Scott Burgess from The Detroit News took a ride in one of the last of a fading Mercury model - a 2010 Grand Marquis and gave his impression.
It is sad, but as Scott points out, "The Mercury Grand Marquis might have been discontinued, but it’s not going to die. It’s just going to glide and slide and ride right on down the road. "
Sadly, the buying public doesn’t know what’s best for themselves and these cars are taking a hit because of the car based SUV and the minivan. I hope such cars make a comeback when the dust settles on the power plants and economy. Big RWD cars are the safest, longest lasting and most flexible overall, vehicles made. You can take your big front drive sedans and …oops; got carried away. :=0
Cops are lamenting and crying in their coffee throughout the country.
If this road tester likes the Grand Marq so much, he would have had an orgasm driving the P71 Cop Car Panther…Same car but what a difference…The mush-melon ride is gone…The seats have bolsters, the steering is quick and responsive and the engine talks when you ask it too…A few years back you could buy a Crown Vic with HPP, high performance package, and get the best of both worlds…
The author is right about one thing…Ford has made millions of these cars and they will be around for a long time…I’m driving a 2005 P71 at the moment…It never gets less than 20 mpg and I can coax 26 out of it out on the highway, which is where this car belongs…
My grandfather drives nothing but Crown Vics. He had a 79, an 84, two 87s (which he considers the pinnacle years), a 92, a 97, an 03, and now an 07 w/ the Handling/Performance Package. Earlier this year he went to trade in the 07 for a new one. Much to his chagrin he learned that he couldn’t buy another Crown Vic, and his local dealer couldn’t locate an unsold Grand Marquis in the area either. They tried to get him into a Taurus, but he deemed it “too sporty” and the front wheel drive was a deal breaker for him. Luckily his 07 Crown Vic only has around 30k on the clock. So despite his concerns that it’s getting too old, I’m sure it’s good for another decade or so of reliable transportation.
I should point out that papa is kind of old school when it comes to cars. In his opinion any given car has useful life of about five years.
Unfortunately, there is a conflict between what appears to be safe and what actually is. Police value handling and visibility outward among two of their most preferred, Characteristics, both of which the CV and Grand Marquis have aplenty. The body on frame allows a lower belt line but suffers from interior space utilization and unbody rollover protection. The new cruisers may have better rollover protection, but I feel they will be prone to more accidents that are more expensive to repair and lack the mass these cars provide. With Taurus replacement, tire replacement will be a big issue along with drive train repair in what use to be minor front end collisions. Hopefully some one will come to their senses and ultimately engineer a proper replacement in rwd and low belt line. Maybe a Checker Cab like effort ?
Perceived safety has it’s price. We all would like to think we can walk away from accidents, but no fwd replacement will ever handle as well as these cars and avoiding accidents is the ultimate safety feature.
It seems to me that Ford Motor Company really couldn’t figure out what a Mercury was supposed to be. The Mercury was introduced in 1939 and it was essentially a glorified Ford. The Mercury continued this way until 1949 when the Mercury shared its body with the smaller Lincoln and had a 255 cubic inch V-8 engine as opposed to the Ford’s 239 cubic inch V-8. However, in 1952, the Mercury again shared its body with the Ford. In 1957, the Mercury again had its own body and was marketed as an upper mid-class car to make room for the Edsel. Mercury continued to have its own body through the 1960 model year. Then, in 1961, the Mercury went back again to the Ford chassis. From this time forward, the senior Mercury was essentially the senior Ford. The Mercury did have some nice lookng body styling, but underneath it was the senior Ford.
The buying public realized this and there was no need for this product. I still wish Mercury would have continued down the path it started in1949.
I fully expect down the road that some other car makes will also disappear. Mercury and Pontiac have faded out but eventually I expect possibly Buick or Cadillac and maybe the small GMC truck lines to become obsolete.
There’s not much difference between a Chevy and GMC pickup or SUV other than the badges and a little trim tweaking.
