Friday Photochop Fun: Mercury saved by Mondeo
click on image to enlarge
This nicely done Photochop of a Mercury-badged Ford Mondeo was sent in to us by Autoblog reader Galvin, which is funny because it's the second Photochop of a Mercury-badged Ford Mondeo we've received from readers this week. The quality of Galvin's pixel painting got us thinking about amending our comments in the past about what Ford should do with Mercury, which you can read here. Seeing this makes you wonder whether such a vehicle could actually do anything to not just stop Mercury's slide, but bring back the brand we'd all like to succeed but just don't expect to. It's a nice thought, and frankly we'd entertain a lot of crazy notions that would result in Ford's new Mondeo being sold in the U.S., but then reality kicks in and we remember the Mercury Milan, which shares its platform and a lot of other stuff with the Ford Fusion and Lincoln Zephyr. The Mondeo would likely never become a rebadged Mercury because the Fusion triplets are actually selling well as a whole. Also, such a vehicle would likely cannibalize sales from the Fusion and MKZ were all three to be sold in the same market.
Nevertheless, something has to be done about Mercury and its overreliance on poorly-rebadged Ford products. With General Motors officially announcing the Saturn Astra yesterday and completing that brand's transformation into an almost all-Opel lineup, we wonder whether or not the same thing couldn't be done with Mercury, at least in the case of the Mondeo. Bringing over your best cars from Europe to save that slipping brand in the homeland seems to be working for GM, perhaps Ford should follow suit.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
ROB B 7:59PM (12/08/2006)
Wow looks really good and almost real. Lets see one tith a 3 bar gille on it now.
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Misaniovent 8:00PM (12/08/2006)
The fun thing here is that this really does look better than the Ford version.
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AJ 8:20PM (12/08/2006)
yes. If the triplets are doing so well here, in mexico and brazil, then bring this over to keep from having to open a second factory. Overprice it for the hell of it to keep from canibalizing sales.
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dave 8:12PM (12/08/2006)
The car-loving part of me is crying a little, knowing that this will never happen.
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TriShield 8:21PM (12/08/2006)
A great car that would be completely wasted Mercury.
Ford's own brand is the one that makes or breaks the company, it's not going anywhere unless the strength (and weakness) of Ford-branded sales takes it there.
The car should be sold here as it is, the Ford Mondeo. Mercury and Lincoln need to be discontinued as they contribute very little to Ford's bottom line, and take up a lot of their valuable resources.
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Hello 8:38PM (12/08/2006)
I would buy that in a heartbeat. It's a shame that this probably won't make it over here due to the Fusion/Milan/Zephyr : (
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Talis 8:28PM (12/08/2006)
I would like to see the Milan dropped from the line up (even though I am considering buying it). The reason is I think the just like GM with Saturn, Ford with Mercury should give us some tuned cars from Europe.
I would say let Ford stick it out with our Fusion, and give Mercury the Mondeo in drab. Next lets give Lincoln a version of a Mondeo ST in addition to the MXZ. This would be a sport model (sort of like an M3). Before you say anything the Mondeo ST is rated by Ford to have 166 KW (223 HP) and 285 Nm (210 Lb-f) torque. And that’s in the Gas version... There is also a diesel.
Lets also fill up Mercury’s line up with a van and a truck. Now I know some of us have a problem with the Lincoln F150, but maybe a luxury version of the Ranger would be in order. I am going to defer to the truck guys if they want the out dated US Ranger, or the new(er) Ranger from over seas. I like the Ranger XLT double cab. As for the van, the C-Max or S-Max and the Meta One concept should fit well in here.
So! That's the Mercury:
Mondeo
Montego
Ranger XLT double cab
Mountaineer
C-Max/S-max
Meta One
Let me know what you think!
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rygar 8:32PM (12/08/2006)
YES!! The return or Merkur!!
The 80's are back!
Totally tubular.
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J P 8:42PM (12/08/2006)
Hey. while your at it, FoMoCo, importing euro products, give us the Euro-spec Ford Ranger, you know, the one with the clean diesel engine. The one over here's been essentially the same since 1993.
