Not long ago here on Autoblog we wondered, what exactly is the point of the Mercury brand? As it turns out, dealers have nearly the same question, and they aren't getting any clear, compelling answers. At the Chicago Auto Show, Ford's Group Vice President Jim Farley said "Its role is changing, but we're not going to compromise Mercury." Around the Detroit Auto Show, CEO Alan Mulally said Ford remains committed to Mercury. Of course, Mulally also said Jaguar was part of The Way Forward -- no one knew that he meant it was the way forward for Tata.There is only one problem with Ford's statements of support: there's no new product in the Mercury pipeline (the upcoming hybrid Milan doesn't count as a new piece of original product), and no one at Ford is giving any indication of when there will be. A huge amount of elbow grease is being expended to polish the Ford brand, and after that, Lincoln is taking up all the space on a second stage. It's clear that Ford would rather sell Lincolns than Mercurys. Last year, Mercury sales dropped almost 7 percent, while Lincoln sales rose more than 9 percent. Still, Lincoln sold 37,000 fewer cars than Mercury.
But all of this, understandably, has dealers wondering what's really going to happen with Mercury. People who buy Mercurys want Mercurys, with its "independent-minded" image and greater percentage of female buyers "very loyal to the brand." Ford can't afford to shed Mercury sales while it works to shepherd Lincoln to the top of the heap. Yet until Ford reveals what it's going to do with the house of the Grand Marquis -- indeed, that it's going to do anything at all -- then one can only assume that brand interest will suffer... and with it, sales.
[Source: Bloomberg]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
adelossa @ Feb 11th 2008 7:51PM
As long as that girl on the Mercury commercials is there, then that's all I care about Mercury.
Tony @ Feb 11th 2008 7:53PM
Come on FORD, stop playing around already and KILL Mercury! You made smart moves getting rid of Jaguar and Land Rover, just be sure to keep Volvo around and you'll be fine!
Mal Fuller @ Feb 11th 2008 7:53PM
Especially in the case of Mercury, it's obvious Ford doesn't have a clue what to do with the brand. It's too bad that when it comes to Mercury at least, no one at Ford gives a rat's ass.
TriShield @ Feb 11th 2008 7:53PM
The only point of Mercury is to give stand-alone Lincoln dealers cheaper products to sell. Mercury will always be Ford products with different grilles and two-tone leather.
When (and if) Ford can make Lincoln back into a viable brand is when Ford will finally put Mercury where it belongs - to sleep.
TriShield @ Feb 11th 2008 7:56PM
And contrary to what GM and many GM fans will say, there isn't a point to any of the General's brands outside of their core business which is Chevrolet, Cadillac and HUMMER. Everything else doesn't do anything those 3 can't or aren't already doing better.
P B @ Feb 11th 2008 8:14PM
I'll raise you Saturn. It gives GM a nice place to sell it's European cars.
Andrew L @ Feb 11th 2008 8:02PM
I heard them saying that they were waiting on the success of Lincoln... as in they were going to see how Lincoln does then work on Mercury
Red Star @ Feb 11th 2008 8:03PM
Mercury must stay. I will never forgive Ford if they decide to do to Mercury what Chrysler did to Plymouth and what GM did to Oldsmobile.
psarhjinian @ Feb 11th 2008 8:45PM
What, exactly, did they do? They cut a money-losing division.
Here, you get two choices:
a) No Oldsmobile.
b) No Chevy, Olds, Pontiac, GMC, Saab, Saturn, Caddy, Opel, Vauxhall, Holden or Hummer.
Pick one.
Andrew L @ Feb 11th 2008 8:10PM
I agree, Mercury could be a Buick fighter if they ever did things right. Also Ford needs Mercury to fill in that gap between the new Lincoln
mk @ Feb 11th 2008 9:38PM
WRONG!!!
Mercury needs to be a Saturn / Pontiac alternative.
Buick and Lincoln are correspondent. Lincoln has been surpassed by Cadillac.
Killing Oldsmobile and Plymouth were desperate measures that would NOT have meant the death of the parent companies, if they had been handled right. Mercury is not in that place yet, either.
GM could have kept oldsmobile, if they had done it right, although GM has MANY more brands than FoMoCo remains holding now, and GM's house is more crowded.
Chrysler COULD have differentiated Plymouth, but they would have had to work on it, and make it different than a Dodge and Chrysler middle-child.
Ford's rhetoric is empty until they SHOW THE PRODUCT.
Even concept cars with Mercury badges... Lincoln has gotten ALL of the most recent concepts that haven't been absolutely tied to Ford, like the GT and Mustang.
MKR, MKT, MKX, MKS, all have gone to Lincoln, and Mercury has bubkus.
