Mercury Dies So That Lincoln May Live

We pretty much did our post-mortem of Mercury five days early...running down the cause(s) of the impending death.

So what happens now? Well, Ford says they're going to devote their energies into revitalizing their Lincoln brand.

On paper, this makes a bunch of sense. The successful model for car sales is one mainstream brand, one luxury (think Toyota/Lexus)...with no definable space for a "middle" brand (GM is bucking that wisdom by keeping Buick).

But where exactly is Ford taking Lincoln? Part of the problem is that for all the talk of how Mercury was done in by being nothing more than some re-badged Fords, it's hard to say Lincoln's in much better shape (the MKZ is a Fusion, the MKX an Edge, the MKS a last-gen Taurus and the MKT a Flex...though those last two are pretty well disguised).

Unique products? Well, there's the Town Car...but that's a dinosaur headed to extinction with no plans for a replacement. Oh, yeah...and they still sell the Navigator. Just not many of them.

Ford says a small car (based on the next Focus) that was supposed to be a Mercury will now be a Lincoln.

Depends on how they do that...but it sounds a little down-market for where Lincoln needs to be.

The TireKicker take? Lincoln needs to take serious aim at Cadillac. They need one car at least as good as the CTS. A CTS-V competitor would have to follow. And, you may have noticed, the CTS is not a re-badged Chevrolet. They need a larger sedan to do battle with the DTS/STS replacement that's coming. They need a crossover to compete with the SRX.  And, if there's a market for a premium sedan below the CTS in the U.S., Lincoln needs to play there, too.

Until and unless the Ford Expedition becomes as good as or better than the Chevy Suburban, Lincoln doesn't need to go chasing the Escalade (especially not the pickup version).

All this means engines, materials, and enthusiasm well beyond what we've seen from Lincoln before...plus a promotion budget to get the message across to buyers (it's been 10 years since Cadillac claimed "Breakthrough" with Led Zeppelin and they're just starting to see the results). And that's going to be way more than combining the money devoted to Lincoln now with what they would have spent on Mercury.

The situation calls for a world-class luxury brand. And until and unless Ford gets that, Lincoln's in danger of being a more expensive Mercury.

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Mercury Deathwatch: News Conference at 3PM, Eastern Time

The Detroit News is reporting that Ford has called a news conference for 3PM EST to discuss "brand and product strategy".

Expectation is that means the official announcement that Mercury is joining the scrap heap of once-prominent American car brands, and that a new compact Merc will end up a Lincoln.

Details as they're available.

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Feds Probing Floormats In Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan

Doesn't matter what the brand, a poorly installed or wrong-sized floormat can trap accelerator pedals.

NHTSA says it's recieved three complaints that Ford's "All Weather" floormat can trap the gas pedal when laid on top of the standard floor mat.

Read the full consumer advisory here.

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Mercury, Dead At 71?

Bloomberg and Automotive News are reporting that Ford is getting ready to wind down the Mercury brand.

Sources say the plan will be presented to directors in July. The stats make a compelling case for euthanasia...the brand's peak sales year was 32 years ago, sales have dropped 74 percent in the last 10 years, ad spending by 88 percent in the last four, and with the 2011 demise of the Grand Marquis and Mountaineer, the brand would have only two models, the Milan and Mariner, clones of the Ford Fusion and Escape respectively.

The truth, of course, is that those were self-inflicted wounds. While Mercurys have had an on and off history of being based on supposedly lesser Fords, there was a time when FoMoCo worked to make them different, establish the argument for spending more for a Merc, and in the process, came up with some compelling and iconic vehicles (helped a bit by Hollywood and the original Mad Men):

The movie "Rebel Without A Cause" starred James Dean, Natalie Wood and a customized '49 Mercury. It made such an impression that 55 years after the film, the cars are commonly called "James Dean Mercurys".






Flash forward 13 years and it was another Merc, also black...driven not by a teenage rebel but by a middle-aged cop. McGarrett's four-door hardtop defined cool.





At about the same time, some star power with four legs and a tail....a real-life cougar serving as the mascot for the new Mercury Cougar...a stretched, re-bodied Ford Mustang, but different enough to be percieved as a major step up.

But just as Mercury was finding its mojo, the party ended. First, Ford marketing lost the thread. Instead of a tire-smoking Steve McGarrett, they tried to sell the 1970 Mercury Monterey Coupe with a W.C. Fields impressionist (35 years after Fields' peak popularity)




And it got worse. The 70s hit and so did the fuel crisis. Practicality rarely makes for an exciting sell, even when one of the vehicles is a "sexy European":



As horsepower evaporated, so did the blue oval's willingness to do more than the minimum required to turn Fords into Mercurys.  By mid-decade, the Cougar was an LTD II with a different grille and the ad agency knew that it would take the sex appeal of a not-yet famous Farrah Fawcett to move them out of showrooms.



