Because of an unusual concentration of radio and television broadcast antennae in and around the Detroit suburb where I live, just about every car company and automotive electronics vendor that does business in North America tests their cars for resistance to radio frequency interference in my neighborhood. Ford in particular seems to like the testing location – it’s only 20 minutes from Ford facilities in Dearborn and convenient to do worst case real world testing.
So it’s not unusual to see camo’d prototypes being tested around here. Though unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, yesterday I saw a fairly-close-to-production Lincoln being tested. The vehicle was either a sport ute or crossover. It was clearly a Lincoln – you could easily see Lincoln’s now signature bow wave grille behind the plastic cladding.
My first thought: it was a restyled MKX so I asked the engineers testing the car if it was the new MKX. They were coy and wouldn’t say. Upon reflection, though, the rear end looked more squared off, like the spy pics of the upcoming car based unibody Ford Explorer. If that’s the case, then Ford will be replacing the Mercury Mountaineer, the Explorer’s rebadged cousin, with a Lincoln branded car.
Of course I’m just speculating, but if the Mountaineer is indeed being replaced by a Lincoln branded vehicle, that doesn’t bode well for the Mercury brand. Ford may have decided, like Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti and Honda/Acura, that two brands are sufficient to cover the entire market and that there’s no need for an entry level luxury brand to be shoehorned between the mass market cars and the more upscale brand.
If I’m wrong and it is the new MKX, not a rebadged Explorer, the restyling makes brand sense. The current MKX was styled before Lincoln embraced the bow wave grille, and it borrows from the Lincoln Continental concept Ford showed in 2002 which itself pays homage to the classic Continentals of the early 1960s. Though the bow wave grille is a bit polarizing – some folks like it and some make krill jokes, it is brand identifiable and the entire Lincoln lineup should use the same styling language.
[Note: Brace yourself Lincoln lovers. Robert Farago’s review of the new MKT appears on Monday.]
It would make sense to close down Mercury – the brand is completely irrelevant anymore. This is particularly true when so many Ford branded vehicles are priced in the “entry luxury” part of the market. (I’m looking at you, Flex and Taurus.)
I get Buick. I kind of got Oldsmobile, and could even figure out Pontiac, more or less. But for the life of me I’ve never been able to understand Mercury.
As Ford has stated before, the brand is popular with what is widely believed to be an underserved car buying demographic.
@mtr2car1
“As Ford has stated before, the brand is popular with what is widely believed to be an underserved car buying demographic.”
What car buying demographic would that be? The walking dead between 75 and 100?
Yep. Get ’em now and they’ll be buying Mercs until they die…..whoops! Cupholders come complete with a glass for holding their false teeth…
Yehhuhk… That is one creepy-ass freakin’ commercial. Who signed off on that crap I wonder.
As far as Mercury being an irrelevant brand, I think I finally agree. Lincolns have become what a Mercury was meant to be.
Hmmm, Ford Oakville is closing for a week due to parts shortages. (I am free this evening because Kate Beckinsale cancelled on me.)
@Mark MacInnis
Mercury has a very strong African American customer base – much more highly penetrated than either the Ford or Lincoln brand and they have stated that they don’t want to lose that customer.
I liked the old Steve McGarett Mercury – “The Man’s Car”. The only vestige left of when Mercury was relevant, and popular, is the Grand Marquis, and Ford has completely wasted that asset and platform.
The new Mercury is dead – who thought marketing to women and “metrosexuals” would work? Probably some overpaid consultants from the East Coast.
The only vestige left of when Mercury was relevant, and popular, is the Grand Marquis, and Ford has completely wasted that asset and platform.
Amen Brother.
I’m unlikely to ever buy a Mercury, but I’ve always found that ad very compelling. I particularly like the flower petals folding into the bolts.
I’m guessing the model weighs what, 90 pounds? Obviously Ford/Mercury are still catering to the 90 Pound Suburban Housewives Driving Their Suburban Panzers:
http://www.90poundsuv.com/
Here in East Bubbaville, such creatures drive such things as status symbols. It’s the female equivalent of “compensation” or something…without the male naughty bits.
It was reported a long time ago that Mercury would become a small car brand (rebadges of Fiestas, Focuses, etc.), with Lincoln’s lineup starting with the MKZ and anything bigger. If they held on to that plan, then the biggest vehicles for Mercury would be a rebadged Kuga, and a rebadged C3 Focus as the next Milan.
Of course, there’s also the possibilty that Ford changed its mind at a later time, and decided to phase out Mercury after all, but I wouldn’t use this Lincoln Explorer as proof of that. Now, if it was a rebadged Lincoln Kuga, then…
taxman100:
The new Mercury is dead – who thought marketing to women and “metrosexuals” would work? Probably some overpaid consultants from the East Coast.
Elena Ford, actually.
That is good intuition; perhaps Ford is trying to move Mercury towards the small, import fighter market that lacks trucks, SUV’s, CUV’s etc.
