PIC: Ford says GOODBYE to MERCURY
JLA
Costner's THE POSTMAN - Ford is saying goodbye forever to the MERCURY
BRAND.
First launched way back in 1939 by none other than Edsel Ford himself,
Mercury was initially intended to offer a slightly upmarket option to
those for whom the traditional Ford badge was too plebian.
By 1945, Mercury was in full swing and the brand was merged in with
the Lincoln division so it could further differentiate itself from
Ford, from which the automaker had historically gleaned its
platforms. And therein lies the rub... Mercury vehicles have nearly
always been too closely tied to their Ford stablemates, with a few
notable exceptions.
Ford Motor announced Wednesday that it would discontinue selling
Mercury models this fall, ending a 71-year-old brand that once stood
for innovation and speed but that became a ￜme, tooￜ division.
Mark Fields, the president of Fordï¿œs Americas region, said Ford
directors approved the step on Wednesday. He said the company would
focus its resources on its core Ford division as well as Lincoln.
ï¿œAs we close this storied chapter on Mercury, we are opening a very
exciting chapter, not only on Ford but on accelerating Lincoln,ￜ Mr.
Fields said.
Mercury came to life during the Depression, when Ford was striving to
keep pace with General Motors, which had passed Ford to become the
countryï¿œs top-selling automaker. At its cultural height in the 1950s,
Mercury became known for innovative cars like the Turnpike Cruiser,
whose features included a power rear window, the ￜseat-o-maticￜ
adjusting seat, and the ￜMerc-o-maticￜ automatic transmission.
James Dean, playing a rebellious teenager, drove a black Mercury coupe
in the 1955 film ￜRebel Without a Cause.ￜ
Mercury joins a sizable list of venerable Detroit brands that have
disappeared in recent years. In 2009, General Motors said that it
would eliminate Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac as it streamlined after
its bankruptcy filing, and it did away with Oldsmobile in 2004. Saab
was also discontinued as a G.M. brand, though it will have new
owners.
Chrysler dropped the Plymouth brand in 2001, and the Chrysler brand
itself is considered by some analysts to be in doubt, now that the
company is under the management control of the Italian automaker
Fiat.
ï¿œThis decade is for sure going to be remembered in the auto industry
as a decade of consolidation, a renewed focus on profitability
instead of going blindly after market share, and shedding dead weight
in terms of dealerships,ￜ said Jesse Toprak, vice president of
industry trends and insights for TrueCar, a new-car pricing Web
site.
Before Mercury, the two ends of Fordï¿œs spectrum were its inexpensive
cars and trucks, which the founder, Henry Ford, encouraged buyers to
buy in the color black, and the sleek Lincoln models, which were
known for their streamlined appearance.
But G.M. picked up customers by offering ï¿œa car for every purse and
purpose,ￜ a phrase coined by its president, Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
So, Mr. Fordï¿œs son Edsel commissioned the development of the Mercury
Eight, which went on sale in 1939. The car had a 95-horsepower V-8
engine that was 10 horsepower stronger than the Ford V-8, but it cost
less than a Lincoln.
Sales were strong until World War II interrupted production. They
prospered again in 1949, when the first all-new postwar Mercury
models reached showrooms.
By the 1960s, Mercury had become a place for slightly different and
generally more expensive versions of the cars sold by the Ford
division.
ï¿œMercury products have been nothing more than modestly restyled Fords
for decades, and thatￜs not how you build or maintain a brand,ￜ said
Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Edmunds.com, a Web site that
offers car-buying advice.
Mercurys of the 1960s included the Comet, a stretched version of the
Ford Falcon, and the Cougar, originally a muscle-car variation on the
Mustang but which was three inches longer and boasted a gutsy front
grill that some likened to an electric shaver.
In the 1970s, because of the energy crisis and new fuel economy
standards, Mercury made smaller cars, including the Capri, initially
built in Europe. When Ford developed the Taurus sedan in the 1980s,
it gave Mercury a version called the Sable.
More recently, Mercuryï¿œs lineup has included the Milan, its
best-selling model, which is based on the Ford Fusion, as well as the
Grand Marquis, a rear-wheel drive car that has been sold by Ford in
some fashion since the 1970s.
Mercury sales peaked at 580,000 in 1978, also a year of record hourly
employment for the Detroit auto companies. In 2009, Ford sold fewer
than 93,000 Mercury models.
So far in 2010, Mercury sales are 41,680, up 11.6 percent from last
year, but they make up only 0.8 percent of the American car market.
Mr. Fields said Ford has no stand-alone Mercury dealers, which should
simplify shutting the division. He declined to say how much closing
Mercury would cost Ford. Mercury models are sold by 1,700 dealers,
which also have a franchise with Ford, Lincoln or another brand.
Bob Tasca Jr., a Rhode Island dealer who heads Fordï¿œs national
Lincoln-Mercury dealer council, said dealers had pressed Ford for
years to tell them the fate of the division and finally learned this
year that a decision was at hand.
Although expected, Mr. Tasca said, the step was fraught with emotion.
For dealers, he said, ï¿œthereï¿œs going to be some cases where a lot of
them are going to make it and prosper and some are going to go out of
business.ￜ
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