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| Goodbye Mercury? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 29 2010, 11:36 AM (877 Views) | |
| bob8748 | May 29 2010, 11:36 AM Post #1 |
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Taken from my local newspaper... Detroit- The Ford Motor Co. is expected to tell dealers in October that it is phasing out Mercury, which will be down to two models by next year. The fate of the brand has long been in question. The brand saw its peak sales in 1978 at more than 580,000 vehicles but has been in decline ever since. Ford sold 92,000 Mercurys last year. Seems we are losing another American name. Maybe we should post our Merc's in rememberence.
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| jedimario | May 30 2010, 08:26 AM Post #2 |
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RAWR
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To paraphrase what I said over at jalopnik.com: Mercury is useless, it's been nothing but rebadged Fords with no perceived difference in luxury for the past thirty years, and the only two useful cars we've gotten out of it in that timespan are the Marauder and newest Cougar. I won't miss it. |
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| AQUA XK8 | May 30 2010, 09:08 AM Post #3 |
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Fullsize
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I won't miss it either. Maybe this will allow Ford to concentrate on building a new kind of car we can love. |
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| Sak | May 30 2010, 03:52 PM Post #4 |
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Ezekiel 25:17
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Mercury was created in the first place (after much lobbying by Edsel Ford to his blockage of a father) in order to have a brand Ford owners can trade up to, in the way Chevy people were able to trade up to Pontiacs, and even Oldsmobiles. The first pre-war Mercurys of 1939 and 1940 had deluxe trim (if you use that of Pontiacs and Dodges and Nashes as a guideline), and a bored out Ford sidevalve V-8. As with the other Blue Ovals of the day, they made great customable hot rods. In 1941, they used Ford bodies that had more chrome applied. The first post-war models of 1949 were legendary. They didn't share the new Ford body; they shared bodies with the entry-level Lincolns. A very fast, attractive car, it gained immortality status from Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause, in which James Dean drove a dark green Merc two-door. Since Dean's death in 1955, the '49 and '50 two door Mercurys have been virtually unobtainable by the common man...and remain so to this day. Ford had BIG plans for Mercury starting in 1957: the marque had their own exclusive bodies. For the first time, Mercury would be able to forge their own identity. Some hoped that it would break from the styling excesses of 1955-56, in which the more deluxe models had some of the ugliest two-tone treatments in the business. The big drawing card was the 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser. I'm not going to tell you about this car, I can't do this justice-do yourself a favor and Wiki it yourself. You couldn't possibly make this up. Mercury styling in the late 1950s was done by committee, it seemed. Whoever designed the grilles clearly had nothing to do with the rears...and it showed. Adding on to the confusion was the infusion of stylists who signed on after the demise of Packard. The recession of 1957-59 hurt sales in a large way- it killed Edsel, of course. The Mercs of 1959 and 1960 were absolutely ENORMOUS! They have to be seen to believed. The station wagons, though, were quite attractive- they were hardtops. The Mercs of this era were literally like aircraft carriers. At this time, Mercury also debuted their first compact- the Comet. It resembled a slightly longer Ford Falcon. What it was supposed to be was the Edsel Comet...but then, I don't have to explain, do I? At least none of us got to see what THAT would've looked like with the split grille they were planning...which somehow showed up on the 1962 full-sized Pontiacs. 1961 saw the return of Mercurys on Ford bodies...with delete options on six cylinder engines, of all things. It was the first time Mercury employed the six- the Ford 223 c/i OHV unit. In time, Mercury got the idea that it would be better to tie their models in with being, say, junior Lincolns, instead of deluxe Fords. This began in earnest in 1965. That year also marked the debut of the Breezeway Window. It wasn't new- a slanted back rear window first showed up on the 1958 Lincoln, and was a clever and attractive drawing point to Britain's Ford Anglia, but on the big Mercs, it was as ugly as anything that had appeared in the entire decade of the 1960s, on any car on the planet. However, it was very functional. You could open the Breezeway, and make for superb ventilation, in the days before A/C was common. You also wouldn't have to worry about fogging up the rear windows in the rain (defoggers weren't common yet). But man, was that roofline ugly! Only the Monterey coupes and convertibles looked attractive without it. The 1963/64 Monterey and Marauder coupes and convertibles were among the most beautiful Ford models of the postwar era. I also put the first and second gen Mustang based Mercury Cougars in this company. Man, did I love that first Cougar! What a beautiful car! It was around this time that Mercury really began losing any kind of separate identity- unlike GM, they didn't really have exclusive trannies and engines, as, say, Pontiac and Buick did. There were Ford full-sizes, there were Mercury full-sizes, and the Mercs had just a little more chrome and chatchkas inside. There were Ford muscle cars, and Mercury muscle cars, on the same body panels. Oh, let's not forget afterthoughts like the Bobcat...the Maverick-based Comet...the Zephyr...the Monarch. All just rebadged Fords. Badge-engineering at its Zenith. The 80s went (as did the ridiculously rebadged Merkur XR4Ti, on Europe's Ford Sierra), and so did the 90s. I guess the first sign that things wouldn't continue as they were was the lack of a Mercury badged version of the Focus, right? Mercury never reached its potential, really. For this, I blame the Ford board- a bunch of blindered, infighting clowns who, over the years, replaced themselves with the same kind of executive. I also blame poor timing. Who knows what might've been if the country hadn't nosedived into a recession in 1957? Would Mercury have matured into a solid, free-standing division of Ford? Would Edsel have survived? Goodbye, Mercury. It's time has passed... |
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| james_autos | May 30 2010, 04:01 PM Post #5 |
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Minivan
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We used to have something similar to Mercury and Ford in the UK. It was called British Leyland, and a lot of the time models of the same car were simply re-badged under a different name with not much more than a different grille and dashboard. And every marque apart from MG Rover dissapeared 25 years ago because they just couldn't compete. How Mercury has survived this long is beyond me. |
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| James | May 30 2010, 05:34 PM Post #6 |
