http://online.wsj....=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

Kind of saw it coming, but still sad to hear.

ford axed mercury in canada about 10 years ago, they paired down the dealer network at that time.

do it.

Ford has needed to shitcan Mercury since the 1960's.

Posted by Samurai Ford has needed to shitcan Mercury since the 1960's.

I'll say! Most of Mercury's user base migrated into Ford and then Ford became kind of a giant catch-all brand.

chevy and pontiac were close cousins, mercury and ford were twins, i can tell the diff between a cavalier and sunfire, but a tempo and topaz????

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! chevy and pontiac were close cousins, mercury and ford were twins, i can tell the diff between a cavalier and sunfire, but a tempo and topaz????

Yeah, there were not much feature or styling differences...

and those stupid release pins on the radio that always broke, when you light your lcd with a bulb its gonna burn out...

or that pushbuttin AC system

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! and those stupid release pins on the radio that always broke, when you light your lcd with a bulb its gonna burn out... or that pushbuttin AC system

the early Lumina's had that pushbutton HVAC control as well... it worked better than the Tempo.

Always loved this song, and Terraplane Blues. Old Mercs are awesome. When they rebadged a Mazda 323 as a Mercury Tracer, well, that was just too much, end game.
The Sable and whatever they called the Merc version of the Tempo never bothered me though.

As with Pontiac and other retired names, it will probably increase interest and reverence for the old ones. Up to the 70's I mean.


http://www.youtube...uo&feature=related

Irony; as the poster sez, here's some...

click to view

even in the 70's, Mercury had no identity. They were just uglier, fancier versions of the bread and butter Fords.

Posted by Samurai even in the 70's, Mercury had no identity. They were just uglier, fancier versions of the bread and butter Fords.

Yeah, the only time I can think of Mercury having something unique was in the 1950s and even then it was kind of getting screwed over by the Edsel with its many disaster (hint, a car with a vagina grille on the front is a bad idea)

Posted by Agent Skelly Yeah, the only time I can think of Mercury having something unique was in the 1950s and even then it was kind of getting screwed over by the Edsel with its many disaster (hint, a car with a vagina grille on the front is a bad idea)

the one time that Mercury tried to have a unique product was in the 1980's with the Merkur program. They basically import European Fords (the Grenada and Sierra), hung a "Merkur" name on them and tried to sell them at an upscale price. It was nothing but a failure. The XR4Ti's were overpriced compared to the cars in their class. The Scorpio's were underperforming underwhelming cars on a good day.

I am actually surprised how well Merkur did, for what they were, and how much they cost.

Posted by gambino I am actually surprised how well Merkur did, for what they were, and how much they cost.

agreed.
the XR4Ti wasn't a bad car at all, but when you put it against other cars that outperformed it for half the prices, it just wasn't that great a deal. You had four or five main competitors in the same company: Mustang GT, Mustang SVO, Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, Cougar XR7 Turbo.

I had an XR4Ti and believe it or not, it was a SOLID car. I think Ford would've been wiser to bring the car here as a Ford, brand it as a Sierra (at the time Sierra was not a GMC brand name, just a trim package on their pickups) or a Capri and sell it that way. Same with the Scorpio... Brand it as a Grenada (which had some brand recognition from the 70's and early 80's) and price it accordingly.

Mercury, however, has always been this weird 'well fuck it try this' marketing experiment. Look at how many cars that Ford tried to gussy up and sell through their L-M dealers? The original Capri? Merkurs? The Australian Capri/Capri XR2, the Mercury Marauder. Mercury never really had a defined client base and as the years went on, the cars just continued to look like Ford clones with inflated price tags. All of those cars, with the exception of the original Capri, should've been branded as straight Fords. The Marauder should've been packaged as a Crown Victoria GT, or something like that.

Mercury was one of the last vestiges of Fords deathmatch with General Motors. The multi-division branding may have worked in the past, but now, the market is so glutted with brands, stick with your core. GM learned this the hard way and it damned near cost them the company (and I STILL don't agree with their choice for survivor brands).

Ford. Lincoln. What more do you need?

You're right, if it were sitting in a Ford dealership, with a Ford decal, it could have done better.

They did it at no real loss I guess, since the car already existed, just needed different decals, and to bring them over.

I guess they were trying to introduce another nameplate (Merkur). Like Nissan, and Infiniti, something exotic, different. Two is enough, as you said. Ford/Lincoln. Regular, and Performance/luxury/sport aka more options and toys = higher price tag.

I like them a lot the xr4ti, also like the tb turbo coupe. Thunderbird had been messed up before, many times, turbo coupe, and super coupe were decent tries for sure. The looks of the super coupe were a little tame though for my taste.

Posted by gambino You're right, if it were sitting in a Ford dealership, with a Ford decal, it could have done better. They did it at no real loss I guess, since the car already existed, just needed different decals, and to bring them over. I guess they were trying to introduce another nameplate (Merkur). Like Nissan, and Infiniti, something exotic, different. Two is enough, as you said. Ford/Lincoln. Regular, and Performance/luxury/sport aka more options and toys = higher price tag. I like them a lot the xr4ti, also like the tb turbo coupe. Thunderbird had been messed up before, many times, turbo coupe, and super coupe were decent tries for sure. The looks of the super coupe were a little tame though for my taste.

In Ford lore, the project manager for the 89 Thunderbird was summarily fired after the cost overruns, the fact that car ballooned up over 1000lbs. Also, what was funny was that the Super Coupe never sold as well as the Turbo Coupe did. Now with the Merkur, what did that car in was the fact that Ford was stretched so thin supplying the T5 manual transmission to other, more popular car lines, the XR4Ti was saddled with a weaker 5-speed. In Ford-speak, it was an RAD-style 4 speed with 5th gear stuffed in the ass of the box. It was too weak for the weight of the XR4Ti. Also, the automatic that Ford went with behind the 2.3L Turbo was far too weak for the weight and the available power of the engine. The C3 had a notorious failure rate. So you had a superior built chassis (the merkur was welded and boxed), a superior engine, but a mediocre driveline. The Scorpio didn't have the engineering issues as they used the proven Cologne V6 (2.9L) and off-the-shelf automatic for the car. Mechanically, it was sold. Performance-wise, it was a little pokey for the price tag and the styling was polarizing. Either you got it or you didn't.

Mercury's demise coming at 3pm today...supposedly.

http://www.autoblo...ing-at-3-pm-est%2F

I didn't know Mercury still existed.

it doesnt out here, unless they brought it back recently, just in the US I believe