-J-P-L-

It's easy to sit here and say that Mercury should be killed. It's a lot more complicated than that though, not that anyone here doesn't know that.

One of the main concerns with keeping it alive is for dealer reasons. Most, if not all Mercury dealers are Lincoln/Mercury which would leave Lincoln's small lineup fairly inadequate. That said, there are other dealers who survive with a small lineup perhaps most notably Acura with only 6 models, 2 that are very low volume.

If Ford were to kill Mercury, they'd have to put that much more into Lincoln with a real serious focus. I guess it's feasible though.

IS-SV

I had to respond, but I will bite my tongue since it's so funny. The quandry is not really a quandry for a business striving for success. Continuing production of unprofitable cars with death spiral sales trends is not sound business.

I'm glad they don't make business decisions that way (like GM used to prior to bankruptcy) or we would still see crap like the recent Sable, Ion, Bonneville, LaSabre, Park Avenue, Cavalier, etc.

mmarshall

OK, I'll respect your opinion on that. But, in the meantime, let's see how the new Taurus ends up selling at Ford....that may be a harbinger of whether a Mercury version is justified or not.

As for the Tracer, I also find it interesting that Ford is committing to a Mercury version, even before the Ford version itself is introduced. To be honsest, though, I don't think we'll see that with the upcoming Fiesta. The Fiesta, IMO, is simply too small for most Mercury customers....it will do far better under the Ford nameplate.

IS-SV

I agree with you that Mercury's attention should be on somewhat larger cars. But today Mercury's customer base is so small, it's hard to determine what they want as they flock to other brands.

mmarshall

American companies traditionally make more profit (wholesale/retail spread) on larger cars like the Sable and Grand Marquis, and, of course, on trucks/SUVs, than with smaller cars. That is one reason (and perhaps the most obvious one) why American companies have lagged so much in developing GOOD small cars....at least for the American market. Dumping large cars is not necessarily a way to increase profitability. GM found that out in the mid-90's, when they dumped the Caprice/Roadmaster/Fleetwood...to free up more space for truck production. Their big, RWD, V8 customers didn't necessarily flock to smaller cars, but often ended up buying used Caprices and Roadmasters instead. Even today, I see a surprising number of them running around in the D.C. area.



I'll agree with you on the Ion and the Cavalier. Both were a joke.....I don't now which one was worse. The Ion's plastic body, at least, didn't ding, dent, or rust, and it had the vaunted Saturn customer service.

But, back to the buisness question at hand....Ford didn't seem to have any problems turning a 2.3B profit last year (with no government bailout money) even with the Sable and Grand Marquis still on the list.....they weren't dropped till 2010. The Tracer, on the other hand, will (likely) be a comparatively low-profit vehicle, though, of course, much depends on how well it ultimately sells. You can make money, even on low-profit vehicles, if you sell enough of them. That's why manufacurers, when they introduce new vehicles at any given price, calculate (roughly) how many they will need to sell to reach a break-even point and begin making money on the investment.

mmarshall

A good post, YARIS. You said, in one sentence (and it is true), what it sometimes takes me paragraphs and paragraphs to say.

IS-SV

Glad you noticed, but I agree he didn't include any non-relevant trivia in his statement.

mmarshall

Well, you and I sometimes just don't agree on what is trivia and what isn't. No problem.....that is bound to happen sometimes, in a public forum.

And, here, CL is especially civil and courteous......you should see how many other Internet forums operate...they are like war zones. Some of them just disgust me.

IS-SV

Good points.

Let's hope Mercury can make a go of it, because I think it's now or never. I suspect they are under the gun and will need to deliver results.

LexFather

We should send this huge thread to Mercury as hope . It has more than 3 replies

IS-SV

^^ Agreed, because based on sales results alone, few care. Give it a go Mercury!

Slvr surfr

iTrader: (1)

Well we'll have to wait and see how this plays out for Mercury because if Ford dosen't invest heavily into it, then they need to kill it. Also, they need to separate Lincon from Mercury to help differenciate them amonst each other. There gonna target different groups of people so they will need to have there own identity. If Lincoln wants to compete with the big boys then it can't bring its little brother,who dosen't know who it wants to be, to the fight. Yes Mercury and Lincoln can share platforms to save money but each should have at least one flagship/halo car that sits on its own platform to make there division statements clear.