A moment of silence please…Ford Motor Company announced today that 2010 will be the last model year for the Mercury line of automobiles. If you have an itch for a Grand Marquis now is the time to scratch it…
Geriatrics everywhere are raising their walkers in anger
That’s okay, it seems like Lincoln is the new Mercury now. I didn’t understand why they were making cheaper Lincolns until now.
Mercury has been a curious make since it was introduced in 1939. At first, it was on a Ford chassis and was a super-trimmed Ford. In 1949, the Mercury became a baby Lincoln where it remained until 1952. In 1952, it went back on a Ford chassis until 1957. The 1957 Mercury got its own body and chassis. In 1958, Ford introduced the Edsel. The junior Edsel was on the larger Ford chassis (Ford had two chassis at this time, one for the Ford Custom series and one for the Ford Fairlane series). The senior Edsel rode on a Mercury chassis. This only lasted a year and in 1959 the Edsel was just a glorified Ford, much the same as the Mercury was in its introduction in 1939. The Mercury had its own chassis through 1960, and then reverted to a Ford platform again.
IMHO, the auto manufacturers made a mistake in expanding a line so it overlapped with another line. In 1957, Ford had two different platforms with different wheelbases–one for the Ford Custom and one for the Ford Fairlane. Perhaps the larger Ford Fairlane should have been a Mercury. I think it may be a mistake to introduce a lower line Lincoln to take the place of the Mercury. I think of what happened to Packard when it introduced the Clipper line back in the early 1940’s. Chrysler introduced a lower trim line called the Newport back in the late 1950’s and squeezed out the DeSoto. DeSoto introduced a Firesweep that was no more than a Dodge and DeSoto’s higher series were about the same as a Chrysler Newport. In any event, I think Ford is making a marketing mistake. The 1949-1951 Mercury cars were unique, sold well, and are sought after by collectors today.
I’m looking forward to the clearance sales.
But I’m sad to see another brand disappear, even though it arguably was the right business decision.
What is mind-boggling is the transformation in the industry. Just 8 years ago, Ford was trying to manage NINE brands:
Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Volvo, & Th!nk.
Now they’re managing TWO:
Ford & Lincoln.
And they seem to be doing a better job with less to juggle, but they have a long way to go on improving Lincoln’s image, even though their market share in the luxury segment has increased over the past 5 years.
The only Mercury I ever owned was the worst car I ever owned. Good riddance Mercury.
Ford seems to be making all the right decisions. If they can keep it up, I might consider a Ford for my next vehicle.
Now , as a parts man, I can stop hearing my silly customers tell me they have a
Ford-Mercury
when asked what kind of vehicle they have.
One of my mother’s cousins used to have an ongoing feud with one of her neighbors because the neighbor would antagonize her by saying “That’s a really nice Ford you’ve got in the driveway.” when referring to her Lincoln. My mother’s cousin would respond, “It’s not a Ford, it’s a Lincoln!” I would feed the fire by pointing out the Ford Motor Co. logo on the door frame.
The only Mercury that made much of an impression on me was the '63 that my neighbor had, with the reverse-slant rear window that rolled down:
http://www.lovefords.org/galleries/images/63_mercury_s55_breezeway.jpg
The silly thing is that most of the people I know who try to insult a Lincoln as being “just” a Ford refuse to acknowledge that a Lexus is “just” a Toyota.
I’ll miss Jill Wagner, the Mercury girl. Perhaps she’ll reappear in Lincoln commercials.
Did you hear about the Chinese guy who was told by his eye doctor that he had a cataract? He set the doctor straight: “Oh, no, doctor. I have Rincohn!”
(I’m Asian, so I’m allowed to tell these jokes.)
Kind of sad to see it go, but at the same time, they never really struck a chord with me, except that I knew it was a higher end Ford and lower end Lincoln. When they done away with the Cougar awhile back, I knew it was only a matter of time.
The older Cougars are nice, but the one Mercury I’d own anyday would be the LeadSled:
That reminds me of the customer I had in the early 80’s. He told me he had a Toyota SR5. I asked him what model Toyota he had and in a huff he said SR5 again. I told him an SR5 was nothing more more than trim level, do you have a Corolla, Cressida, etc. That shut him up.
I had a '79 Mercury Marquis (before it became Grand) for a few years, and, except for the 3-speed automatic, it was a perfectly nice car. Never had any problems with it. Just wish it would have had the 4-spd AOD transmission.
In those days gasoline was much less expensive, and the lack of OD didn’t really make much difference. The only real difference between the '79 Marquis and my '85 Crown Vic was the transmission.
Looking back over my records, the Merc cost me less to operate than the Crown Vic.
Who’d have thought?
Now is the time for the retro Cougar! The Mustang is great but a lot of guys would pay for an old style Cougar. Then there is that 70 Torino body to think about.
Ahhh yes, the 1969-1/2 Cyclone Spoiler II Cale Yarborough and Dan Gurney going at it at 200mph. in real “Stock Cars” (well, sort of stock)…
I would disagree with both statements. A Lincoln isn’t “just a Ford” and a Lexus isn’t “just a Toyota.” It’s the word “just” I have a problem with.
The cougars in my neighborhood are already pretty retro! 
For a few years, those Mercurys with the reverse-slant retracting windows were standard issue for the Secret Service. If you need to shoot at assassins who are following you, this gives you a great platform from which to fire!
For most people, the appeal of those windows was the “flow-through” ventilation.
In the days before everyone opted for A/C, and when most people smoked cigarettes, this design was actually very practical.
The decision to reduce duplicate cars with different badges is simply good business sense. It never made sense to me that Ford had “sister cars” under the Mercury label, that GM had the same Chevy cars under the Pontiac label etc.
In Ford’s case the decision inspires onlt respect from me. It’s being made simply based on response to the changing marketplace and not subsidized by our tax dollars or driven by Washington politicians. I tip my hat to Ford and to Mr. Mulally.