![]() ![]() Although the final vehicle of the division was produced in 2011, Mercury remains an active and registered trademark owned by Ford Motor Company (to at least 2025). The final Mercury automobile, a 2011 Mercury Grand Marquis, rolled off the assembly line on January 4, 2011. At the time, Ford sold Mercury vehicles in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, U.S. Production of Mercury vehicles ceased in the fourth quarter of 2010. ![]() In the summer of 2010, Ford Motor Company announced the discontinuation of the Mercury division as it consolidated its marketing and engineering efforts on the Ford and Lincoln brands. During the development of the Edsel, this practice ran in reverse, as the vehicles were derived from Mercury chassis underpinnings. To various extents, nearly all Mercury vehicles would be rebadged. Marketed as an entry-level premium brand for nearly its entire existence, Mercury was created in 1938 by Edsel Ford Forming half of the Lincoln-Mercury Division, the brand was intended to bridge the price gap between the Ford and Lincoln vehicle lines In a similar context, Buick and Oldsmobile played the same role within General Motors while the Chrysler Division did so within Chrysler Corporation (following the end of DeSoto and the creation of Imperial)Īlthough the initial Mercury Eight was a distinct design, for much of the existence of the division, Ford would rely on common underpinnings (from Ford or Lincoln, or both) to save on development costs. It joins Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Plymouth, and Saturn as brands that disappeared in the early part of the millennium.Mercury is a defunct division of the American automobile manufacturer Ford Motor Company. Though Mercury’s demise was sad, it certainly isn’t the only American brand to go kaput. The company wasn’t fully focused on Lincoln’s growth as a luxury brand, but it sold those other brands by 2010.Įdmunds chief executive Jeremy Anwyl told Forbes in 2010: “Lincoln doesn’t have much to excite us today, but if the new resources directed to the brand help replicate the turnaround of Ford, Lincoln will be in good shape within a few years.” Today, Lincoln is still Ford’s only luxury brand, but its sales remain lower than they were in the 1980s and 1990s, GoodCarBadCar reports. But Ford had also invested in Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, and Volvo. This wasn’t the first time Ford had striven to grow Lincoln. In 2010, when Ford Motor Company announced Mercury’s discontinuation, the automaker also said it would expand the Lincoln brand to include seven new or redesigned vehicles. Lincoln’s fortunes rose with Mercury’s demise, Forbes reported at the time. RELATED: The 2021 Lincoln Navigator Is as Good as Full-Size Luxury Gets ![]() From the inside out, the new #LincolnNautilus has “a very premium look and feel.” writer shares why, here: - Lincoln March 31, 2021 Why Ford ended Mercury productionĪ refreshing interior to complement the sleek exterior. And the brand’s last car, the Grand Marquis, rolled off the production line on January 4, 2011. Only 11 years later, Ford announced Mercury’s demise. But in an omen of its demise, the brand stopped selling its cars in Canada in 1999, except for the Grand Marquis. The brand was successful for many years, and Mercury hit its peak sales of 580,000 in 1978. And James Dean drove a customized 1949 Mercury Series 9CM in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause. One innovative 1950s Mercury was the Turnpike Cruiser, featuring “a power rear window, the ‘seat-o-matic’ adjusting seat, and the ‘Merc-o-matic’ automatic transmission,” The New York Times reported. It boasted the first fixed sunroof/moonroof and created successful race cars. In the 1950s and ’60s, Mercury developed new, modern, powerful cars. With the end of the war, Ford created its Lincoln-Mercury division. It proved to be very popular in the few years before World War II. The brand’s first car was the 1939 Mercury 8. Edsel Ford chose the Mercury name, which nods to the Roman god of commerce, representing “dependability, speed, skill, and eloquence.” ![]() “Mercury was actually born because there was a niche between the deluxe Ford V-8 and the Lincoln Zephyr V-12,” Bob Kreipke, a corporate historian, explains on Ford‘s website. It was positioned as a premium brand between Ford and Lincoln. Henry Ford’s son Edsel created the Mercury brand in 1938. ![]()
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