Straightline

Tell me again why Mercury exists? Mercury is like a black hole. No matter how much money you throw at it, nothing ever comes out. (except obviously rebaged fords.)

I for one would be sad to see Mercury go. Even if they are rebadged Fords, at least they have 10x's the style of the Fords. O would take a Milan over a Fusion, or a Mariner over an Escape any day. The Mountaineer also looks way better than the Explorer!

They should send either the Taurus X or the Flex to Mercury to give them some unqiue product, or better yet bring the Mondeo and call it a Mercury. But without doing any of that, Mercury is effectively dead.

I'm conflicted. I agree with redliner and lucyinfiniti simultaneously.
 
More on topic though, I think the title of this article must be changed. It is simply untrue. According to Schirmer, no net marketing money is being pulled from Mercury, it is simply being moved from TV to the Internet and dealers, which FoMoCo believes will be more effective for the same amount of money. If they are right, that would be the opposite of a move to kill Mecury!

I, for one, like the Mercury commercials. I find them unique and inventive (the Jill Wagner ones). I can't say I'm dying to buy a Mercury, though.

Jill Wagner is the only reason those commercials hold my attention...
 
IMO, Mercury needs to be the Saturn of Ford. I agree with Daytona_500 about bringing over the Mondeo and badging it as a Mercury. Heck, bring over the Falcon from OZ and the Euro Focus ST and rebadge them as Mercury's too. The Focus ST could be used to resurrect the Tracer or Topaz name (I prefer the former) or just create a whole new moniker altogether.
 
And for goodness sakes! Bring back the Cougar... and not in the same vain as the late 90/early 00 Cougar either. I mean a performance machine from the 70's.
 
All that would help give the brand a deciphering characteristic and separate it from Ford while offering Ford's global models to the US. Seems like a win-win situation to me.

Flicmod hopefully doesn't mean a Mustang badged cougar either!! I don't think cats and horses have gotten along lately... Until the 300-400hp Jaguar XF...
 
A good mercury Cougar could be made off the Mustang but hopefully a Hatch like the Early 2000's but more like a Scion TC or Mitsu Eclipse. COOL! A base 2.3l I4 with 160hp and optional 2.3l Turbo but with 240hp with 6AT.
 
Ford should make Mercury a sporty youthful brand. Yeah it'll be heard to get away from the Sable and Grand Marquis Image but What about images of 70's Cougars or Discontinued Mauraders. FUN AND APPEALING TO YOU PEOPLE... LIKE SCION AND somewhat mitsu...
 
Ford really needs to make a better 4Cyl 1st. The 2.3is nice but not very economical or powerful. EG: Malibu I4... Then they can build mercury younger. But times a tick... tock... ticking...
 
-Cj

To me it makes no sense to spend the extra money marketing differently styled versions of the same cars. That money could be better spent reaching a new market, either with a new brand or by extending a current brand.

Mercury needs make itself something other than 'a diffrent-looking Ford"
for a brand that has so much potential, it's surprising Ford is willing to let this brand but almost disappear
 
Mercuty should introduce:
*Find a new design direction - where Ford&Lincoln aim for very american design, make Mercury more Euro (use Ford of Europe's Kinetic Design)
*A new Mariner based off the 3rd gen Ford Focus
*Introduce a new range of Compact cars (Ford Focus can have it's american design, Mercury can follow the Euro Focus design)
*Get a ORIGINAL crossover for the brand - base it off a new architecture to be shared with the next-gen of RWD cars (Australian Ford Territory style)
dont make it as large as the GM Lambada's
*Add a small-midsize coupe (share platform with Mazda MX-4/RX-7?)
 
Mercury should dump:
*Grand Marquis (with no real replacement)
*Mountaineer (replacement would be the new crossover
 
Mercury has great potential - and with Volvo moving more upmarket (stupidly), Mercury has room to at last breath and get that low-premium market

I agree with everyone. Mercury has always been fascinating to me. It's priced higher than a Ford but really all your getting is a bit more trim and some interesting styling. Why not actually make that price premium worth it and import Euro fords. Brand revival ala Saturn. Mercury Mondeo sounds nice. Cut this re-badging shit, no one is buying it anymore.

I just don't see enough substance to justify an entire division.
 
It's almost as if Mercury could be a cosmetic package offered on certain cars.
 
The Ford Fusion Mercury Edition.
 
The Ford Explorer Mercury Edition.
 
And so on.
 
The overhead required for an entire, seperate division has to cost more than the profits it adds.
 
I can't even see them copying the Saturn-as-the-American-Opel idea. The Contour is too small too sell here in volume. Focus is a Ford. Fiesta is too small. Ka? C'mon, get serious. That's not an American car lineup, folks.
 
Dump Mercury.

I'm going to miss the Mercury Mariner commercial with the "OK, GO!" song that was shot in front of the University of Southern California's Von KleinSmid Center. :(
 
Wes, I'm sure you're checking out the vehicle and not only Jill Wagner. Right? :o)

Wait, there are vehicles in the commercials too?