"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
9 January 2008New doors closingIf for some inexplicable reason you've been wanting to cruise on down the road in a Mercury, you might want to do it now while you still can:
[Ford CEO Alan] Mulally is obviously far less beholden to Ford's old guard than the gentleman that came before him. He's been there, done that, killed the extraneous bits. And here's the truth: when Mulally finally gets around to taking a good hard look at Mercury, Mercury will be toast.
For now, Mercury is merely milquetoast. The company adds zero uniqueness to Ford's product line. Mercury has zero technology, zero differentiation, zero prestige, zero class-leading products and zero long-term priority for the Ford Motor Company. Hundreds of Mercury dealerships, thousands of Ford employees and millions of advertising dollars are wasted trying to counter a counter-clockwise death spiral. Every penny that goes into turning a struggling Ford product into an even less competitive Mercury is a penny wasted. At a time when Ford is struggling to generate a profit anywhere within its North American product portfolio, what value can be had with Mercury? None. There is but one, obvious solution: kill the brand. Last year 168,422 Mercury vehicles found homes, along with 131,487 Lincolns. Your local L-M dealer is going to look at these numbers and yell that Ford is taking away 56 percent of his business. If Ford does right by Lincoln, that dealer will be mollified by the fact that he's getting higher margins, even if he winds up selling fewer units. But at the moment, doing right by Lincoln takes serious money, and any serious money Ford has to spend on Lincoln is money that won't be spent on what's left of Mercury. A solution occasionally proffered is the Saturnization of Mercury: turning it into a conduit for European imports. And Ford has some spiffy Euromodels out there: a Focus a generation ahead of ours, a compact people mover (C-MAX), and the newest Mondeo. But this has been tried before — seen any Merkurs lately? — and the exchange rate right now is ruinous. I figure the 70th Anniversary Mercury, due out in 2009, might be the marque's swan song. I admit, though, that I, for one, will miss Jill Wagner. Posted at 11:18 AM to Driver's SeatI'd like to thank you on behalf of Ms. Wagner, because lord knows that link doesn't get enough traffic ;) Posted by: CT at 1:57 PM on 9 January 2008She has a continuing, if occasional, role on Stargate Atlantis. Posted by: Ed Flinn at 12:07 PM on 10 January 2008 |