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Mercury (automobile)

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Mercury Logo

Mercury is an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company founded in 1939 to market semi-luxury cars slotted between entry-level Ford and luxury Lincoln models, similar to General Motors' Buick (and former Oldsmobile) brand and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler brand. To this day, most Mercury models are based on Ford platforms. The Mercury name comes from the "messenger of the gods" of Roman mythology, and during its early years, the Mercury brand was known for performance.

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[edit] History of Mercury

First generation Mercury Cougar

Mercury was its own division at Ford until 1945 when it was combined with Lincoln into the Lincoln-Mercury Division, with Ford hoping the brand would be known as a "junior Lincoln", rather than an upmarket Ford. In 1949, Mercury introduced the first of its "new look", integrated bodies, at the same time that Ford and Lincoln also changed styling radically. Again in 1952, Mercury offered a further modernization in its look. In 1958, the Lincoln-Mercury Division and the ill-fated Edsel brand were joined into the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division; with the demise of Edsel in 1960, it has been in the Lincoln-Mercury Division ever since.

Mercury, like the defunct Edsel, was created from scratch, rather than being a takeover of an existing company like Lincoln. Mercury's heyday was in the 1950s, when its formula of stretching and lowering existing Ford platforms was very successful. The marque has changed several times throughout its history. During the 1940s and 1950s, the make moved between as a "gussied up" Ford, to a "junior Lincoln" and even to having its own body designs. During the 1960s and early 1970s, Mercury began to distance itself from Ford and offered several different looking models such as the Cougar and Marquis. But in the late 1970s to the early 1980s the brand was joined at the hip with Ford again and its image suffered as a result.

Mercury sales peaked in 1978 at 580,000 and again in 1993 at over 480,000. Since then, sales have declined by more than half to roughly 200,000 annually. The Mercury brand is used in the United States, and was used in Canada and Mexico. In 1999, Mercury models were renamed as Fords in both Mexico and Canada. The Mercury Grand Marquis, Mountaineer, and Monterey are also exported to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. In the mid-1990s the Mercury car brand received some very good free PR when country music star Alan Jackson scored a hit with a cover of K.C. Douglas' "Mercury Blues", a song which heaps complimentary praise on their vehicle range.

Mercury has had a few unique models not shared with domestic Fords, but usually related to other vehicles sold domestically or world wide. These include the Capri convertible (which shared some parts with Mazda's Miata but wasn't nearly as popular, ending production in Australia in 1993), Mercury Tracer (later shared with the Escort, but was a Mexican-built version of the Mazda 323 hatchback in the late 1980s and in '90), Mercury Villager (a name used earlier as a luxury station wagon, but from 1993-2003, it was a minivan shared with Nissan, which sold its version as the Quest and built the drivetrain for both versions), Mercury Cougar (1999-2002, based on the Ford Contour/Mercury Mystique/Ford Mondeo platform but sporting a 2-door, hatchback only bodystyle with sharp styling not shared with the more mundane sedan versions), and the German built Mercury Capri in the '70s (before that model moved to the Ford Fox platform as a twin to Ford Mustang).

[edit] Mercury (Lincoln-Mercury Division), Ford Motor Company, 1975-1990

Mercury's ride through the seventies and eighties wasn't gentle, but it fared better than some. Mercury continued its historical role of dressing up plainer Ford vehicles and selling them at a higher price, as "near luxury" cars. Of course, this type of car was the bread and butter of the seventies car market. Unfortunately for Mercury, there were just too many "near luxury" cars on the market. Only Mercury's niche products, like the Cougar XR-7 specialty coupe, seemed to find real success with buyers. Of course, much of this might really have had to do with Ford's topsy-turvy financial situation in the seventies. Lincoln-Mercury dealers had plenty of good selling cars, they just weren't the right cars. The Cougar and Lincoln Mk V shattered sales records, but the staples of Mercury's business, the mid-size and full-size sedans and wagons, moved out of showrooms at a snail's pace. The small Bobcat didn't lure economy minded buyers, instead bringing only bad press from its close ties to the ill-fated Ford Pinto. The recession year of 1980 saw Cougar sales fall by more than 50%, and Mercury was really in trouble.

Of course, Ford's product planners were busy reworking Ford and Lincoln's images, trying to prop up those lines, so they couldn't devote much time to Mercury. As a result, Mercury had few unique cars in the eighties, and even less of an identity. The company entered 1975 with a distinct Buick-like character, but left 1990 with no image at all. The lack of a distinct personality showed through in the cars (many are closely related to Fords), although there were some unique twists to Mercurys in the eighties, like the controversial roofline of the '83 Cougar, the slick looks of the '86 Sable, and the very existence of the Japanese built '88 Tracer.

