Packard Forum Index » General

Article on the newscast mentioned Ford is going to ask board of directors to discontinue Mercury brand since sales have fallen over 70%. If it happens, guess another old(er) one bites the dust.

Fords with different grilles built to give Lincoln dealers a little more volume. Badge engineered to irrelevance

Gerd,

Tell 'em it's the closest planet to the Sun !

Gerd, I wouldn't be surprised if not many overseas knows what Mercury is. I'm not even sure they were sold anywhere else but here in North America without looking it up. Believe it was a model designed and introduced in late 30's to fit the price gap between Ford and Lincoln and compete head on with GM's mid level brands. Think early on it was a fancy Ford, then branched out, became a bit bigger with a different body & more or less distinct personality. Some of it's mechanicals then were shared with Lincoln more than with Ford. Later on it came back full circle and as bkazmer said, is today nothing more than a fancy Ford again with a different grill (& higher price).

I despise Badge Engineering.

The last Mercury I remember being different from a Ford were the Turnpike Cruisers of the late 50's, and the Full size mercury line through atleast '69.

Everything else after that was grilles and Taillight swaps.

Remember the Lincoln Versailles of '76-'80 which were nothing more than Ford Grenada's with leather interiors and a Continental trunk lid?

The Ford Grenada cost $3700
The Merc Monarch cost $4500
The Linc Versaille cost $11,000

Can you honestly tell them apart?

The 1970's and 80's was Badge engineering at its worst.

Attach file:

---

  (85.79 KB)


  (26.00 KB)


  (45.92 KB)

You have to pay for the Lincoln name don't you? IMHO, the Versaille was not nearly as bad as the Cimarron.

Seriously. Never tried the Mercury or Lincoln, but I had occasion to drive a Grenada for a few weeks when they were current. Believe that is the only car I can remember where the gearshift lever was so close to the dash you could move it and the hand would hit something else simultaneously and usually turn whatever you hit on or off.


The 1970's and 80's was Badge engineering at its worst.

There was a commercial back in the 80's making fun of badge engineered GM cars all looking alike. I think it was Fords commercial.

Back in the 30s Ford made 2 cars, the Ford at the bottom of the market and Lincoln at the top.

This suited Henry Ford but GM was beating them in sales by having "a car for every purse and purpose" quote A. Sloan head of GM.

Then Chrysler edged up on Ford's second place in the industry, and threatened to pass them in sales even though the Plymouth was never as popular as Ford.

Chrysler was very strong in the medium price field with Dodge, DeSoto and the smaller Chryslers where Ford had nothing.

So Ford expanded into the medium price field first with the Lincoln Zephyr, then with the Mercury.

The final stage of the plan did not come until 1957 when they introduced the Edsel, meant to fill the gap between Ford and Mercury while Mercury became a junior Lincoln.

All that was a long time ago, today we have no problem with a car company making everything from an economy car to a luxury limousine all with the same brand name. I think this trend started in Europe where companies like Mercedes and BMW cover the market from top to bottom and even make trucks, taxicabs and motorcycles with the same name on them as their luxury products.

I'll have to scratch a little harder to get the more information, but in the 1980s Mercury dealers were selling a German made turbo-charged coupe in the U.S. called the "Merkur" (Mercury in German). It was a uniquely styled automobile. I think it lasted about two years then went away. Guscha, help.

(o{I}o)

The Merkur was a European Ford Sierra Coachbuilt in Germany, and sold in the US/Canada as the following page from Wikipedia will clarify. I seem to recall reading they were actually quite good (and rare) cars, so get one if you can.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkur_XR4Ti.

If true, it will save Ford a lot of money to eliminate Mercury, advertising costs for one, not to forget special name badging etc.

Trouble with Ford (and GM [I think] and Chrysler[Fiat?]is they don't engineer vehicles for both RHC and LHC and thus those of us outside the USA are denied some quality vehicles. Whilst saying that, it is possible to get whatever US vehicle we wish - no factory support - only that of the importer/converter at a cost of around A$30-40K (LHC-RHC conversion costs, vehicle extra).
The current Ford Falcon range would have been great in the US and overseas markets, but Ford didn't allow LHD nor exports.

http://www.ford.com.au/servlet/ContentServer?cid=1137384063052&pagename=Page&site=FOA

Guscha, I drive a Cologne built, Port Elizabeth (South Africa) assembled LV Focus TDC and it's brilliant. Filled up today and it says I have 842km until empty.

Das Gute, Ja?

Man, what are the old-timers going to drive? The suppostion that those customers will stay brand-loyal and go into another of the company's (Ford) offerings miught not happen. You break the chain, and folks are going to look around and as usual, think aout bang for their buck. I knew the gig was up when I saw a Toyota in the grocery store parking lot with a "WWII veteran" licence plate.