Ford did seperate Volvo out in their quarterly statement.

 

Mercury's been gone in Canada for a few years now, so Ford has at least some data to go on. I'm not sure how much of an effect it's had, as Ford tends to do rather poorly in Canada to begin with.

 

Yeah, GM, that company that went against it's business plan to let each company make it's own cars, right..

Wonder why every one of them has a GM badge? Because it's not a chevy, it's a GM! They could actually get rid of all their brands and just go by GM, nobody would notice.

 

Yeah, because that makes sense.

The market is fragmenting into a million pieces, yet our goal should be to sell homogeny instead of a broad range of vehicles?

Any Detroit automaker that is shedding brands is doomed to lose the market again, wait and see.

Mercury would be SO incredibly easy to revitalize simply because it has never had any sort of strong identity.

 

Naturally...

The magic of Mercury is in it's potential (Like any neglected domestic division: Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, etc.)

Hell, I love Pontiac, but right now I can't think of many reasons to buy any of their cars over Chevrolet. Now, with products like the G8 line and Solstice, that is changing.

 

Mercury = Oldsmobile

 

1) The fact that, based on their business model, Lexus STILL isn't considered to be in the same league as the top luxury cars, eventhough they sell more cars.

2) The fact that Toyota can't convince young people to buy Toyotas and had to introduce a third channel, which is now falling on it's face.

3) The fact that Toyota cannot cater to the specific needs/desires of the customer... Lets face it, Toyota sells on quality; no one buys a Toyota because it is particularly appealing. If quality continues to improve across the industry and Toyota fails to implement some sort of emotional factor into their product, they will have SERIOUS problems in the future. I know it, you know it and they know it.

I've said it a million times... Toyota's business model will not work for domestic companies because domestic products DO NOT sell on the same principles as Toyota products.

 

It makes absolutely no sense for people to beg these companies to "give up" ground in the market by eliminating divisions (especially GM) What? Do you guys honestly think a more competitive Ford/Lincoln corporation would GAIN any share? Yeah right! This market is so competitive that anything given up is gone for good.

Just wow... I hope you were being sarcastic.

 

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that GM manufactures vehicles; Chevrolet, Pontiac, Saturn, GMC, Buick, Cadillac and Hummer market the vehicles that GM builds. In other words, the divisions only market and sell what the manufacturer builds, the divisions themselves don't actually manufacture vehicles.

 

FWIW, my sister is probably going to buy a 2008 Milan to replace her 1991 Cougar (purchased new and daily-driven for over 17 years). She looked at the Fusion and didn't like it as well. Having two divisions selling the same basic model does allow more cosmetic differentiation than you could otherwise get away with. I personally think they are wasting a lot of significant potential sales by letting Mercury languish as they have.

 

The Lincoln-Mercury dealers are going to love that.

Mercury is a complete persona non grata, even if they could fix it that would be tons of money simply to overlap with Mazda, but I don't know that Lincoln can stand on its own.

 

IMO Toyota did to it what it does to every one of it's cars - Toyotafication. Add weight, cost, blandness and subsequently subtract mileage - voila, we give you the 2008 xB.

Mercury is pointless. Completely pointless. Good riddance.

Curious decision about Volvo though.

 

Mercury sales are down, Lincoln sales are up. I don't think that Ford is trying to "give up" sales (any more than they can help), but moving L-M customers to higher-profit Lincoln vehicles seems to be working. Why make a "Mercury Edge" when the MKX is selling so well?

And are you seriously claiming that Mercurys sell because of "emotional factor"? Its the biggest non-brand ever.

Anyway this isn't like Oldsmobile where they created a new unique identity and then shut it down leaving those customer with nothing.

 

As you said, Pontiac has some unique models... G8, Solstice (well, the upcoming coupe, anyways)... the G6 isn't too visually similar to it's platform mates...

Buick's stuff doesn't exactly float my boat, but at least it doesn't appear as though I can unbolt the doors from the LaCrosse and mount them on a Bonneville...

Mercury may have potential, but it has less potential than the Lincoln and Ford names. I don't think anyone would consider it 'magic'

Mercury needs to go the way of Oldsmobile.

 

Yes, in much the same way that I liked the Oldsmobile Intrigue better than the Grand Prix or Regal.

But the costs of designing two different cars and maintaining alternate sales channels must be greater than the incremental profit from additional cars sold. What if they took the money spent in creating the Milan and spent it on improvements in the Fusion?

Worst case, make a Fusion and a Fusion Prime with slightly different styling.