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Willie 8:43PM (12/08/2006)
QUICK!!!Somebody send this to Ford and tell them Mercury needs something like this in addition to the Milan (another nice mercury). That is a really great photoshop.
btw, I love how they used the Detroit skyline as a back drop.
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Stphane Dumas 8:50PM (12/08/2006)
and what about the Aussie Fords who could also be sold as Mercurys? The Falcon could be a new Marquis or Montclair or a Meteor.
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doug 7:04AM (12/09/2006)
The only problem with rebadging Euro Fords as Mercurys is what to do with the Focus? The Euro lineup is so cohesive stylewise (what a thought) that having the Focus as a Ford and the Mondeo as a Mercury with all the same styling cues would be problematic.
And will people PLEASE stop calling Saturn's lineup Opels!!!! The Aura is NOT a Vectra, it is a restyled G6. The Sky is not an Opel GT, it is the other way around. The Relay, the Outlook are NOT Opels.
The next gen Saturns will be Opels, the Astra, Vectra (Aura) wagon, The NEXT Vue, the NEXT Aura, maybe the Corsa.
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Jorge 9:01PM (12/08/2006)
Mexico has the Fusion and the Mondeo (previous generation, the new one should make it there too). There are no Mercury's currently (The Mystique was sold and it was very popular, a lot more than the Contour, since the mystique was available in more trims than the Ford version). And I just saw that Mexico is also getting the new generation Focus ST while the older generation will still be sold as the base version. Odd.
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bad blooooood 9:41PM (12/08/2006)
STOP THIS Please.
Look no one ever acuses Ford of building good concept cars. Yes this looks great. BUT once the real car will enter the production
#1 It will not look like that
#2 The interior will be made of cheap plastic....all concepts look good, even from GM and Ford.....but they later produce JUNK.
#3 QUALITY, QUALITY, QUALITY....Ford makes poor cars...what does it mean to be poor? It means that your AC can break....$1,000 to fix, power locks stop working properly.....$500 to fix, may burst into flames.......priceless
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DJ 9:45PM (12/08/2006)
I would not give this car to Mercury. Instead, I would discontinue the Mercury brand altogether. Give Ford some of the entry level European lineup, keep Mustang, Fusion, Five-Hundred and it's SUV's & trucks.
Give THIS car to Lincoln as an Acura TSX competitor, position the MKZ against the TL and the MKS against the RL. Replace the Town Car with the Aussie LTD. Keep the MKX as is and revamp the Navigator AGAIN, this time the right way.
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Daniel 9:53PM (12/08/2006)
YES - This is a no-brainer!
A Mercury Mondeo would bring a lot of folks into the dealerships. I would not compete with the Fusion trio - it would complement it.
The Mercury Mondeo would be a huge winner. Next a Ford 427 and a Mercury Marauder!
Kick some butt.
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Kowell 10:04PM (12/08/2006)
"1. Wow looks really good and almost real. Lets see one tith a 3 bar gille on it now."
Screw the bar...bring me THIS one!
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Jackson 10:07PM (12/08/2006)
#13, this is a photoshop of the PRODUCTION Mondeo. Considering Ford just stamps different name plates on, this picture wouldn't be at all far from the real thing...if it were to happen.
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CrunchyCookie 10:10PM (12/08/2006)
It kinda makes sense: fill the Ford line with rebadged Mazdas, fill the Mercury line with rebadged German cars. Imagine the coexistence of the Ford Fusion and Mercury Mystique, Ford Probe GT and Mercury Cougar, Ford Escort GT and (Mercury) Focus.
It lets Ford get away with nearly-free badge engineering while accomplishing brand differentiation and variety, while not diminsihing any brand with American-engineered crap like the Taurus.
Best of all worlds?
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Howard Kerr 10:13PM (12/08/2006)
I agree with DJ, this would make a better entry level Lincoln. Though with this car being marginally smaller than an MKZ and probably about the same price....it probably wouldn't sell in the necessary numbers.
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