeast commercials is really hot. I would love to drive her!

The Merkur was too much for the American market to swallow. A RWD turbo inline 4 ford that is more in line with a 3 series than a camaro? DOA

It was a great car! My friend has owned two XR4TI’s. Unfortunately it really was a Fix Or Repair Daily.

However, the Euro Focus, Mondeo, Falcon, etc… would be a great fit for this market.

When Kinetic Design makes it over here, they need to be called fords. Ford needs a respectable worldwide look, and Red, White & Bold (which is nothing more than slapping a truck-like grill onto an existing model) needs to go.
Mercury needs its own design theme, which consists of its own sheet metal, not just a waterfall grill. Also, Ford needs to differentiate this division with driving dynamics. Here they should keep the euro-ford driving dynamics, as they are sure to soften up the euro-platforms when they come to the us as Fords.
Once the design theme is nailed down, Mr. Mulally, here is your product pipeline based on Mercury history and successful platforms within the Ford family:
Basic Transportation:
Euro Focus/Mazda3 –> Mercury Lynx
Euro Mondeo –> Mercury Milan
Sable/Volvo S80 –> Grand Marquis (let’s face it, the Sable isnt a valuable “brand”)
Volvo V70 –> entry luxury wagon
Other cars to draw people into the dealership:
Mazda MX-5 –> Mercury Capri
Aussie Ford Falcon or DEW/Mustang platform –> Cougar

The Fiesta is coming as a Ford shortly after it launches in Europe (early 2009 if Brazil ramps up well), so it can’t come as a Mercury.

Everything else could, theoretically, but FoE products, while overall much better (and pricier), are not higher build quality than a Milan or Sable. The conservative nature of Mercury buyers would probably shun the quality of FoE products and I’m not sure that enough people would come into the showroom to make up for it.

I still think they should just turn Mercury into a testing bed for advanced powertrains and design. Make it something really different where market acceptance can be tested in low volumes before moving it down to Ford or up to Lincoln. It would be different.

I actually looked at the Merkur XR4Ti when it was new and I wanted to buy. It was well-optioned and a decent price, but there were some “normal options” I wanted and which were not available unless I paid the dealer thru the nose, plus the no one in the dealership could answer even the most simple questions I had about the vehicle mechanically. I skipped buying that car and sometimes wish I didn’t (they were quite cool) but I made the right decision given what I was confronted with as far as dealer stupidity and poor product configuration. As for the Scorpio, that thing was hideous.

The Capri was a great seller and one bad-ass little car. I had a 1973 2.6 liter as my first car and it was hot.

55amg: because ou want a ford with different styling.

maximus: Compare the mystique to the topaz.
HoosierHero: The Mystique was not a Topaz clone. It was the replacement. Ford dropped the ball on introducing the contour/mystique. Should’ve sold the tempo/Topaz alongside them, so buyers could tell just how much improvement there was.

atourya: I learned to drive in a stickshift merkur

casual: mostly good ideas, but I think Mazda will fight tooth and nail to keep the Miata to itself.

Since the domestics dont have enough resources to come up with any new “breakthrough ” cars they have no choice but to bring their European offerings to the US. Mercury needs to do that in order to compete. I will say that I see more Milans on the road than Fusions. Usually the Mercury product looks better but with the Fusion Milan twins I like the Fusion better. I look fwd to renting it one day …….unless they have a Sonata available

I’d take the Sonata as well.

Having had the pleasure of all three on my rental excursious, I can say without a doubt that Fusion/Milan pair are better than the Sonata. However, the new Camrys that I rent are better than the Fusion/Milan. Not that I’d ever buy any of them.

“Mazda MX-5 –> Mercury Capri”

Heck no, you can develop your own Capri, Ford! That is one thing you need to leave Mazda alone!

Sure if you want to bring Euro Fords to rebadge as Mercury, but what is the point of rebadging a MX5 Miata THAT IS ALREADY SOLD HERE????? That makes as much sense as rebadging the Fusion to be the Milan with fresh sheet-metal. Wait, Ford is already doing that and they are not fooling anyone.

Better idea: Sport Ka –> Mercury Capri

sharpie: I saw a Ka here, with mexican plates. Not a bad little ride.

HoosierHero, I concur there was nothing inherently wrong with the Merkur. But it was a totally alien car for the Mercury dealer body, who were mainly used to selling Colony Park station wagons. RicardoHead says “no one in the dealership could answer even the most simple questions I had about the vehicle mechanically,” and that was my experience in New England too about 20+ years ago.

Point is, if the Mercury product line is more sophisticated than the guys who are selling them, it’s disastrous in a different way. Discriminating buyers who are used to knowledgeable salespeople in Asian and Euro-brand showrooms will turn their backs on those poor guys in their J.C. Penney suits.