And that's been the path since. Jill Wagner makes young men's hearts beat faster...

 

But not enough to actually buy the product. The Mercury customer continues to be a Grand Marquis buyer with an average age of 70 (which means half of them are older). And given what Grand Marquis have been for the last 35 years, that's no surprise at all:



As someone with significant Mercurys in his personal history...a 1956 Montclair and 1970 Monterey Custom Coupe (my parents), a 1969 Cougar XR-7 Convertible (my uncle's) and a 1974 Capri 2800 V6 (mine), I'm sad.  But this, probably more than Plymouth, Oldsmobile and Pontiac, is inevitable. There's almost nothing left to resuscitate.

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Ford Fusion Hybrid Wins Break-Even Contest

Here's the deal with hybrids. You pay a few thousand dollars more than you would for the gasoline-only equivalent of that car and you get a few miles per gallon more. How long before those gas savings pay for the extra cost of the hybrid version?

That depends on the car. The Ford Fusion Hybrid is the best bet, according to The San Francisco Chronicle...with the next best taking more than twice as long to put you in the black. But that's the nearly identical 

(and not significantly higher priced) Mercury Milan Hybrid. 

Huh?  Full story here.

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Lincoln Hybrid MKZ Unveil At NYC Auto Show

Lexus is rolling out the hybrids, so why not Lincoln? Expect an announcement this week at the New York Auto Show that there will be a 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid.

Not that big a stretch, really...given that the MKZ is a derivative of the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan, both of which have hybrid models. We loved the Milan Hybrid...but will the MKZ be different enough to justify the Lincoln price tag?

The Detroit News talked to at least one analyst who isn't so sure. Story here.

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Ford Admits Hybrid Brake Troubles; Launches Customer Satisfaction Program

Consumer Reports magazine has issued a safety alert for the Ford Focus  Fusion Hybrid and its corporate twin, the Mercury Milan Hybrid, citing poor transitions between regenerative and conventional braking.

Ford, insisting that this problem is totally unrelated to brake problems with the Toyota Prius, is not launching a recall, but rather a "Customer Satisfaction Program" for vehicles built on or before October 17, 2009.

Here's the offical Ford press release:

STATEMENT: FORD CUSTOMER SATISFACTION PROGRAM


Ford is proactively announcing a customer satisfaction program to update the software of the regenerative brake system of some 2010-model Ford Fusion Hybrids and Mercury Milan Hybrids.

Dearborn, Mich., Feb. 4, 2010 – Today, we are announcing a customer satisfaction program to update the software of the regenerative brake system of some 2010-model Ford Fusion Hybrids and Mercury Milan Hybrids.

We have received reports that some drivers have experienced a different brake feel when the hybrid’s unique regenerative brakes switch to conventional hydraulic braking. While the vehicles maintain full braking capability, customers may initially perceive the condition as loss of brakes.

To be clear, the Fusion and Milan Hybrids’ brake system maintains full conventional brakes and full ABS function even as the customer sees visual indicators and hears a chime. The software threshold to transition from regenerative brakes to conventional brakes can cause the system to transition to conventional brakes unnecessarily.

The software upgrade will reduce unnecessary occurrences of the vehicle switching from regenerative braking to conventional hydraulic brakes.

Customers with affected vehicles will receive a notice in the mail. We are asking owners of affected vehicles to have vehicle software reprogrammed at dealers at no charge.

There have been no injuries related to this condition.

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Ford Sweeps North American Car & Truck Of The Year

(11JAN10) Detroit, Mich. Mark Fields, Executive Vice President, Ford Motor Company, accepts the NACTOY Car and Truck awards. This is the third time in NACTOY's history both awards have gone to one OEM.

For only the third time in 17 years, a single manufacturer has swept the North American Car and Truck of the Year awards (announced today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit).

The winner? Ford, for its Transit Connect van and Ford Fusion Hybrid (we reviewed the mechanically identical Mercury Milan Hybrid).

The Transit Connect was competing with the Chevrolet Equinox and Subaru Outback for North American Truck of the Year (The Outback? A truck? Station wagon, sure...but truck?). The Fusion was up against the all new Volkswagen Golf and GTI and the Buick LaCrosse.

                                                                      
Keep your interior looking brand new with Ford F150 seat covers.

