Maybe Mercury only exists for those folks who come into a Lincoln dealership and can't quite swing a Lincoln-sized payment? Then it's easy to switch them down to the Mercury equivalent.

Who knows really - that's the only reason for their continued existence that I can think of.

Drag, there goes the cougar line of cars if they kill of Mercury. The worst move they made was killing off the last gen of the mercury cougar now that was a car that had styling all over and could very well be the last good looking car they ever made and there was no other car in the ford line that looked like that . Why couldn't they keep making cars with that kind of styling and keep them undder the mercury name

I've never known the positioning of the Mercury brand. Ford covered the low end, and Lincoln covered the high end. I liked the Mercury cougar but other than that, the other cars were forgettable. I guess keeping a brand alive for one good car isn't economical.

Could the new 2008 Ford Falcon / Orion from Australia show up in the US in the near future as a Mercury. Hmmmmmmmm

I wouldn't lose any sleep if Mercury up and disappeared. The only person I know that was crazy about a Mercury was Alan Jackson and I bet he got paid to be crazy. Me personally, I hate badge engineering. I believe each car brand should have it's own distinctive look. Mercury is pretty much a copy of Ford so there really isn't a need for Mercury. It's just a waste of time and money to have 2 brands with the same cars.

My wife loves Mercurys. She thinks Mercury are usually much better looking than Fords. She had to have a Mercury Montaineer for a while, while she hated the Explorer (too brutish, truck like). She also loved the Mercury Mariner's style, is she ever bought a hybrid, it had to be that one.

And she is not alone. I've heard many women rate Mercurys, and would never buy a Ford.

Personally I think its too much cosmectic difference, too little substance. Suggestion to Ford: make all Mercurys with less chrome than Lincoln, a little bit sporty, and make the Sable, or more likely the Milan RWD only. THAT would make them more attractive to me.

Kill the Merc, spend the money saved to improve the rest of the breed. Ford (and the rest of the US car makers) needs to do what the Japs have done, continue to develop each car, year by year. Pumping out a complete make overs every 5 or 6 years, hasn't worked yet, so why not try to build on what they already have? Wouldn't it be neat if Ford still built the Taurus, and it could compete neck-to-neck with a Toyota Camry, or Even BMW's M3 for quality and performance? Now that might sound crazy, but I don't see Toyota and BMW knocking $5,000.00 off their cars just to move them off the lot....

Ford has had difficulty positioning Mercury for at least 30 years. During that time Mercs have always been "Fords with more chrome", and the current product lineup certainly doesn't help contradict that observation. Why not take the gloves off and let Merc have it's own products? They could be Ford's rear-drive division similar to the way GM is remaking Pontiac. Merc could take the Mustang platform and do wonders with it, including a new Cougar.

The only people who feel passionately that Mercury should go away probably work for the competition. Mercury has the best styling in years and J.D. Power's initial quality studies show they have the quality and reliability to back it up.

I own a mercury there are the best i had a toyota camry that broke down more then 4 times. I have had a Mercury sable for more than 9 years and never had any trouble. You wont know how good they are until you try one. They are really nice and good cars.