In July, executives will submit a proposal to board members to eliminate Mercury. Mercury sales have dropped 74 percent in the past decade.
Ford is working to end Mercury.
According to the report Ford executives will present a proposal to the company’s Directors in July for Mercury to be shut down. Two of the brand’s current four-vehicle lineup will be discontinued next year, and it is already starving for models.
Since 2006, Ford CEO Alan Mulally has focused on rebuilding the company’s core blue oval (Ford), brand. He has also sold off previous assets like Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover, Land Rover, and Aston Martin. Mulally’s leadership is widely credited with helping Ford avoid the bankruptcy fates of the other Big 3 Detroit automakers GM and Chrysler.
Mulally, however, has not confirmed the decision, telling Washington, D.C. reporters earlier this week that there was no change in the company’s “position about Ford, Lincoln, or Mercury.”
The Mercury brand’s sales have dropped 74 percent in the past decade. The brand sold just 92 299 units last year. Mercury sales reached their peak in 1978 with 579,498 vehicles. Analysts believe that Ford has taken Mercury away from models and marketing resources, as it didn’t want to spend too much on the brand.
“The brand is starved of product. The company wants to make Lincoln great again,” Stephen Amabile, a Pennsylvania Lincoln-Mercury dealer, said in the story.
Edsel Ford (son of Henry Ford) created the Mercury brand in 1939. This brand was created to bridge the gap between Ford models, and Lincoln’s luxury marquee.