Ford Said to Plan End of Mercury After Seven Decades By Keith Naughton May 27 (Bloomberg) -- 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 automakers 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 automakers namesake brand as he revived the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy. The timing of Mercurys demise depends on how fast executives can convince the brands 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 Fords 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 Chinas Zhejiang Geely Holding Co. It sold off Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin in the last three years. We continue to evaluate all of our models and brands, Mulally told reporters in Washington, D.C., today. We have no change in our position about Ford or Lincoln or Mercury. Detroits 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. Edsel Ford, son of founder Henry Ford, established Mercury during the Great Depression as a mid-priced alternative to mainstream Ford and upscale Lincoln. Edsels great grand- daughter, Elena Ford, now the automakers director of global marketing, initially opposed discontinuing Mercury, which she was in charge of promoting prior to 2002, the people said. Doing away with Mercury is supported by Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford and other members of the founding family, who have 40 percent voting control of the automaker through a special class of stock, the people said. With Mercury accounting for 1.9 percent of Fords global sales in the first quarter, the family has decided ending it is best for the business, the people said. End of an Era Edsel Ford is revered in the family and Mercury was his creation, said Wolkonowicz, a former Ford product planner. This is the end of an era. Bill and Elena Ford declined to comment, said Mark Truby, a Ford spokesman. Our plans regarding Mercury have not changed, he said. Like any good business, we constantly assess our business portfolio. If things change, we will let you know. Mercury sales peaked in 1978 at 579,498, when it had the slogan At the Sign of the Cat. Deliveries fell 84 percent to 92,299 last year. As the U.S. auto market recovers, Mercurys sales are up 23 percent this year through April, less than Ford Motors overall gain of 33 percent, according to researcher Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Mercury had 0.9 percent of the U.S. market through April, unchanged from 2009. Focus on Ford Mulally, since arriving from Boeing Co. in September 2006, put a priority on improving quality and expanding the offerings of the Ford brand to lessen its dependence on pickups and sport- utility vehicles. He ended three years of losses at the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker by earning $2.7 billion last year and has said 2010 will be solidly profitable. Ford rose 60 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $11.99 at 4 p.m. in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have risen 20 percent this year. As Mulally focused on the namesake brand, Mercury withered, the people said. Fords ad spending on Mercury fell 88 percent from 2005 through 2009, according to researcher Kantar Media of New York. Last year, Ford stopped selling the Mercury Sable, a sibling to the Taurus. The Mountaineer, Mercurys version of the Explorer, is to go away next year as Ford rolls out a new version of the SUV. Since Mulallys arrival, Ford stopped giving Mercury exclusive features and technology, the people said. That made Mercury less distinctive than comparable Fords, which tend to be priced lower. On the Cheap The reason Mercury failed throughout its existence is because Ford never wanted to spend any money on it, Wolkonowicz said. Ford always wanted to do it on the cheap and the results were what youd expect. Mercurys top-selling model is the Milan, a sibling of the Ford Fusion, with sales up 53 percent this year. Mercury also sells its own version of the Ford Escape SUV, known as the Mariner, which has had a 22 percent sales gain through April. Ford is scheduled to replace those models in 2012 and 2013 and could drop the Mercury versions, Wolkonowicz said. Mercurys second best-selling model, the Grand Marquis, is being retired next year as Ford stops producing a trio of large, rear-wheel drive sedans that also includes the Lincoln Town Car and Ford Crown Victoria. Mulally has emphasized more fuel- efficient models, such as the Fiesta and Focus small cars Ford is introducing this year in the United States. Neither has a Mercury counterpart. Oldest Buyers The Grand Marquis has the oldest buyer demographics in the industry with an average age of 70, Wolkonowicz said. There are still members of the Depression generation who will miss Mercury. The brands cultural heyday came in the 1950s, when hot- rodders favored its engines, which were larger and faster than those found in Ford models, Wolkonowicz said. James Dean drove a Mercury in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause. Along with Lincoln, Mercury sponsored The Ed Sullivan Show on CBS in the 1950s and 1960s. Detective Steve McGarrett, played by actor Jack Lord, drove a black Marquis in the Hawaii Five-0 TV series on CBS in the 1970s. As Mercurys sales plunged, so too have its profits, Wolkonowicz said. With one-quarter of the sales it had a decade ago, its hard to rationalize the lines continued existence, he said. Im not surprised to see Mercury go because they dont sell enough of them, Wolkonowicz said. Its been a case of benign neglect for years. --With assistance from Angela Greiling Keane in Washington and Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan. Editors: Jamie Butters, Kevin Orland.