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Mr.Bowtie
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Tempo - Topaz Pinto - Bobcat 5 to 7% more for the same car..... Yeah I am surprised it lasted this lonmg |
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| Sak | May 31 2010, 06:19 AM Post #7 |
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Ezekiel 25:17
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Here's the very first Mercury, from 1939...perhaps, the very first ad?![]() The 1949 Mercury Coupe...James Dean drove a hunter green one in Rebel Without a Cause. The car has become as big a part of his legend as was the car he died in- a silver Porsche spider. ![]() Another legendary Merc- the Turnpike Cruiser of 1957. A precursor of the Edsel, really- it had every '50s space gadget on the planet- including front seats with more memory positions that you would ever use in a lifetime. It was a dismal failure, though. However, it WAS a beautiful car... ![]() Here's the great, big, incredibly huge 1959 car. Just excess in everything! The styling would tone down a bit for 1960, but the sheer size wouldn't. ![]() Ah, the Marauders! The four door's stunning...and the two door even more so... ![]() ![]() You've all seen the Cougar...and no Breezeway pics, because Sean's site might turn into a pillar of salt, as did those who had the guts to look back on Lot's Wife. However, here's a really good one... ![]() One of these Grand Marquis models was the taxi cab I drove over ten years ago. I myself logged 120K on her odometer, on the DAY shift (the night driver logged an equal, or even better amount). The original engine had worn out during that time, and a rebuilt one was installed. It went on for another three or four years after I left, doing yeoman service. The car was indestructable! It was solid. In an era of disposable cars, the Panthers stand out as examples of true craftsmanship. The official car of Seizure Village though it may have been, the Gen One Grand Marquis (of which many can still be seen on New Jersey's roads) was honest value. |
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| bob8748 | May 31 2010, 08:20 AM Post #8 |
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Nice pics Sak! I can see me driving that '59.
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| WoloMan | May 31 2010, 08:59 AM Post #9 |
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Midsize
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Thanks for the history, Sak. Yes, Mercury has seemingly "lost its way" by being a rebadged Ford. However, let's not forget that the General has been doing the exact same thing for years, spreading one model over several different brands with fascia/trim changes, maybe a unique engine here or there. Let's focus on the real loss...the Mercury spokeswoman, Jill Wagner: ![]() |
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| jedimario | May 31 2010, 11:02 AM Post #10 |
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RAWR
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Thanks for the history, Sak! But I have to disagree...I think a brand slotted between Lincoln and Ford is doomed from the start unless it's got something unique about it. Really, there isn't enough difference between the two to justify a whole 'nother brand. Maybe there used to be, but I doubt it. The car needed its own unique identity from the start, and it wasn't given one for nearly long enough. |
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| craftymore | May 31 2010, 04:35 PM Post #11 |
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Support your local demo derby.
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Couldn't agree more with ya Vin. Sir Crafty & the afore mentioned lovely Jill Wagner.
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| Sak | Jun 1 2010, 04:50 PM Post #12 |
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Ezekiel 25:17
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A lucky man you are, Zach. You see, at one time, Rob, that really did matter- GM was set up that if you had a Chevy, you theoretically traded up to a Pontiac, then an Olds, then a Buick, and so on. The companion makes GM set up in the late '20s were organized to fit inside the gaps in the price range in between the five makes (one, Pontiac, did so well, that it wound up replacing it's senior brother, Oakland, in 1931). Walter P. Chrysler, while setting up his own company from the venerable Maxwell, wanted a brand squarely in the middle price field, so that the new Plymouth owners could eventually trade up to better trim levels. He worked hard to buy out Dodge Brothers- a company that would've fit in perfectly in his plans, but it fell through, which is why he founded DeSoto. He wound up getting Dodge anyway right around the time DeSoto was about to go into production- and placed Dodge in the market just under DeSoto. Ford owners had nothing to trade up to- Lincoln was stratospheric in comparison...so they started Mercury. In the mid '50s, when the mid-priced field really took off, Mercury owners had a big gap to fill before they could land a Lincoln, hence the startup of Edsel. Over time, though, with the eventual proliferation of compacts and intermediates and captive imports and whatnot, the price fields became very blurred- and the whole concept became outdated. Maybe Mercury should've been phased out, say, after the second energy crisis... |
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| Swifty | Jun 1 2010, 05:06 PM Post #13 |
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
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While there are good points above about the lack of differentiation from Fords, I will say this about Mercury- they generally had better styling than their Ford counterparts. Albeit if it's just a grill or headlight taillight combos, the Mercurys tended to look nicer. Which would make sense, all things considered (they were supposed to be higher end Fords). In particular the Mercury Monarch (yes, the rebadged Granada) and any of the '80s/90s Mercurys with the solid headlight front fascias- the latter was a real styling direction for Mercury and the brand lost identity without it. I saw a Milan earlier today and it really stood out as a distinctive looking car, better than it's Fusion counterpart (I'm not a fan of the current Ford tri-bar grills). I will miss Mercury, but the handwriting's been on the wall for years. Lack of distinctive new products, lack of excitement (at one time Mercury, like Pontiac, stood for performance), lack of pretty much anything at all the past two years. As soon as the Sable was discontinued with the latest Taurus restyle I knew Mercury was done for. Pity they never figured out Lincoln should be competing against Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Acura instead of Buick and Chrysler. That was Mercury's market, and without it, there is no justification for the continued existance of the marque.
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| Atencio | Jun 28 2010, 10:29 PM Post #14 |
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Station Wagon
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Sorry to see it go but it was time. 70 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler, the sexiest Ford product.
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