Many have questioned Ford's continued support of the brand, but Jim Farley, Ford's new marketing guy, feels that Mercury should become Ford's Scion. Though selling only 168,422 cars is horrible by major brand standards, it is close to the number of cars Scion moves annually.
With that, Farley believes that Mercury should move from being the volume division of Lincoln Mercury to the entry level division of Ford. In this role, the brand could do much to revitalize the whole Ford operation, getting buyers when their young, putting them under the Ford umbrella where they'll hopefully stay,, migrating up through Ford then Lincoln as they age.
Our take? Mercury was already supposed to have done this with the Cougar more than a decade ago. It would be shame to let the brand die, perhaps instead of moving it down market Ford could turn it into their Saturn, making it instead the home of all their European models here in the states.
The biggest fear to bringing the “better” European models here was that they didn't suit American tastes and we wouldn't pay a premium for them. Fine, Mercury is supposed to be more expensive than Ford and cheaper then Lincoln anyway. Comprise the Mercury lineup with the Fiesta, Euro Fucos, Mondeo, S-Max, and upcoming Kuga and see what happens.