Mercury

Mercury is the Ford near-entry level luxury vehicle that has been in production since 1939, and was founded by Ford for this purpose. In 1945 it was combined with Lincoln to form the often seen Lincoln-Mercury Division. Mercury was created from leftovers and scratch, with its designs being original, there were no mergers involved and nothing else bought or brought in with the Mercury.

During the next three decades mercury moved away from being a high class ford and a low class Lincoln to being its own brand, and its own makes and models. The 70s saw it cut the last strings and offered more models of their own, li8ke the Marquis, the Cougar, and the Turnpike Cruiser. However by the early 80s Ford had forced it back into being the upper class Ford car.

The sales of Mercury peaked in 78 with almost 600 thousand sold, so what Ford did was essentially ruin a good thing by forcing them back in line in 79/80. Again though in 93 the sales they had spiked at nearly 500 thousand, marking a heyday that soon vaporized with interference from Ford. Today they sell around 200k on average, and share many models with Ford, however they do have one or two unique models now – however they are usually re-branded vehicles from other companies like Mazda and Nissan.

Recently it has been seen that Mercury’s lack of different models and recognition publicly is hurting it, and it may not last much longer at the pace in which Ford is willing to keep it. However some new designs are on the way, and they are trying. Unfortunately, the brand is up for elimination despite being in the top five for reliability and durability, because of Ford’s own lack of profitability. This is yet to be seen. The Grim Reaper of cars looks upon Mercury with sullen eyes, as its selling less than Plymouth did and Oldsmobile did before they were discontinued permanently.