Goodbye Mercury

RossD wrote: Mercury Falcon F6?: Turbo I-6 DOHC awesomeness

This could be their Marauder . . .

Wasn't there an issue (read: lots o cash) to change the Aussie Ford platform from RHD to LHD?

MAN. That Falcon is almost as hot as Jill Wagner.

If pontiac could get the G8 for a little while at least tease us with some imported fords as mercury cars before they die.

The falcon is a perfect example.

TJ wrote: Will anybody miss them? Do they offer anything that you can't get in a Ford?

They usually had an extra inch or two of length behind the rear wheels.

"Do they offer anything that you can't get in a Ford?"

There were many times, over the years, when Mercury offered engines that were not available in a Ford...or were only available if you could get the Ford dealer to do a REALLY special order for you. Generally, Mercurys had a bigger standard engines than "comparable" Fords did.

When Mercury brought out the Cougar, in 1967, Ford still gave you a choice of a BIGGER-optional 6 cylinder in the Mustang(I'm talking about the "base" car)...while Mercury NEVER offered a first or second gen. Cougar with any 6 cylinder engines. Mercury, when the XR-7 Cougar was introduced in mid '67, gave you leather. I know Ford offered leather in Mustang Grandes when they were introduced in '69....don't know if it was available sooner.

As I said in an earlier post, Ford actually gave you a reason to aspire to the Mercury....image? nameplate? but then the beancounters just watered down the cars. The only recent glimmers that Mercury had it's own image were cars like the 1st gen. Sable, and sad to say...the Australian Capri. The 1st gen. Sable was definitely not a Taurus with a different grille...almost all the sheetmetal was different, in a sort of European looking style. The Capri? Well, it sort of returned the car to it's original "Euro" roots. Unfortunately, Mazda also built it's best competitor.

Merc flatheads always had more stroke than Ford flatheads.

Is Mercury really necessary nowadays as a brand? Probably not.

Shawn

WSJ article

Looks like the proverbial last nail in the coffin just got pounded in. Official announcement by Ford to follow later today.

Looks like I'm gonna try to buy a new Mercury for the last M.Y.

I was a Mercury owner back in high school. I had two 1987 Cougar XR7's, and I liked them. They were nice inside, handled ok, and while extremely underpowered with the 150hp 5.0L, I thought it was a decent car. Even though it was a "badge engineered" Thunderbird, it had a completely different (and kinda goofy) roofline and looked different enough than the Thunderbird that it stood apart as it's own car. Nothing they've made past 2000 or so was really different than it's Ford counterpart.

It was inevitable that they would end up dead, and honestly, I'm surprised it took this long. I'm still pissed about GM shutting down Pontiac though. That shouldn't have happened. Mercury should be joining Buick in the afterlife.

Some of us hoped, and I know I'm FAR from the only one who thought a Mercury based Miata was an awesome idea.

Alas, it was not to be.

Now my badge holder will be a collectors item.

Eric

You Americans are so behind the times; Ford of Canada killed Mercury years ago. I'm pretty sure you could actually get a Ford Cougar for a year or two (I know it was sold in Europe this way from 99-02), or maybe they were just sold in Ford dealerships but still badged as Mercurys.

I wonder how many of Mercury's future sales will become Ford sales. Logic says that most of them should since they are basically the same cars, but does the car buying public really know that Mercury=Ford? Will the Fusion pick up all of the sales that would have gone to the Milan or were people buying the Milan because they didn't like the looks of the Fusion and instead buy a Malibu or an Altima?

Bob

Um.... Hate to burst the bubble guys, but Jill doesn't work for Mercury anymore. She is shilling for Chevy these days.

Inside the vault! (there is a innuendo there...I just have to find it...)

When I was in college they brought the chick who used to do the ads with the cougar on the roof to the local mall with the cat and the car. She was hawt! Of course I was swimming in hormones at thw time.

I'll admit, I don't understand the thinking of re-badging. However, it seems to work.

How come GRMers are naysayers when it's Ford/ Mercury, yet everyone is happy when one car is released under the names Suzuki Swift/ Geo Metro/ Chevrolet Sprint/ Suzuki Cultus/ Pontiac Firefly/ Chevrolet Metro/ Suzuki Forsa/ Holden Barina/ AND Subaru Justy?

SVreX wrote: How come GRMers are naysayers when it's Ford/ Mercury, yet everyone is happy when one car is released under the names Suzuki Swift/ Geo Metro/ Chevrolet Sprint/ Suzuki Cultus/ Pontiac Firefly/ Chevrolet Metro/ Suzuki Forsa/ Holden Barina/ AND Subaru Justy?

I don't think most people, even GRMers realize that the car was that many things. And I think that you'd find they are (we are) all naysayers of GM brand engineering as well.

Naysayers or not, it appears to work, and work well for virtually all manufacturers.

Well, I'm surprised they made it this long. I haven't paid a lot of attention to anything any American car makes have done in years. The Euro Capri was sold at Mercury dealers, but never badged a Mercury. But I did think their Fox Capri looked cooler than the Mustang.

There was one of these at the local Ford/Mercury dealer when I was a kid. It was used, but couldn't have been more than a couple of years old at the time. I really wanted it. Still do.

I agree that euro fords and aussie fords would be the best place for mercury.. as it is, it appears that the fleet of foot was not fast enough to stave of extinction forever

I liked Mercurys. Yeah, They were the same as a Ford, but some Mercury's looked better than it's sibling rival. Plus I grew up with Mercury's: My grandmas '66 Mercury Montclair and '89 Mercury Grand Marquis also My dad's '78 Mercury Zephyr.

mad_machine wrote: I agree that euro fords and aussie fords would be the best place for mercury.. as it is, it appears that the fleet of foot was not fast enough to stave of extinction forever

There's a brand position issue with this. Look at this thread - people associate Mercury with luxury. It's a Ford, but a more luxurious Ford. Just not quite a Lincoln. That's part of why the Merkur didn't work, though they never called that a Mercury either.

If Ford wanted to do this (which would be cool) they'd be better off ditching Mercury and starting a new brand offshoot that they could build a performance image around.

spitfirebill wrote: When I was in college they brought the chick who used to do the ads with the cougar on the roof to the local mall with the cat and the car. She was hawt! Of course I was swimming in hormones at thw time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZublGlBIiW4

This girl?

SVreX wrote: I'll admit, I don't understand the thinking of re-badging. However, it seems to work. How come GRMers are naysayers when it's Ford/ Mercury, yet everyone is happy when one car is released under the names Suzuki Swift/ Geo Metro/ Chevrolet Sprint/ Suzuki Cultus/ Pontiac Firefly/ Chevrolet Metro/ Suzuki Forsa/ Holden Barina/ AND Subaru Justy?

Give me an example of 3 people that are happy about the Suzuki rebadging exercise.

Most people are not car people, and don't quite get the relationship between different divisions within a manufacturer. There was a time when a lot of them were different cars. In order to make more money, they kept the individual looks similar, but made them practically identical mechanically. Given the choice between a Chev, and a Pontiiac, I would buy the Pontiac most of the time because I prefer the looks.