Mercury truly is lost in terms of segmentation and has been since the 60’s when it was a somewhat different car that a Ford or a Lincoln. They even had their own engine (410 C.I. FE series in ’66) but they lost their real identity soon after.
The only thing that I know for sure is that Ford and GM are drowning in CUV’s which make as little sense or less that SUV’s. It is these bone-headed moves that convince me they are both shot gunning the market with no purposeful sense of direction.
I hope that Mercury continues to exist, but only so long as they use Jill Wagner in their commercials.
In fact, if I were Steve Rattner, I might be tempted to claim some sort of droit de seigneur with regard to automotive spokeschicks. I wonder if that’s constitutional?
Mercury has a very strong African American customer base – much more highly penetrated than either the Ford or Lincoln brand and they have stated that they don’t want to lose that customer.
I’m another person able to kinda-sorta fathom GM’s brands, but long-baffled by the existence of Mercury. I had never heard this particular fact before, but if true, it makes sense for hanging on to the brand.
But *why* is it true? Was it part of a conscious strategy? Mercury franchisees disproportionately setting up in underserved African-American neighborhoods? Pure accident?
mtr2car1 :
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:45 pm
@Mark MacInnis
Mercury has a very strong African American customer base – much more highly penetrated than either the Ford or Lincoln brand and they have stated that they don’t want to lose that customer.
Interesting idea. It’s supported by the fact that Ford came out with the Marauder version of the Panther platform – essentially Ford’s version of the mid ’90s Impala SS, selling a police package with good graphics and a nice interior.
About 90% of the people I see driving either Marauders or the Impala SS are big black men. When I talk to the guys who drive them, they tell me that want a large, comfortable and fast car.
The Chrysler 300 with the HEMI and the new Taurus SHO appeal to the same market.
Mercury has been redundant for 30 years, lacking any really unique vehicles apart from Ford or Lincoln.
Keeping Jill Wagner employed at Ford might help business.
Has there ever been an auto company that has been hurt by having too few brands?
Elena Ford, actually.
She’s not an inspiring speaker for sure.
She currently is head of global marketing for Ford.
Though on a personal level I think she should be commended for at least trying to have a career. She’s loaded on both sides of her family, like her cousin Billy. So she could be idly rich if she wanted to. She also married a blue collar guy and had six kids with him, though they’re now divorced.
Billy’s mom is a Firestone. Elena has a Greek name because her father was Greek shipping tycoon Stavros Niarchos. She uses her mother’s surname professionally.
Boy the Mercury cars really are green.
ms. wagner is about the only good thing mercury has going for it!
Ford rambled on about making Mercury a small car brand a while back, but made a pretty clear statement about that when the showed the Lincoln C concept at NAIAS 2009, a small premium car complete with bow wave grill. If Mercury were going to be around, that should have been a Mercury C.
Speaking of concepts, the last concept car to appear at NAIAS with a Mercury badge was a 2006 Meta-One which was a rebadged Freestyle. You have to go all the way back to the 2003 Mercury Messenger sports car. That means that no one has been working on a “Mercury DNA” since 2003 (look no further than the refreshed Milan). A dead brand doesn’t need a future style.
As for this mysterious Lincoln “Explorer”, are you sure you didn’t see a regular Explorer prototype. Leftlane has been showing them all month, and they look like they have the bow wave grill due to a rather wide piece of padding running down the middle of the grill to hide the Ford logo. If I saw one casually, it would be an easy mistake to make.
I’m guessing the model weighs what, 90 pounds? Obviously Ford/Mercury are still catering to the 90 Pound Suburban Housewives Driving Their Suburban Panzers:
What is it with that? I did some contract work at Bayer and some women used to commute in one of these…a 2003 (Eddie Bauer edition naturally). You had to make an abrupt right turn to get into the parking lot and the lot itself was pretty confining. She looked like an idiot, perched in that goddamed monstrosity, sawing at the wheel and trying to navigate to a parking space. The US Navy could moor a frigate with more alacrity.
Mercury is clearly on its way out. Someday, FoMoCo will make the announcement and it will not even make the front page. Probably on a Friday, too. That’s always a good trick.
If you are going to tart up a Ford product with a fancy grille and upgraded leather, you might as well make it a Lincoln. Might be able to charge an extra $500 vs only $50.
As for this mysterious Lincoln “Explorer”, are you sure you didn’t see a regular Explorer prototype. Leftlane has been showing them all month, and they look like they have the bow wave grill due to a rather wide piece of padding running down the middle of the grill to hide the Ford logo. If I saw one casually, it would be an easy mistake to make.
As I said in the post, it clearly had a Lincoln bow wave grille. There was no piece of padding in the middle. I didn’t see it casually as it drove by. I walked right up to the car and was standing right in front of the vehicle and could see right through the mesh camo on the front. It’s too bad I didn’t have a camera with me. Also, the vehicle had multispoke Lincoln style aluminum wheels.