A 5-door, low-roof, sleek sport sedan (4-door coupe oxymoron thing) with RWD and AWD, and 3-door to take a FoMoCo product right into G35's teeth with a twin-turbo EcoBoost engine.
They could take it right across G8 GT with a modular V8 option in a lighter chassis. Of course a mainstream non-turbo V6 for the masses, and regulation appeasement.
Mercury, with that sort of a power player has something that Ford doesn't have, and Lincoln can't support with a softer luxury image.
Sell it as a Comet (special-edition Marauder), and Cougar (special edition Cougar Eliminator)
THEN, import some of the new chassis compact cars and the S-Max sporty people-mover, and maybe continue a re-badged Ford SUV, as they have in the Mountaineer and Mariner, if absolutely necessary.
They need a UNIQUE product, that neither Ford nor Lincoln has, nor fits, and that segment is near-lux PERFORMANCE. Not retro muscle, and not glitzy luxury, but a unique mix of performance and premium style.
That isn't Buick. That is straight across Saturn and Pontiac's bow, and aimed at the Japanese premium brands, like Acura, and the lower, sportier ends of Infiniti and Lexus.
TriShield @ Feb 11th 2008 8:20PM
Saturn's European experiment has yet to bear fruit, and is so far failing. Due to our dollar GM is losing money on the Astra brought straight here from Europe and the other cars have failed to light the sales chart on fire.
Ford is smart not wasting and tarnishing their European cars on dead brand like Mercury. Not only would it likely be unprofitable, we would all nitpick them for stuff like cupholders once they got here.
And why would any smart automaker want to fight another brand like Buick that is also dead? That wouldn't be a sound business plan.
Galley @ Feb 11th 2008 8:28PM
That would be Jill Wagner, and I agree.
Hank @ Feb 11th 2008 8:46PM
The upscale they decide to take Lincoln, the more they will need Mercury.
The Taurus X should become a Mercury as soon as the Flex hits the floor, and it should be upgraded to take on the Buick Enclave.
They should have a new Grand Marquis worthy of taking on the Genesis, the 300, and Buick.
They should be bold in their design, and offer premium interiors (and they need to be exclusive...as long as you can tick the same boxes at the Ford dealer, that's where you're sales will go).
stang_fan @ Feb 11th 2008 8:47PM
This story DOES and DOES NOT illustrate what is wrong with the Ford Motor Co. and Mercury in particular....no (apparent) long term product/marketing plans. It looks like Mercury will play second fiddle to Ford and Lincoln, as long as the stylists can continue to come up with grilles and option packages that turn workaday Ford products into cars and SUVs that women find to be appealing. Yes, I realize that every time Mercury has tried to step out from under Ford and try to market a distintive car...it has generally been a disaster. But isn't possible that some of the cars were just poorly marketed? I'm thinking Merkur and the FWD Capri. In the '50s and '60s Mercury built great cars that sold in respectible numbers, and Mercurys WEREN'T clones of Fords (think of the hardtop wagons in the '50s that Mercury sold and no equivalent Ford was sold, or the 1st gen Cougar, the early Montegos that set NASCAR on fire).
Hank @ Feb 11th 2008 8:47PM
Wow. I really should have run a spell check before hitting submit. That's "The MORE they decide to take Lincoln..." And I hate it when people type "you're" instead of "your". Doh!
psarhjinian @ Feb 11th 2008 9:08PM
Here's a question: does Ford make any money from Mercury. After you take away design, promotion, production and logistics, is Mercury in the black? By much?
If the answer is no, then do them in and pocket the savings. Sometimes you have to let go customers if those customers are actually costing you money.
alan @ Feb 11th 2008 9:11PM
I thought that Saturn was performing much better now that it's become Opel North America. I keep thinking that Ford should rebadge their European cars as Mercurys. They have some great cars there, and Fords new look here in the U.S. is promising also. No need to make Fords styling universal; we can have the best of both. It seems so obvious to me, but I'm sure that Fords bean counters have discussed this also, and apparently found a reason to nix it. Too bad.
JMC 3 @ Feb 11th 2008 9:13PM
Mercury or Lincoln need a luxury version of the Mustang with a formal roofline and a true back seat.
Uh,Cougar.no wait,better not call it that.times have changed and so has the meaning of 'Cougar'.Gee that would be a tough sell especially in light of Merc's appeal to women!
Well maybe Lincoln can give it a shot with the Mustang platform and do a retractable hardtop since the Thunderbird's not around anymore
Just seems to me they could get more milage out their Mustang platform with some upscale version.
Whitie @ Feb 11th 2008 9:34PM
"As long as that girl on the Mercury commercials is there, then that's all I care about Mercury."
+1