If the upper management would get there act together a follow the other brands and re-introduce past sucesses like Ford with the Mustang,,Chrysler with the Challanger and even Chevy with the Camero they could make a big comeback offering something akin to the 1950 mercury,,, Sadly I believe that would never happen,,,and another American automobile mark will be lost and remembered only by it's history. HRP
yeah the other thread on this is saying about the same thing,I still like the 60s mercury muscle car era,Im building a OT 68 ragtop now for my driver..........
Maybe they should lose the Taurus name and call that model line a Ford-Mercury model sort of the same way they incorporated the once separate Continental into a Lincoln model and Mopar incorporated the Imperial line into a Chrysler model. I did my first brake job on a '52 Mercury and learned to drive in a '53 Olds 98. Miss both brands...
Even though they're all American cars; I haven't owned one car in the last six years that wasn't an "orphan model".
"...next year Ford stops producing a trio of large, rear-wheel drive sedans that also includes the Lincoln Town Car and Ford Crown Victoria." That should be big news too! Who's going to make our taxis & liveries? I don't like the thought of a world with stretched Impala limousines.
Sad but not unexpected. But I guess one could ask the question, for those of us saddened by this, how many of us have supported the brand in the last 10-20 years? Who drives one of the new Mercury's? Not me!
Mercury used to be a step up from a Ford. For the last 30 years or so, just a Ford with a different grille.
Mercurys have been just a dressed up Ford for 30 years now, same basic body shell, same thing mechanically. I remember when we lived in Baltimore, one of the city cop cars that regularly patrolled our neighborhood got wrecked in the front, and they replaced the front clip with one from a Mercury Grand Marquis, so it said Mercury on the front and Ford on the back, everything bolted right up. On that note, I have long wondered why General Motors continues to build both Chevy and GMC pickups, trucks, and vans. Years ago, there were significant mechanical differences between Chevy and GMC--the GMC sixes were stronger than the Chevy versions, V8 trucks used Pontiac engines, and GMC had a V6 engine that was not offered in the Chevrolet line. Now the only differences between a Chevy and a GMC pickup are grilles, badges, and trim. They're built on the same assembly line. I have long wondered how General Motors justified building the same trucks under two different brand names and how long they will continue to do so. Sad to see Mercury go, but its been around in name only for 30+ years, sort of like the last pathetic Hudsons which were just dressed up Nashes (Hudson afficianados call those cars "Hashes" and don't consider them true Hudsons). I wouldn't pay $20 for the difference between a Grand Marquis and a Crown Vic.
I'm not sure why I'm sad to see them all go... The number of 49-51 Mercurys we have on the planet was set in 1951, and they aren't gonna make any more. Same with any other model made by the former brands. The only think I should be sad about is having to look at the boarded up dealerships and think about the lost jobs and businesses, just because some A-hole banker came up with a scheme to make money and a whole bunch of less bright, but equally greedy other followed suit.
The day that the bean counters took Detroit away from the car guys was the death knell of the American automobile industry. Stop blaming the unions and the assembly line guys for the failure. People like Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler, Charlie Nash, Harley Earl and the rest knew how to build cars, some literally. They had grease under their nails. Now we have CPAs and a bunch of other pencil pushing weenies offering us their cheap, shitty looking "cars" and we're supposed to buy into the scam. At least someone has grown a partial set and we now have a few decent looking and performing cars to choose from. Too little, too late? Probably for some, like Chrysler. They've been dangling over the precipice for a long time. I hope I'm wrong as they are building some pretty cool stuff. I remember one summer in 64 I worked as a lot boy at a Stude dealership. A few times, older kids would come in and test drive a Lark. The salesman would steer them to one with an R-1 V-8 and a 4 speed. They would return and the kid would go on his way. There would be a followup call later on and the kid would tell the guy he bought a Mustang. Nobody wanted to buy a Stude because it was common knowledge that they were in trouble. So, in spite of the fact that they, also, were building some pretty cool stuff, like hot rod Larks, Avantis and Hawks, people were afraid of buying an orphan car. If a Charger, Challenger, Ram truck is for you, buy one.
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