tomd
03-19-2003, 01:35 PM
Found this poking around Blue Oval News
MERCURY FALLING
March 03
Chris Paukert, Managing Editor.
Having attended both the Detroit and Chicago shows this past season and witnessed the fruits of Ford's supposed reinvigoration of the Mercury brand, I can't help but feel that Dearborn is once again falling prey to the same gulag that deep-sixed the marque's value in the first place. The sum total of Ford's trumpeted reinvestment into the fallen badge can be seen thusly: More tarted-up trim-and-tape Fords. This time, though, they're willing to tarnish valued old monikers like Monterey, Montego, and Marauder to sell a few extra units. What's old is new again, and vice-versa.
To sit in on the press conference in the City of Big Shoulders listening to journalists quietly groan while Elena Ford waxed euphoric about the rebirth of Mercury, only to lamely plug a rebadged Windstar (err… Freestar) with a new grill and an analog dashboard clock is to nutshell the problem. I won't argue that Ford's latest salvo in the minivan wars may in fact be a damned fine product. What I will contend, however, is that a handful of minor differentiations will fail to justify (to the consumer) the thousand-dollar premium that the model will likely command over a Blue Oval badged example. With most of the features available on the meat-and-potatoes Freestar, there is precious little incentive for the consumer to pony up a few extra grand for the added prestige of a brand that in fact has no clout whatsoever.
More troubling still is that the widely-published snazzy big-wheeled artist's rendering of the Montego (Mercury's sedan for '05) likewise instantly lost its appeal when during the Monterey presser a CGI teaser of the four-door revealed an altogether less aggressive design that fairly screamed "rent me." Back in Detroit, the Mercury Messenger coupe debut revealed an interesting concept with a splashy introduction, but by most accounts, it is a throwaway publicity stunt that will never see the light of day. The Marauder notion held promise (deflated by a drivetrain that couldn't hang with Honda Accord), but in truth Dearborn would have been better served by having it wear the Blue Oval. The only truly viable horse in Mercury's stable appears to be the Mountaineer, which at least has a distinctly uppercrust look and feel when compared to its downmarket Explorer brethren.
Mercury's Achilles' heel has always been Dearborn's failure give the marque a clear-cut purpose and design direction. Occupying the muddied midwaters between Ford and Lincoln hasn't proven to be a suitable habitat for brand growth for decades, and nothing yet shown sees any real promise of reversing that. The buying demographics that Mercury claims to be courting in fact likely have no idea who or what Mercury stands for. For the last twenty five years or so, Mercury has essentially admitted that hasn't stood for anything. This means that a forty-year-old consumer has likely has no sentiments (fond or otherwise) regarding the brand at all, and that's a hell of a big eight ball for the brand to be sitting behind come buying time.
For a rebirth to take root, fresh product and a well-defined market segment are a must. One can successfully share platforms so long as common roots are disguised - the VW group has reiterated this truth for us since the introduction of the New Beetle, though even that act is starting to wear a bit thin. Since the advent of the CTS and surprising success of the revised Escalade, Cadillac has been successfully breeding new buyers with its bold styling direction and well thought-out products (The SRX is a knockout, btw), and although it is too early to tell, Infiniti appears to have found the road out of the woods with products like the sublime G35 Coupe and FX45 softroader. Mercury, it would appear, still has no idea just how far gone they truly are.
I must come clean and say that I've been heard in conversation for the past couple of years siding with the contingent that favors nixing the brand altogether. However, I elected to give Dearborn the benefit of the doubt and wanted to wait for the first wave of new products before going on record as saying "I Told You So," because I truly hoped to be proven wrong. Sadly, Mercury is clearly in deep trouble.
For the record, I am not unaware of the brand's history - episodes of which are clearly worth saving. In fact, it is worth pointing out that Ford itself failed to find the palpable irony and pity in their displaying a number of vintage Turnpike Cruisers and Hi-Po Cougars only to trot out a soullessly Xeroxed soccer mom transportation device. With Ford in need of cash and new volume models yesterday, now is simply not the time to be futzing around with a profitless sideline of products.
It has been said that sustaining Mercury has merely been part of Ford's plan to sate stand-alone Lincoln-Mercury dealers, who lately haven't had much to cheer about, let alone having products on hand to help them balance the books. Ford's troubled dealership relations will come as news to nobody that frequents this site, and doubtlessly ashcanning an entire brand would do little to alleviate that concern, at least in the short-term. With that said, I say without a hint of disrespect to the dealers or their employees, keeping this woefully under-funded brand on life support does no one any favors, it simply prolongs the inevitable… in the process bleeding parent Ford's coffers dry of money that might otherwise have been spent on meaningful new product to help spearhead the turnaround.
Of course, I'll admit that mine is by no means a uniquely held sentiment… consider this an addition to the growing chorus of voices. Sadly, it is a choir I wish I didn't have to join. Call it "trim and tape" or "smoke and mirrors," but this dog just won't hunt. It is high time to euthanize Mercury. Dearborn can always wait thirty years for when Ford is in less rude health and pull a "Maybach," reintroducing a brand that nobody but the automotively obsessed such as myself remembers anyway (on the thinnest wisp of a deeply embellished history, no less). Maybe then people won't remember the Topaz.