I wouldn’t even call this a “wild ass” rumor. Mercury is clearly on the way out. Look no further than their own website. They offer four vehicles, one just got a half ass makeover and two others are clearly on their way out. I didn’t even know you could still buy a Grand Marquis! And as other posters have pointed out, when is the last time you saw a Mercury concept that had any chance of production? Or heard rumors of new models? Ford isn’t exactly secretive about its future models. Everyone has seen the C-max, Focus and Explorer etc. It seems Mercury’s time has come. The only thing missing is the press release.
How ironic, I thought the ad was about burying the brand; “sometimes a good idea is no longer a good idea and just has to die”
Moving Lincoln down instead of up left those brands too close.
In 1971-72 I would hang out at a friend of my parents’ Lincoln-Mercury dealership (which he owned for about 2 years; his career before and after was as a Pontiac sales manager). At the time, the full-size Mercury not only had some real styling distinctions versus the Ford Galaxie/LTD (hiding headlights on the Marquis, different roofline for coupes, etc.), it also had (through 1978) a longer wheelbase. And Lincoln had only two car lines – the Continental sedan and coupe, and the (Lincoln-badgeless) Continental Mark IV coupe – neither of which was a Mercury with a different badge.
The Montereys and Marquises of 1972 were the raison d’etre of the marque, just as the Grand Marquis is today. Since the 1979 model year, the Marquis/Grand Marquis (and its fleet-only sibling, the Ford Crown Vic) has been essentially unchanged with respect to engineering. And its buyers for a long time were faithful enough, despite this, to justify the continued existence of the Mercury brand.
Why they were so loyal is a mystery to me. Two years ago I traveled with my family to San Francisco and had arranged to pick up a rental car near Union Square and drop it off at Reno airport a week later, and instead of my Sebring-class reservation, I was given what they seemed to call a “Grandma Key,” which I then was obliged to drive down Lombard Street while trying not to slide sideways on the ridiculous front seat. (We switched the car at Sacramento airport later that day, for a not-so-terrible low-mileage Avenger.)
Anyway (to quote Anne Elk) My theory that belongs to me is as follows: There simply is no reason for Mercury to continue once the pool of Grand Marquis customers dwindles and vanishes. No other factors, such as those mentioned above, really matter.
“I’ve never been able to understand Mercury”
It’s a Mercury thing. You wouldn’t understand. And unfortunately, neither does Ford. “Amen Brother.” I second the amen. There was a time, though… Today I heard about a ’57 Merc hardop, supposedly in good shape, available for $1,200. Gotta check that out.
Mercury is clearly on its way out. Someday, FoMoCo will make the announcement and it will not even make the front page. Probably on a Friday, too. That’s always a good trick.
Stand-alone LM dealers would have to find another brand to make up for the lost volume, or eventually risk going out of business. Lincoln has yet to outsell Mercury and the cheapest MKZ starts at $34K MSRP, not exactly a bargain in this economic climate.
FWIW MKX gets the wing grille for MY2011. Spy shots of the 2011 Explorer.
I dunno, this seems like pretty shaky evidence to warrant calling in the coroner on Mercury. However, I note that TTAC hasn’t had a review of a Mercury vehicle since 2007. I’d like to see a review of the Milan concurrent with the Fusion refresh. Ford’s had more than enough time to differentiate the brands, so now would be a good time to hear some arguments for/against its existence. Personally, Mercury has successfully alienated me with its “girls only” ad campaign and consequent brand management. If it IS in fact time to consign Mercury to the history books, I won’t be shedding any tears.
Regarding the popularity of Mercury among Afro-Americans, I think that’s not so much support of Mercury as it is support of the Panther platform. Besides the 300C, the Panthers were the only vehicles in the big RWD domestic sedan category after the demise of the Caprice/Impala. The Grand Marquis’s biggest market, IIRC, was the 65+ crowd.
Wasn’t their already an Explorer-sized Lincoln, the Aviator? Maybe this is a next gen of that.
So Mercury’s been marketing to women and selling disproportionately to black customers? I guess it’s not just a coincidence then that the only Mercury owner in my circle of friends is a black woman (with a Milan).
I wonder if that add also as a inside meaning to those within the Ford company. (Give us more time, before you pull the plug)
Ford needs to figure out how they’re going to market Lincolns if they drop Mercury. As was already mentioned dealerships won’t be able to survive as Lincoln only franchises. Back in the late 70’s when both Lincoln and Mercury had considerably higher volumes than they do today a Ford study revealed that the only L-M dealership likely to survive as solely a Lincoln store was the largest one in the country. Ford’s total mismanagement of both the Lincoln and Mercury brands doesn’t bode at all well for L-M dealers. It seems like a forgone conclusion Mercury is on its way out. Definitely not a good time to be a L-M dealer nor has it been for many years. Ford really made a mess of this distribution channel.
Mercury dies with the GMQ.