Ford finally does it. Mercury to shut down!

[comiskeybum]

bye bye mercury

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/05/27/r...rs-at-mercury/

[rez333]

Good riddance. Far too many internal brands amongst the big 3. Doesn't make any business sense whatsoever. Most companies around the world have just two brands: a regular brand and a high-end brand.

I would argue that you only need 3 brands, ever.
1) Regular brand selling family cars (mini-vans, SUVs and sedans and the occasional coupe)
2) Truck/Commercial brand selling trucks and commercial vehicles
3) High-end brand selling luxury cars and sports cars

There's no need for any more.

America needs more niche independent brands like Saleen, Fisker and Tesla, not more internal brands like Mercury.

[Dakota Kid]

But, but...what about the Mercury girl? No more Mercury commercials?

This bums me. She is HOT.

[BackinBlackSS/RS]

WOW! I think it is sad. :(

[rez333]

Originally Posted by Dakota Kid

But, but...what about the Mercury girl? No more Mercury commercials?

This bums me. She is HOT.

She got contracted out to Tata motors. As in, "ta ta Mercury!".

[fielderLS3]

This was an even worst kept secret than the new 5.0L engine was last year. Mercury's impending demise was obvious when it came out there would be no Mercury version of the new Taurus, new Explorer, and that the Crown Vic/Grand Marques were going to be replaced with nothing.

Interesting how they went about it, not shuttering the division all at once like GM has done, but simply letting it die one model at a time over several years by simply not replacing stuff at the end if its natural model cycle.

At the very least, it is further proof the badge engineering doesn't work anymore (if it ever did).

[rez333]

Originally Posted by BackinBlackSS/RS

WOW! I think it is sad. :(

absolutely not. Internal brands were cannibalizing each other's markets. Makes no sense. You compete with a company to steal their market share - that's the very essence of competition. How do you compete against yourself?

Internal brands not only confuse the market, but also reduce the potential strength that a single brand could have in tackling a particular market. If all those laid off designers and engineers pooled into a single brand, it could potentially be better than splitting them up into separate brands.

[8cd03gro]

Wow, so now it's just Ford, Volvo and Lincoln. That's crazy. I think this is a great decision to tell you the truth.

[BackinBlackSS/RS]

Originally Posted by rez333

absolutely not. Internal brands were cannibalizing each other's markets. Makes no sense. You compete with a company to steal their market share - that's the very essence of competition. How do you compete against yourself?

Internal brands not only confuse the market, but also reduce the potential strength that a single brand could have in tackling a particular market. If all those laid off designers and engineers pooled into a single brand, it could potentially be better than splitting them up into separate brands.

Do you know how long Mercury has been around? From that stand point it is very sad. I don't care about internal brands or whatever. From a nostalgic view point, this is very sad.

[SSOOCH]

Originally Posted by BackinBlackSS/RS

Do you know how long Mercury has been around? From that stand point it is very sad. I don't care about internal brands or whatever. From a nostalgic view point, this is very sad.

+1

[fielderLS3]

The more I think about it, this makes me question getting a Camaro a little. In my household currently, we have an Oldsmobile, a Mercury, and if a dealer hadn't been such an idiot, would have gotten a Pontiac two years ago (Plus several years ago we had a Plymouth). My family buying a car seems to be the kiss of death for the brand. Now I'm worried. If I buy a Camaro, will that be the end of it?

[BackinBlackSS/RS]

Originally Posted by fielderLS3

My family buying a car seems to be the kiss of death for the brand. Now I'm worried. If I buy a Camaro, will that be the end of it?

Yes it will. I think you should buy a Mustang.

[TheCaptain]

Good news good news! Mercury has been unavailable in Canada for something like three years now? I thought the brand was dead a while ago until i seen some statside commercials for mercury!! lol

[rez333]

I can't even name one model from Mercury. To me it's an invisible brand.

That's another thing with too many internal brands: marketing and brand awareness. Why split up $100m in advertising amongst several brands, when you can spend all of it on one brand?