Ford has axed Mercury in the US to devote more attention towards its other luxury sub-brand Lincoln.
Mercury sits between Ford and Lincoln in Ford’s model line-up, but its decline in sales and a migration from Mercury to Ford models by customers has led Ford to make the decision to axe Mercury from the end of this year.
Lincoln will benefit from seven new models over the next few years, including an all-new C-segment car, as Ford aims to compete with Lexus and Cadillac in the US.
Mercury’s sales have particularly suffered in the past three years. Ford has a market share of 16 per cent in the US; Mercury accounts for just 0.8 per cent of the market.
“Mercury’s customer profile, pricing and margins are almost identical to Ford, but Mercury’s incremental sales have been declining,” said Ford in a statement.
“The majority of current Mercury sales are to fleet buyers and customers purchasing through employee, retirees and friends and family discounts, which Ford anticipates largely can be satisfied by Ford-brand vehicles.”
In addition to the new C-segment Lincoln, Ford’s luxury arm will also benefit from exclusive new powertrains, including an all-new V6, and Ford’s Ecoboost engine technology in all of its models.
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Re: Ford kills off Mercury
In my opinion a great loss. Mercury are responsible for such great cars as the Cougar
and the 49/50 model which became the basis of a whole piece of hot rodding culture...the lead sled
Yes, I agree, recent models have been nothing more than rebadged Mondeos and Focus's (foci?) but the point is that it's still a loss.
The loss of any great brand is terrible
For those that said the loss of Plymouth was "no loss" I have 2 words to say
Hemi 'Cuda
Re: Ford kills off Mercury
Re: Ford kills off Mercury
Wasn't Mercury supposed to be the sporty division of Ford, with Lincoln the Luxury division and Ford branded cars the bread & butter cars?
As it's been said, since Ford didn't bother to invest properly in Mercury and promote the brand, instead of turning it into a badge-engineered subdivision, the closure became inevitable.
Mercury is now added to the graveyard of once household American car brands, many of which have recently been shutdown, e.g. Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn etc