Now I’m starting to wonder if Ford is going to pass down its current styling theme to Mercury and adopt it’s European Kinetic design theme.

They are doing “fine” I suppose. The cars suck, but some people are left buying them. Besides, Ford needs a brand name (and Mercury is that name) under which to import European Fords (or give Euro Fords to American Ford and give the old Fords to Mercury).

Commodore: I think everyone here knows that. Does Mullaly know that?

I’ve said before that I’m a fan of the business model that is the Opel-badged Saturn. The problem with the Euro Ford-badged Mercury is that Ford has already said that there are logistical problems (right now, at least) in rebadging its Euro offerings for sale in the Americas. If it could be done easily, we’d already be renting Euro Focuses at Hertz.

Now, how long will it take for Ford to implement its plan for a global architecture and unified global design?…. a few months?…. Yeah, RIGHT. Then, call it no time soon, or a few years at best. They’re preoccupied with selling off Jag and Land Rover at the moment.

In the meantime, last year was Mercury’s worst sales year in 46 years! And this year, they’re on pace to sell 20,000 FEWER vehicles. With no model plan for the near future, the unlikely ability to rebadge Euro offerings, and the worst sales history of the modern car age, I think the writing is on the wall, don’t you think?

Get rid of Mercury already. No one misses Oldsmobile.

Due to the low value of the dollar I dont see much of a chance of the euro cars making it over. Other automakers are talking about building factories in the US because of the poor exchange rate so I dont see Ford doing this… however… Ford has been known to be pretty stupid and throw money away like it was water so in that case who knows.
IMO, things will get alot worse for Ford before they get better. They have a dull aging lineup that lacks reliability, fuel efficiency, quality, and future… I could go on and on about my disappointment with Ford. I have owned seven Fords in my day and now drive a Honda. I see no reason to consider any Ford product for my future purchase. Its sad.

Hmm Commo you want people to consider American cars but not Mercury’s bc they suck? The Milan looks better than the Malibu. All domestics are about the same in reliability resale and build quality therefore they ALL SUCK!
The domestics are clearly inferior to Toyota or Honda but if you want something cheap and wont keep it long then they are good choices. I look fwd to renting one soon lol
If Mercury wants to survive they need to rebadge Euro Fords or make different models from Ford. If they don’t they will be in the auto graveyard with Eagle Plymouth and Oldsmobile (other domestic crap). Just want to ask what was the last Japanese company that went under ?
Ha ha ha ha
See ya in 2022 (TM) So Commodore cant use it incorrectly

Anyone know that Mercury started what is now the flip-top “Funny Car” class of dragsters? The very first flip-top funny cars were 1966 Mercurys 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. Mercury has a proud heritage, Ford just needs to get their act together. We don’t need to lose any more American brands.

Mercurys were always different from Fords and Lincolns in the ’50’s, 60’s and ’70’s. Even had some different engines. No sheet metal was interchangeable except the roofs and even some of those were Merc exclusives. Dashboards were different too, and they sold very well. Could be done again with distinctive styling. That’s the only difference between Yota’s/Lexus; Datsun/Infinity; Honduh/InAcura. Mercury is a great American marque and deserves to continue. Give it great styling and folks will flock to it. Brother-in-law owned a Mercury Lynx with diesel engine in the ’80’s and got 60+ mpg way back then! Why can’t Mercury do that today? A new Cougar with ‘67/’68 cues would bring folks back to the sign of the Cat!

Daihatsu was the last japanese company to leave the U.S. market. Izusu is on the way out.

Fluffer: each day, your idiocy an anti-Big 3 bias become more obvious. So much anger and hatred, so little justification.

What time’s your bus come?

Fleming: My uncle had a ‘67 Cougar, 351. I thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. Mercury has lost its way.

another name for honda’s faux-luxury division?
Lackura.

Lackura? I thought those gay runabouts were called pAcurass.

Diahatsu was picked up by Toyota and they make trucks in Japan They were not phased out dip****. Isuzu is a third GM owned and they are producing GM products now but nice try.

Calling Acura Lackura wont slow down Acuras its sales and wont stop them from being more reliable dependable and having a higher resale and sell more than domestics

Your stubborn American pride wont let you admit that domestic products are inferior to the Japanese? . Its ashame

Fluffer: “stubborn American pride” be damned. I call call ‘em as I se ‘em and my word is the law.

Non-reader. I said, and I quote “Daihatsu was the last Japanese company to leave the U.S. market.”

GM may sell Izusus, but that doesn’t make them GM products. The Vibe may say “pontiac” on the side, but it’s still a JV baby.

Calling an accord something else will aparrently fool some of the people some of the time. And the more you say they’re relieble and dependable, the closer you’ll come to believeing it.

