Mercury, the subsidery of Ford, not the planet, has effectively been silently killed off this week. No one is talking about it, 'cause nobody cares. Crap, even Saturn had a bigger going away party.
For too long Mercury(s) were just re-badged Fords, which were not such great cars in the first place. And where did it fit in the family line between Ford-Lincoln-Mercury; was it a step up or a step down? Often they were a few hundred bucks less than the blue oval versions, other models were more costly.
The last decent looking Mercury was the 8th edition of the Cougar, but favored by cougars, not drivers, and that will always kill a sports car/coupe (are you listening Mistubishi Eclipse?).
The only Mercury I ever had a crush on was the Mercur badged XR4ti. It wasn't a huge sales hit, unlike the European Sierra counterpart, but when you are lucky enough to see one on the road today it still looks amazing. Sure, loads of gear heads had a boner when the 2003 Marauder came out, but it looked like a 1987 cop car. So that makes it lame, especially when you could have gone to the auctions and picked up an actual Crown Vic Interceptor for about two grand at the time.
Well, only the only person to blame is parent company Ford who decided the Mercury brand was only good enough for retirees who didn't give a damn how a car looked or drove. The kind of customer, who due to Alzheimer's is not even going to remember that they used to drive a Mercury Sable, or where they parked it.
R.I.P. Mercury, say hello to Pontiac and Saab in car heaven for us.
Even this commercial looks like it was made by a Youtube Fanboy.
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