Man, we are so going to the National Automobile Dealers Association convention next year; you know, if they let us in. Where else would you hear Ford Prez Mark "Tool Time" Fields say "Mercury has a place in our brand portfolio" and then refuse to assure the brand's dealers that Ford won't kill it? In fact, the AP [via MLive] reports that "Ford executives" told "a group of dealers that "new Mercury products are coming." Such as…? A Mariner hybrid? A Mercury version of the Edge? [crickets chirping] Let's try that again. "When asked what he would tell dealers who fear the brand could be discontinued, Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president for marketing, said they should look at the new products." Such as…? [cue: tumbleweeds] "They wouldn't give us any definite answers," revealed Steve Downing, owner of a Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Yuba City, Calif. "Obviously the future's with Lincoln." Too true Steve, but don't worry. As Fields says, it's all part of a "process." ""Any good business on a continuous basis looks at their portfolio. Any good business does that, not just automotive, and that's part of our process."
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I guess from a buyout/lawsuit perspective, it is better to have Mercury dealers abandon the brand than the opposite. When Ford canned Mercury as a brand in Canada back in 1999, the lawsuits ran for years, even thought most Mercury stores sold 80% of Ford-branded product anyway.
I really want to read the article to see how it relates to woman in the picture, but I can’t take my eyes off her.
Robert—More Mercury articles please—like certain other publications though—I will rarely read the words and only focus on the visual:)
Well, it is difficult to answer such questions, as they are in the process of processing their process, right now, which is standard procedure for these types of processes.
My GOD…there was an article to be read? Really?? I couldn’t read for the blinding I got looking at that picture. Now if FoMoCo provided a few, um (how to say this tactfully…), glossies of her with each purchase, they may be on to something! You just gotta put “me”, er, Mercury on your list…:)
Mercury good… yum yum yum yum yum yum…
Since the only difference between Merc & Ford is badging there should be little reason to abandon the brand. Abandoning Mercury will only result in lower overall sales for Ford.
At this point neither Ford nor its dealers have any incentive to abandon Mercury (the last Mercury only dealership closed last year). It doesn’t cost Ford very much to whip up waterfall grills and different shades of faux wood, and the dealers are selling the Lincolns anyway so they don’t need to do separate ads for Mercury so it doesn’t cost them anything.
Mercury should be able to just fade away as its customers die – sine the Jill Wagner ads have done nothing to bring young women into the brand (at least not where I work).
Mullaly can’t kill Mercury fast enough.
There is no reason Jill can’t start doing ads for Lincoln. THAT would be the clearest sign as to Mercury’s fate.
My guess is that the current products like the Milan (which is really a better looking car than a Saturn Aura) and Mariner will just soldier on through their current cycles and not be replaced when the next generation Fords/Lincolns debut.
“Mercury’s last remaining asset?”
Its only asset. Skip the verbiage. More pictures please.
From “Mercury Blues” by K.C. Douglas
Well if I had money
I tell you what I’d do
I’d go downtown and buy me a Mercury or two
Crazy ’bout a Mercury
I’m gonna buy me a Mercury
And cruise it up and down the road
“Mercury’s last remaining asset?”
Oh, but what an asset…
RF,
I suppose we can now forgive you for the “white minivan episode”.
Here is an idea: Kill off Mercury, and then they can hire Jill to do ALL the commercials for Ford.
Sorry… I don’t own a TV. Who is the girl and how does she relate to Ford? I guess her name is Jill.
yankinwaoz-She appears in all of Mercury’s ads. Go to YouTube, they should all be up there.
Mercury exists to provide Lincoln dealers more product to move. If Mercury was closed, half the Lincoln dealers would go out of business, and then Lincoln would also close. Plus, it doesn’t cost Ford anything to slap a little more chrome on a Ford and charge a grand extra for it.
Geotpf, I’ve read that before somewhere…
;-)
What they should do is send her out to dealers and have a Jill Wagner Mercury sale day. With after sale test drives and her riding along.
That would sure get me to a Mercury dealer in ummm, well for the first time ever now that I think about it.
You GOTTA put Mercury on your s**t list!
Mercury IS the Grand Marquis.
Ford refuses to invest in the Panther platform.
No Grand Marquis = No Mercury.
That’s about as simple as it gets.