JJT Your word is the law? Relieble and dependable ?
Its reliable and dependable and you are obviously delusional.

Toyopet; Tercel; Cresada; Supura; MR-2; T-100; a few models discontinued by Tojo….Acura dropped Integra and another model I can’t recall…. they all play the name change game when things aren’t going so well.

Mercury isn’t actually DOING much of anything.

Jackimturkey,

What are you talking about? And I quote:

“Calling an accord something else will aparrently fool some of the people some of the time. And the more you say they’re relieble and dependable, the closer you’ll come to believeing it.”

*apparently; reliable; believing

Anyways, how does that have anything to do with the Fusion/Milan concept? Or Mercury’s existence in general? Calling an Accord an Accord sells it because it IS reliable. Every major automobile magazine in the world says so, and countless millions of consumers. Is your one biased “my word is law” opinion supposed to make your statement any more legit?
Calling it anything else is stupid, because its an Accord. The TSX, TL, and RL are built on the Accord body frame, but that doesn’t mean they’re Accords. The American TSX is a Japanese/Euro Accord, but it is still an entirely different vehicle than the American Accord, so even on that basic level, it’s completely not “fooling” anyone.

If Honda took an Accord, stamped an Acura logo on it, and then called it a Ascension, that would be a lie, and that would be fooling people.

Kind of like what Ford does with the Milan. It is a Fusion. With MINOR styling cue variations and a “better” interior and engine options.

1115, funny I do not totally disagree with you about Acura and even the pride issue, but get your facts straight. Jack said “Daihatsu was the last japanese company to leave the U.S. market.” He is right. D left in 1992, and Toyota didn’t get majority stake until the late 90s (1999?). No one said it was phased out globally, check out the Tokyo Auto Show, they have some nice offerings. They are BEST at making small cars.

Ford just canned the Focus hatch and wagon altogether, why not try the Chrysler-Dodge thing and let Mercury take on the 2-box design? Of the platform sharing between sister companies like Chrysler-Dodge, Ford-Mercury and Hyundai-Kia, The existence of Mercury appears more pointless than Kia or Dodge car because everything they sell have an almost identical twin under Ford.

They selectively cite statistics and facts they don’t understand, reject anything refuting their logic as lies pushed by a massive conspiracy, and make the rest up out of thin air.

here’s something from a source not described above (http://www.autoobserver.com/2007/10/september-sales.html):

The Good

Honda sales in total were up 13.8 percent in September, pushing Honda sales in total 2.8 percent higher for the year.

The Bad

Within the Honda line, Civic sales were down 2.2 percent. It may be suffering from success from the bookends of the Fit and the Accord. In contrast to the continued success of the Toyota Prius, the Civic Hybrid is struggling; sales were down 13 percent for the month and 2 percent for the year.

The Ugly

The Acura (sic) division is struggling. Sales were down 8.4 percent in September, about the same as for the calendar year to date. Acura (sic) cars -– the TSX, TL and RL -– posted decreases for September and the year as well.

The Honda Pilot likely is feeling the pinch of higher gas prices and old age, with sales down 36 percent in September and 20 percent for the year to date.

fluffer, trixster: I used to be an umpire. “I call ‘em aa I see ‘em and my word is the law” was my way of dealing with complaints.
If Jesus Christ himself told me to buy a honda (car), I would. Otherwise, I’ll give my own experience as a honda owner more weight than I will your words.
Thanks for pointing out my typos.

Trixster: look up the price differences between the milan/fusion and the accord/”TL.”
I think platform sharing should be kept to a minimum. If mercury only has rebadged fords, why is there a Mercury?

sharpie: my wife’s uncle in australia drives a daihatsu. I like it. The Charade et al just didn’t work for Americans.

WHY ARE SALES SLIDING FOR HONDA’S FAUX-LUXURY DIVISION?

Well why has GM not been able to compete with the Japanese ? GM and the domestics had more money than upstart Japanese companies back then what happened ?

Acura is by no means struggling. The TL is the #2 entry level Luxury car behind the 3 series. The MDX sales are through the roof(not the roof that flys off the Corvette lol). The models werent redesigned this year and saying that they are taking a slide is a bit of exaggeration. To say they are struggling as if they are in some kind of trouble is even greater exaggeration! To say your word is anything is just obscene

The Accord and TL(the best car on the road today lb. for lb.) have different engines with different sheet metal. They also have completely different interiors. They are based off the same platform but thats it. The Milan Fusion have different front ends and back light. The interior s are EXACTLY the same along with the engine but you know that already. Your question is tainted

Why have the Patriots or Colts not been able to compete with the Texans?

Fluffer, you’ve just proven once and for all that you’re in denial.

Talk about a tainted question!