[edit] Brand revival

Image:2006 Mercury Montego.JPG

As of 2006, Mercury's range is quite small and very similar to those sold under the Ford brand. Many industry observers have questioned whether Mercury will survive in the long term, but Ford insists that there is no intention of letting the brand die. The introduction of new models, such as the Milan, the Montego, and the Mariner, and the Meta One concept would seem to bear that out. Its alliance with Lincoln has helped keep the brand alive; all Lincoln dealers also sell Mercury vehicles, as they desire some lower-priced vehicles in their showrooms.

As part of their effort to re-assert the brand, Mercury has also begun implementing design elements common to all of their vehicles to create a more "unified" marque. These include an update of the signature "waterfall" front grille and badge lettering based on that of the last generation Cougar.

This effort also includes an advertising campaign featuring actress and model Jill Wagner<ref>Who's That Girl In The Black Mercury Milan?. Ford press release.</ref>. Ford designer Patrick Schiavone commented on the debut of the 2008 Mariner Hybrid that Mercury would move from being an in-between marque to having a special stylish identity apart from others, competing more with Saturn than its traditional rival, Buick. He compared the marque's image to that of fashionable discount retailer, Target<ref>Mercury aims for stylish niche. Detroit News. Retrieved on October 6.</ref>. There have also been reports <ref> [Beyond pink: Mercury appeals to women (26 December 2005) Chicago Sun-Times] </ref> that Mercury is trying to appeal (perhaps even exclusively) to female drivers.

However as of October 2006, the Mercury brand was being examined for possible elimination, according to Alan Mulally, who succeeded Bill Ford, Jr. as CEO of Ford, largely on hopes that he would be able to restructure Ford's operations back into profitability after its most recent $5.8 billion quarterly loss. [1].

[edit] Logo

Image:Mercury Sable Grille.jpg

The first logo of the Mercury brand was its namesake, the Roman god Mercury. The side profile of his head, complete with the signature bowl hat with wings was used during the early years.

In the 1950s, the logo became a simple "M" with horizontal bars extending outward from the bottom of its vertical elements in each direction. This was described in advertising as "The Big M" - probably most notably as the prime sponsor of The Ed Sullivan Show.

During the late 1960s and up to the mid-1980s, the Mercury used the "Sign of the Cat" ad campaign based on its popular Cougar model. Many of the cars during this time carried cat related names such as the Lynx and Bobcat. On some of the upper-tier models, such as the Marquis and Grand Marquis, Mercury also used Lincoln's diamond logo during this time.

During the late 1980s, the logo changed from the Cougar to a highly stylized letter M (nicknamed 'the Waterfall' by some). The reason behind this new logo has never been fully explained, but it is still being used today. Since 2000, the Mercury logo has "Mercury" written on the top part of the logo.

Mercury sponsored a professional cycling team from 2000 until 2002 <ref>Cycling : Mercury's Leader Isn't One to Ease Off the Pedal. International Harold Tribune.</ref>.

[edit] List of Mercury automobiles

2006 Mercury Model Line-up
ModelTypePrice Range
Grand MarquisFull-size sedan, Flagship$25,550 - $36,070
MontegoFull-size sedan$25,130 - $33,310
MountaineerMid-size SUV$29,795 - $41,925
MontereyMini-van$29,325 - $35,125
Mariner HybridCompact SUV$29,840 - $34,220
MarinerCompact SUV$21,995 - $30,145
MilanMid-size sedan$18,995 - $26,290

[edit] Current models

[edit] Recent models

[edit] Past models

[edit] Concept cars

[edit] See also


Mercury, division of Ford Motor Company
Road car timeline, 1990s-present [edit]
Type 1990s 2000s
0123456789 0123456789
Subcompact Tracer
Compact Topaz Mystique
Lynx
Mid-size Sable Milan
Full-size Colony Park Marauder Montego
Marquis
Compact SUV Mariner
Mid-Size SUV Mountaineer
Personal Cougar
Sports Cougar

[edit] External links

[edit] References

<references/>


Current Mercury vehicles:
Grand Marquis | Mariner | Milan | Montego | Mountaineer

Historic:
Bobcat | Brougham | Capri | Colony Park | Comet | Commuter | Custom | Cougar | Cyclone | Eight | LN7 | Lynx | M-Series | Marauder | Marquis | Medalist | Meteor | Monarch | Montclair | Monterey | Mystique | Park Lane Brougham | S-55 | Sable | Topaz | Tracer | Turnpike Cruiser | Villager | Voyager | Zephyr

Concept:
Messenger | Meta One | My

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Members of the Ford Motor Company
Aston Martin | Daimler | Edsel | Ford | Jaguar | Land Rover | Lincoln | Mazda | Mercury | Merkur | Volvo
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