It was interesting that the Santa Barbara, CA PD bought 39 brand new Vics and mothballed them for future use. According to the city, they were looking at commonality of police equipment and the fact the Vics were so reliable they hated to give them up. They also stated they were adopting a wait and see attitude on the newer cars to see if they were going to be problematic or not.
It’s interesting to me that while GM and Ford are dropping various lines including Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn, and now Mercury, Toyota added the high level Lexus and the low end Scion. Honda added Acura and Nissan added Infiniti.
Adding and dropping lines is nothing new. GM dropped the Oakland and only its entry level car, the Pontiac survived. Around the same time, Buick introduced a cheaper line called the Marquette and Oldsmobile followed suit with its Viking. These cars disappeared quickly. Sometime in the 1930s, Cadillac introduced a junior model called the LaSalle, but it lasted only through 1940. Chrysler had a make called the DeSoto that was introduced in 1929 but disappeared with the 1961 model.
I think that what made the Pontiac and Oldsmobiles survive was that through the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, and into the 1970s, the GM brands were all different. The engines were completely different. The Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac V-8 engines were completely different. In the early 1950s, Chevrolet had an overhead valve 6, Pontiac had a flathead 6 and a flathead straight 8, Oldsmobile had an overhead valve V-8, Buick had an overhead valve straight 8 and Cadillac had its own overhead valve V-8. Each division developed its own overhead valve V-8 engine. I think the problems started when the GM cars all became the same except for the badge. GM should have followed the example of Proctor and Gamble. Tide and Cheer are completely different–not the same soap in different boxes.
Note that Acura, Lexus and Infiniti were introduced about 20 years ago, roughly the same time Saturn appeared.
The automotive market was quite different than it is now.
I’m so far behind the times that I didn’t realize it has been 20 years since these models were introduced. Any car is a new car to me if it was made after WW II.
At any rate, 20 years ago was when Toyota, Nissan and Honda were expanding their lines. It wasn’t too many years after that when Chrysler dropped Plymouth.
“…I expect possibly Buick or Cadillac and maybe the small GMC truck lines to become obsolete.”
The GMC trucks and Chevy trucks are similar enough that one of them could disappear. But Cadillac and Buick are so different from Chevrolet that GM would have to leave the luxury market to terminate those brands. I cna’t believe that GM would do that any time soon.
Duplicate lines never made sense to me…If the lines were actually different then I’d agree they should be kept…but making the same line, but with a different badge made no sense to me what-so-ever. Pontiac was good for GM to drop…so was Plymouth for Dodge…I also don’t see the need for Ford’s Mercury.
It seems ironic to me that duplicate lines evolved as some companies acquired other companies over the course of the 20th century and moved toward designing on common platforms. Eventually Pontiac became too similar to Chevy, Chevyy trucks became just like GMC trucks, and Mercurys and Fords became basically the same cars.
Thos of us who have been around awhile have seen numerous badges die, get acquired, emerge from obscurity, and even die again. Rambler, AMC, Chrysler, Dodge, even Jaguar and MG. The list is long. And how many players have owned SAAB and Volvo?
I guess the truth is that the industry has always been volatile.
Every once and a while, Ford uses the Mercury nameplate to have some fun…A few years back, they offered a Mercury Marauder built on the Panther platform…It got all the cop-car goodies plus I THINK it got the 300+ hp 3-valve Mustang GT engine…
These rare cars are considered the pinnacle of The Panther Worshipers…Geezer mobiles?? NOT!
The Marauder used the 4 valve 4.6L similar to the one used in the Mach 1 Mustangs, and 99-01 Cobras. They are pretty desirable cars. The only real quibble with them was that most people feel that the stock 3.55 gears are a bit inadequate given the DOHC 4.6L has better high RPM performance than low end grunt. Many owners go with 4.10 gears, which really wake the car up.
Yes indeed, 3:73 or 3:90 gears would perk things up…I notice in my '06 P71, they use the transmission to accomplish the same end…The first two gears are low enough to get you up to 70 in short order…