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Subscribe to this threadFord committed to Mercury brand, not to new Mercury products
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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.