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Mercury Milan Hybrid Review

Note: The Mercury Milan is gone, just like all of Mercury. However, the Ford Fusion Hybrid is virtually identical apart from some cosmetics. Until we get a Fusion Hybrid to review, we'll roll with the Milan.

I've said it before...the real game in hybrids isn't in small cars like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight that are born economy machines...it's in the conversion of larger, more thirsty vehicles and getting great mileage from them.

So far, the best examples have been the Nissan Altima Hybrid , Ford Escape Hybrid and Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Here's a surprise (at least it was to me): The Mercury Milan Hybrid blows those three away.

The EPA mileage estimate (41 city/36 highway) is enough to pole-vault over that trio (as well as the Insight) for second place on the TireKicker Top Ten Fuel Savers (clickable list in the right column of this page, just below the TireKicker Top 20 Cars (So Far).

But EPA estimates...you know...even the new, improved ones...you can't really trust 'em....they're estimates...not Gospel.

For the Milan Hybrid, they're low.

Nothing on that sheet says that I should have been able to do a 40 mile roundtrip in town (one-third freeway, two-thirds surface streets) and get 45 miles per gallon. But I did. Or the Milan Hybrid did, anyway. And I wasn't playing the game...just trying to get a library book across town before the branch closed and I owed a fine. Which means if anything, I was driving a little less than eco-conciously.

Didn't seem to matter.

How do I know how I did on one trip? Well, that's the other cool thing (besides sheer mileage) aoout the Milan Hybrid...its new LCD instrument cluster looks more like something from a high-end laptop than a Dearborn dashboard...and it serves up interesting and useful information...including your mileage from the moment you turn the car on until you shut it down. Trip after trip. Want to know more? Watch this Ford-produced video:



I put 300 miles on the Milan Hybrid in a week's worth of driving. I handed it back to Ford with half a tank of gas and a distance to empty reading of another 300.

$27,500 gets you into a Milan Hybrid. My tester had a package including Moonroof, a 12-speaker Sony audio system, a driver's vision package, the "Moon & Tune" package (moonroof and audio), blind spot detection, a rear-view video camera and rear spoiler. Package price: $3,735, minus a $660 Rapid Spec discount. This one also had a nav system ($1,775).

Leather seating? Standard.

Anyway, with $725 destination and delivery charges, this bottom-lined at $33,075. Ditch the moonroof and nav system and you're under $30K. Buy the Ford Fusion Hybrid (essentially the same car) and the base price is $230 less.

Comparably equipped, the Camry and Altima Hybrids still cost a bit less...but the story of hybrids thus far has largely been about people paying a premium for the highest gas mileage. If you're looking for an excuse to go green and buy American, it's just arrived.

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Mercury Mariner Premier Review

Somewhat lost in the hype over the Ford Escape Hybrid is how good a vehicle that is even without the super-green powertrain.

Its fraternal twin, the Mercury Mariner Premier came to TireKicker Villa for a week's stay recently and made its case for the traditional good life.

You see, the Escape Hybrid I tested last summer was a base model with just one option...Ford and Microsoft's SYNC audio system.

The Premier came loaded...nearly six grand worth of options including heated mirrors and seats, 17 inch painted aluminum wheels, moonroof, a mini-overhead console with map light, the rear cargo convenience package, a navigation and audiophile music system, dual zone climate control and a reverse sensing system.

The moonroof gets a "Moon & Tune" discount (that's what they call it on the window sticker) of $395, so with $725 in delivery charges, the Mariner bottom-lined at $29,670...a stone's throw from the as-tested price of the Escape Hybrid.

Ah, you say....but you're giving up all that fuel economy. Well, yes and no.

Hybrids are designed to deliver the biggest improvements in fuel economy in the city, where the electric engine can often take over completely in low-speed driving (or crawling, as commuters on L.A.'s 405 freeway might know it).

Often, hybrids' EPA estimates are the reverse of normal cars...higher in city than on the highway. That's the case for the Ford Escape Hybrid...34 city/30 highway.

At 20 city, the loaded Mariner (even with the four-cylinder engine our tester had) uses a lot more fuel.

But what if you do mostly highway (or uncongested city freeway) driving? Well, then things get interesting...because the Mariner's EPA estimate is 28...only two mpg less than the Hybrid (which, by the way, you can get in the Mariner as well).

If your driving tips the scales toward highway, then a loaded Mariner with a gasoline four, selling for a grand or so less than a base Escape Hybrid with SYNC (though the tax credit pretty much makes it a wash) might make as much or more sense. Less complexity...less uncertainty about what the bill might be when the battery pack fails after the warranty runs out.

Your call. They're both very good small SUVs.

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