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

Talk about a tainted question!

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.