Spy Shot: Mercury's 'Freestyle' not quite dead yet?

The demise of Mercury's Ford Freestyle variant appears to have been greatly exaggerated. Or, that's what this new spyshot would have us believe, anyway. The fine folks at BlueOvalNews snapped up a few shots of this distinctly Mercury-esque mule running around on public roads recently, and the waterfall grille and wheel choice appears to give lie to Ford's Anne Stevens' (Chief Operating Officer for the Americas) statement at the Chicago Auto Show that Dearborn is nixing the crossover variant as part of The Way Forward.

Of course, Ford could be using an existing prototype for other evaluation purposes, but the whole thing seems a bit fishy, no?

[Source: BlueOvalNews.com]