Interesting info on Mercury

[TAF]

Scanned from January 12th issue of Autoweek. (Sorry...but still trying to figure out my new scanner)

So...do you think the statement about Mercury being positioned as the "sporty-oriented marque" means....more "Marauder-like" high performance sedan offerings....or...."rice-like" offerings?
http://www.mercurygallery.net/mmnet/watermark.php?file=500/83Fisker_Interview-med.jpg

[RF Overlord]

Todd:

I REALLY hope I'm wrong, but I'll be willing to bet "sporty-oriented marque" means "rice-like"...after all, they "R" known as "sport-compact" cars...if he meant cars more like the Marauder, he would have said "performance-oriented marque".

[67435animal]

Interesting. With his background at BMW and Aston-Martin, I doubt the 'rice-like' (please no, we have enough ricey cars) but maybe some nicely European sized sporty performance sedans and coupes are possible.

Bob

[TAF]

I'm afraid he means "rice" as well, RF and Bob...

But...I've said it before...(a million times)...and I'll say it again...I didn't buy my Marauder 'cause it's a Mercury. If it would have been a Ford Blackhawk it would have been in my driveway, as well. And I STILL say that SVT needs to have a model between the Cobra and the Lightning....so bring on a S/C Ford 427 after '06 and I'll buy it!
http://www.alltheweb.com/r?ck_sm=b67ffdfc&rpos=1&oid=-&rpge=1&ref=200340086&r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.canadiandri ver.com%2Fnews%2F03images%2Fde t_ford427_3.jpg

[TripleTransAm]

Didn't they try this with the most recent Mercury Cougar?

[RF Overlord]

The new Cougar?...Mercury absolutely RUINED it, IMHO...

:mad: :rolleyes: :bs: :censor: :shake: :nono: :down: :puke: :uzi:

[TripleTransAm]

Precisely...

[RCSignals]

His comment on the Mark X is interesting, as I understand Ford has been saying it is NOT a redone Thunderbird

[TAF]

Originally posted by RCSignals
His comment on the Mark X is interesting, as I understand Ford has been saying it is NOT a redone Thunderbird

I thought so as well Duncan. In fact..it's quite a "shot" at the folks he now works with.

How 'bout that 427? You know a lot of inside stuff Duncan...think I could be in something similar to that in '07 or '08?

[junehhan]

With his European background, we can hope we'll see some really definitive cars from Mercury that don't follow the ricer genre of ugly-ass designs. However, even BMW's lately have started to get really ugly IMHO..........

Also, if Mercury becomes more "sporty" oriented, what about some of the traditional Mercury buyers? I would hope they wouldn't alienate them as a group, since the average age of a Mercury buyer is still pretty up there.

[bigslim]

I have heard that there will be performance versions of the Five Hundred and the Futura. The Futura may even wear a SVT badge.

[RCSignals]

Todd, I think the 427 was really only a styling exercise. Because it was well received we'll see elements of it in upcoming cars. I expect the CV/GM restyle to include some of it.
The engine? who knows, but ford id starting to show more performance engines in it's show cars, so maybe some of that will become reality