Goodbye Mercury.

[NSXType-R]

My car's an orphan now.

I get the sense that I'm the only one around here who will miss Mercury. I think the brand was as much a victim of an indifferent public as it was of badge engineering. If you could afford to spend a little more to get a better looking, slightly more luxurious, and less common version of a car you were going to buy anyway, why wouldn't you? But most buyers seem content with blending in and with mediocrity, and thus Ford sales have risen while Mercury sales have fallen. Many of them probably aren't even savvy enough to even consider Mercury when looking at Fords (and I'm sure Ford dealers would rather sell a Ford loaded with options than suggest that the buyer go across town to check out the Lincoln-Mercury dealer). And of course the really savvy folks haven't been buying American anyway.

So it's saddening and disheartening, but I have to admit that it's not completely unexpected. I just hate to see the automotive world get a little bit less interesting - I'd rather see 9 Tauruses and 1 Sable in a day than just 10 Tauruses.

Any Oldsmobile owners care to commiserate with me?

I was expecting you to comment. It must be hard when your opinions run counter to almost everyone else. Worst off, there really isn't anyone to commiserate with.

At least Ford is still around. They really are the parent company and practically they're in much better shape financially than Chrylser, GM or Tesla.

[ScionDriver]

Ever since I first got interested in cars I could never figure out the difference in pricing or luxury between Mercury and Lincoln. It always seemed like, "OK, this is a Ford Taurus with leather interior" or "This is a Lincoln Aviator for like $3k cheaper." The writing has been on the wall for a long time, no one is going to be sad to see it go. Had they continued developing good niche cars maybe (Like making the Cougar successful and not a FWD 4-banger cheap "sporty" car) maybe they could have weathered the storm.

[DesmoRob]

I completely forgot Mercury even existed until reading this. Thats probably because its just another brand that makes no sense. Its grey space between Ford and Lincoln thats marketed towards people that are so old they really shouldn't be driving anyway. All the American car makers (GM being the worst) have made umpteen differently badged versions of the exact same &^%$#$@ vehicles throughout the last couple decades. The days of individuality between these brands were long gone, so it blows my mind how any of them have gotten away with it all this time. "Do you want a Crown Vic, a Marauder, or a Towncar?" Gee I don't know, because they're exactly the f'ing same, except they go from some chrome, to more chrome, to excessive chrome. Same shit AND same pile. Mercury, you won't be missed. Rest in pieces.

[culver]

The multiple brand strategy made a lot of sense as Sloan implemented it years ago. However, those days are past. The hard part about it is figuring out how to cut down the number of brands later. I think the only reason why Mercury was kept around at all was so the Lincoln dealers had something to sell. Ford had starved Lincoln for product for so long that many dealers probably couldn't survive as stand alone Lincoln dealers. Mercury gave those dealers lower cost product that was cheap for Ford to produce. In the end I think it was always a case of it being easier to keep Mercury around for now because it keeps the dealers happy vs bite the bullet and off a brand that really was no longer relevant and accept the back lash from the dealers.

[SGG]

My first car here was a Grand Marquis.
I never had an LTD and to be honest:my grand Marquis was far more nicer to look at than the (same year)LTD.
I won´t miss Mercury and I wouldn´t miss Ford at all that much (Chevy-Guy,I smarted up after two Ford products)