Ford has announced the death of its Mercury brand, but will keep and develop Lincoln to challenge the likes of Cadillac and Lexus in North America. Production of Mercury vehicles will end in the fourth quarter of this year “to fully devote its financial, product development, production and marketing, sales and service resources toward further growing its core Ford brand while enhancing the Lincoln brand.”
“We have made tremendous progress on profitably growing the Ford brand during the past few years. Now, it is time to do the same for Lincoln,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president of The Americas. Lincoln will make the news very often in the near future. The hybrid version of the MKZ will reach showrooms later this year and is expected to be the most fuel efficient premium sedan on the market. Also coming is the significantly refreshed 2011 MKX crossover, followed by another six all-new or significantly refreshed vehicles within four years.
Plans for the brand include a first-ever C-segment vehicle, new Lincoln-exclusive powertrains, including an all-new V6 engine, “advanced fuel-efficient transmissions” and EcoBoost engines for the whole range. Fuel economy leadership with each new vehicle is the ultimate goal.
Mercury was originally birthed in 1939 as a slightly more upmarket offering to Ford. However, the continued strength of the Ford brand – particularly during the past three years – has seen migration from Mercury to Ford for many customers. Today, Mercury’s customer profile, pricing and margins are almost identical to Ford, but Mercury sales have been declining. The majority of current Mercury sales are to fleet buyers and customers purchasing through employee, retiree and friends and family discounts, which largely can be satisfied by Ford’s range.
Of the Ford Group’s 16% market share in the US, Mercury accounts for only 0.8%, and movement has been flat or declining for the past several years. That contrasts with the blue oval badge, which has increased market share by 2.2% so far this year on the strength of new products such as the Fusion and Taurus.
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owhh man…now ill never gets my hands on those Mercury, oh waitt…
more and more brand went dead, sad but cant help it.
I just wonder whether mercury could do any good to Chinese company or even perhaps our own proton. I dont know much about mercury, they may not have any good engineering resources, but potentially owning an american brand, could help Proton to expand it market. Re brand the brand to Proton Mercury sounds good as well.
At present mercury selling at less than 90,000 car per year, if say Proton could keep profit per car at USD 4,000 that is about USD 360 million per annum, which is small but a good operating profit. Plus they can work out tax exemption for saving hundreds of job in America.Of course it would be very complex to make it happen…But what is so impossible.
With their existing sales network, if carefully planned, it could pave way for Proton brand in America. if ever proton could gain 5% of total american market, that is reasonable enough (they have big market remember)
Look at Mercury market equivalent brand, the BUICK, they are doing relatively well in China. I just wonder why cant proton do the same if ever they think about buying Mercury. Of course all this need careful planning and a fresh mind set, to ensure the previous blunder of MV agusta doesnt happen again(i still think it is wrong not to develop MV agusta and sell it ) Also, it could also help Lotus brand to expand its presence in USA.They always wanted to do this.
Just my 2 cents.
Finally! It just goes to show how weird American car companies are, having too much brands selling basically the same car and eating their own brand’s market share. Good for Ford to put sentimentality aside and close the brand down.
Tiadaid, u got it wrong.
Initially in the US, Ford was the vehicle of choice for the common man.
GM’s equivalent was the Chevrolet. In the Malaysian market, perhaps a Perodua, Proton, or Vios, City, equivalent.
Then when you went up the career ladder, you wanted an “Executive” car which was sporty, you had a choice between Ford’s Mercury and GM’s Pontiac and Buick.
Pontiac was sporty, whilst Buick was “regal” and upmarket, basically the Professional’s car, mostly Doctors and lawyers drove Buicks.
Then when you owned the company or made it big. You bought either a Lincoln from the Ford stables, or a Cadillac from GM. Now the Lincoln Continental was luxurious, like sitting in your sitting room and being taken for a drive across the USA. Caddy’s were even more luxurious.
Of course GM had 2 other name brands viz GMC for pick-up trucks, and Saturn, their JV with Toyota and later Hummer.
But Ford’s Marketing guys missed out on a fantastic option on the Mercury Marquis. They were advised to have a “De Sade” option, but the “fools” didnt have the guts. If they had sold the Mercury Marquis De Sade, they would have broken sales records, and perhaps it would be GM who kena bungkus.
Chrysler was the mass market vehicle, whilst Plymouth was the racy version and Dodge the tough guy, generally pick-up trucks and badge engineered cars. Then there were upmarket Chrysler’s too bearing the same name plate. Then they also bought JEEP line of vehicles.
Most American’s are either linked to Ford or GM chaps, and some were Chrysler Hemi guys. Our beloved long serving PM was a Buick/Chevy fan. He drove a beautiful yankee car during his days as a practicing Doctor in Alor Setar those days b4 it was no longer popular to drive a Yankee car.
When I was in the States, I had a Buick Century, 6,700 cc V8 engine. Press the accelerator and go up a hill, and you can see the fuel gauge moving towards empty. Yet petrol or “gas” was inexpensive, about US$1.30/1.90 a US gallon. It was a 20 year old car which I bought for US100 bucks. Here in Boleh-land a 20 year old car would cost between RM3K to 30K depending on type of vehicle. Go figure!
oops.
Meant to say, as you moved up, the Mercury / Pontiac / Buick would be the equivalent of today’s Accord / Camry / Cefiro.
Then as you moved higher up the value chain, the Lincoln/ Caddy would be today’s Mercedes / BMW / Audi.
If you can, read about Chrysler in the 80’s and 90′. With one platform, they built numerous iterations and models. Proton should have done the same. Take one platform and spew out at least 5 to 6 different models eg.
Waja Chassis – they have the 4 door Waja.
Where is the:
i) 2 door coupe (a replacement for the Putra),
ii) pick-up truck, Arena/Jumbuck;
iii) SUV ;
iv) MPV;
v) wagon / estate / shooting brake;
vi) cabriolet;
vii) 4 door coupe akin to the CLS.
Just imagine if they did the same to the Perdana. Make the Perdana variants more luxurious. Then with the protection during TDM’s time, they could have stopped or minimized the advent of the Wish, Sienna, RAV4, Alphard, Highlander, LandCruiser, etc.
With Ford moving upmarket with higher quality products, no doubt that it has canibalized Mercury sales…which consists of rebadged Fusion and Explorer and the ancient Grand Marquis.
American used to like a lot of sub-brands as each holds its own loyal customers. Unfortunately, loyal customers are lacking when products and product differentation have been lackluster. The market is no longer the same with hordes moving towards Korean marques.
Look at GM axing Pontiac and Oldsmobile. And it shows that even with a good brand history, lack of good products wont float it. And only reason why Buick survived is because GM spent loads of cash on a certain tiger and China seems to love it.
America is a good example of a market of rebadging, with cosmetic changes. Very similar to our Perodua-Daihatsu-Toyota method.
Lincoln is more commercial, Mercury is “acidic” hehehehe….
With grills like that no wonder people are running away from Mercury to Ford. LOL
used to roam upstate new york in a friend’s green 1996 mercury sable. sad to learn about the brand’s demise.
to a certain extent, I believe VW is starting to see the same issues with its other brand audi. with VW today moving up the premium ladder from its previous “peoples car” branding, it will definitely eat into some Audi business. Likewise, its Skoda brand is also starting to compete with VW as it too moves from bargain basement cars to a more premium standing.
well, wasn’t aware that both were ford’s