With sales figures for Mercury-branded vehicles dropping sixty percent during hte last decade to just 168,000 last year, Ford and CEO ALan Mulally continue to pump funding and resources into the foundering marque. While Ford has rid itself of its luxury Ason Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover divisions, getting rid of an increasingly unprofitable segment seems to be a path no one wants to go down.
As a brand conceived to fill the gap between Ford and Lincoln as a premium brand, recent years have seen Mercury fall by the wayside; built from existing Ford models to become classier versions of existing cars, Mercury cars are competing with similarly priced cars like the BMW 3-series, the Mercedes C-Class, and the Cadillac CTS.
It's no small wonder that sales numbers continue to fall every year without hope of recovery.
The interesting thing is that Ford has already axed Mercury in one
market: Canada, beginning in 1999. By keeping this brand on life support in the US, Ford is merely prolonging the downward spiral, while funneling resources and manpower into a losing proposition.
Our take? If there's a future for Mercury, it's not in the car business, but integrating back into the parent company to help better the preexisting models.
|