MERCURY FALLING
March 03
Chris Paukert, Managing Editor.
Having attended both the Detroit and Chicago shows this past season and witnessed the fruits of Ford's supposed reinvigoration of the Mercury brand, I can't help but feel that Dearborn is once again falling prey to the same gulag that deep-sixed the marque's value in the first place. The sum total of Ford's trumpeted reinvestment into the fallen badge can be seen thusly: More tarted-up trim-and-tape Fords. This time, though, they're willing to tarnish valued old monikers like Monterey, Montego, and Marauder to sell a few extra units. What's old is new again, and vice-versa.
To sit in on the press conference in the City of Big Shoulders listening to journalists quietly groan while Elena Ford waxed euphoric about the rebirth of Mercury, only to lamely plug a rebadged Windstar (err… Freestar) with a new grill and an analog dashboard clock is to nutshell the problem. I won't argue that Ford's latest salvo in the minivan wars may in fact be a damned fine product. What I will contend, however, is that a handful of minor differentiations will fail to justify (to the consumer) the thousand-dollar premium that the model will likely command over a Blue Oval badged example. With most of the features available on the meat-and-potatoes Freestar, there is precious little incentive for the consumer to pony up a few extra grand for the added prestige of a brand that in fact has no clout whatsoever.
More troubling still is that the widely-published snazzy big-wheeled artist's rendering of the Montego (Mercury's sedan for '05) likewise instantly lost its appeal when during the Monterey presser a CGI teaser of the four-door revealed an altogether less aggressive design that fairly screamed "rent me." Back in Detroit, the Mercury Messenger coupe debut revealed an interesting concept with a splashy introduction, but by most accounts, it is a throwaway publicity stunt that will never see the light of day. The Marauder notion held promise (deflated by a drivetrain that couldn't hang with Honda Accord), but in truth Dearborn would have been better served by having it wear the Blue Oval. The only truly viable horse in Mercury's stable appears to be the Mountaineer, which at least has a distinctly uppercrust look and feel when compared to its downmarket Explorer brethren.
Mercury's Achilles' heel has always been Dearborn's failure give the marque a clear-cut purpose and design direction. Occupying the muddied midwaters between Ford and Lincoln hasn't proven to be a suitable habitat for brand growth for decades, and nothing yet shown sees any real promise of reversing that. The buying demographics that Mercury claims to be courting in fact likely have no idea who or what Mercury stands for. For the last twenty five years or so, Mercury has essentially admitted that hasn't stood for anything. This means that a forty-year-old consumer has likely has no sentiments (fond or otherwise) regarding the brand at all, and that's a hell of a big eight ball for the brand to be sitting behind come buying time.
For a rebirth to take root, fresh product and a well-defined market segment are a must. One can successfully share platforms so long as common roots are disguised - the VW group has reiterated this truth for us since the introduction of the New Beetle, though even that act is starting to wear a bit thin. Since the advent of the CTS and surprising success of the revised Escalade, Cadillac has been successfully breeding new buyers with its bold styling direction and well thought-out products (The SRX is a knockout, btw), and although it is too early to tell, Infiniti appears to have found the road out of the woods with products like the sublime G35 Coupe and FX45 softroader. Mercury, it would appear, still has no idea just how far gone they truly are.
I must come clean and say that I've been heard in conversation for the past couple of years siding with the contingent that favors nixing the brand altogether. However, I elected to give Dearborn the benefit of the doubt and wanted to wait for the first wave of new products before going on record as saying "I Told You So," because I truly hoped to be proven wrong. Sadly, Mercury is clearly in deep trouble.
For the record, I am not unaware of the brand's history - episodes of which are clearly worth saving. In fact, it is worth pointing out that Ford itself failed to find the palpable irony and pity in their displaying a number of vintage Turnpike Cruisers and Hi-Po Cougars only to trot out a soullessly Xeroxed soccer mom transportation device. With Ford in need of cash and new volume models yesterday, now is simply not the time to be futzing around with a profitless sideline of products.
It has been said that sustaining Mercury has merely been part of Ford's plan to sate stand-alone Lincoln-Mercury dealers, who lately haven't had much to cheer about, let alone having products on hand to help them balance the books. Ford's troubled dealership relations will come as news to nobody that frequents this site, and doubtlessly ashcanning an entire brand would do little to alleviate that concern, at least in the short-term. With that said, I say without a hint of disrespect to the dealers or their employees, keeping this woefully under-funded brand on life support does no one any favors, it simply prolongs the inevitable… in the process bleeding parent Ford's coffers dry of money that might otherwise have been spent on meaningful new product to help spearhead the turnaround.
Of course, I'll admit that mine is by no means a uniquely held sentiment… consider this an addition to the growing chorus of voices. Sadly, it is a choir I wish I didn't have to join. Call it "trim and tape" or "smoke and mirrors," but this dog just won't hunt. It is high time to euthanize Mercury. Dearborn can always wait thirty years for when Ford is in less rude health and pull a "Maybach," reintroducing a brand that nobody but the automotively obsessed such as myself remembers anyway (on the thinnest wisp of a deeply embellished history, no less). Maybe then people won't remember the Topaz.