The bigger question being "who the heck would WANT mercury?"

Volvo will be pretty easy to sell, I think. It has a pretty good image around the world. Would it be bad for Ford to keep Volvo and just stop producing Mecuries? Because there really isn't any reason to keep Mercury going. As for Lincoln, they need to start differentiating from Ford, perhaps pull a Pontiac. At least, that's what I think would be good for them.

I think it would be a mistake for Ford to sell Volvo, I mean they are using a lot of shared tech, and I think owning Volvo has made ford cars better. Also I think Ford should rethink the person they put in charge of Volvo that wants to axe interesting cars like the C30, and concentrate on producing a bunch of over priced large SUV's.

Please do it.

No, Ford needs Volvo, because Volvo brings along a lot of good safety technologies and features that are on today's Ford cars and trucks.

As for Mercury, no one is going to buy Mercury, so that's a dead issue. If Ford can't come up with something for Mercury soon, then they need to put it on the shelve and keep it there until there is a real solid reason to revive it.

Revise Lincoln
Keep Volvo
Kill Mercury

Mercury cars are virtually the same as regular fords, with minor changes to the front and back exterior, and are built in the same factories, on the same lines as regular fords. So I would think the only sellable asset would be the Mercury name.
No idea how much they would save by shutting it down - how much did chrysler save by killing Plymouth?

if you want to sell, there must be buyers.

Nobody wants Mercury. Maybe the brand (not the casr) are worth US2m in China.

Volvo is worth something, but going-on on its own or LMBO, difficult to do so in 2008/9.

Look east for potential buyers: Hyundai would be top of my list, followed by Geely and Tata.

Hyundai would make most sence (exept for the enormous ego's overthere) with synergies aplenty ao Sonata (S40), Azera (S60)Genesis (S80 and S100), Santa Fe (XC70 successor), Alante, (340-series successor), Tucson (XC50-successor). Hyundai would get access to European factories in Sweden and Belgium as well as state ofthe art Safety technology.

I'll buy Mercury for $25,000.

All too easy:

Keep Volvo. Unlike Jaguar and Land Rover, there is good synergy between Volvo and Ford (and Mazda).

As for Mercury, kill it or take it up market. Take it up market does not mean a re-badge of domestic Ford; it means a re-badge of the European Ford line.

Maybe Ford should drop the status of Mercury to compete in a lower price market. Maybe a rebadged Focus (for cheaper), an Escape-like SUV (also cheaper), and maybe a small car based off the Mustang (for much cheaper than a regular Mustang).

For those who think Volvo is a keeper, you're thinking of fifteen years when Volvo was worth something. Now, Volvo is just draining Ford and not giving the expected returns. By the way, safety comes second in mind to reliability (or even performance), so Volvo has no real edge in any market. As for technology sharing, Volvo has taken more than it's given, in a sense. Ford was smart enough to develop most new technology in-house and export it to it's subsidiaries, instead of the other way around.

People forget that Mercury started out as a model, not a brand. It's time to go back. Sell the Mondeo in North America as the "Ford Mercury" or something. Or rename the Crown Vic. Either way, keep the name, kill the brand.

As for Volvo, Ford needs to keep it. Ford appears to be getting serious about Lincoln (finally), and the only way to make Lincoln competitive against Lexus and BMW is to load the MKS, MKZ, etc. with Volvo parts. As said above, Volvo has made Ford's cars better.

Ohh, I just thought of a way to save Mercury: feature a few Mercurys in a Bond film (Ford has had decent product placement in the past, with the Thunderbird and Aston Martin Vanquish.) Putting 007 in a Sable or Milan might just save Mercury. But then, it might also kill the Bond franchise. JUST JOKING!!! Better to do away with Merc after all...

Keep Volvo and bury Mercury. Volvo provides too much to Ford safety and reliability wise for them to be let go.

Neither Mercury nor Lincoln has any value at all. Try to sell them if you'd like, you won't get any takers. Both brands should be set aside. Maybe, after a decade or so of absence, reviving them will make sense.

Volvo, on the other hand, has value. The question is whether there is synergy between Ford and Volvo anymore? I don't think there ever was synergy there, and both companies would profit from a split. The sooner, the better.

Keep Volvo
Kill Mercury (dead weight and redundant)
Restructure Lincoln (find a good design direction)
Up controling stake of Mazda
Fire the designer of current Ford US vehicles and put the designer of Ford Europe in Charge.
Bring back SVT

Ford has a Strong European brand (Volvo)
An iconic American Luxury brand (Lincoln) (If managed right)
A japanese brand gaining reputation for sporty, small, well built, performance oriented cars (Mazda)
An all around known name with long history (Ford)

Ford has a hand in in domestic, European, Japanese brands which in my opinion is a good place to be and makes it a very diversified company so no matter which way the consumer goes Ford has a part of the market.

Ford needs to make Mercury there European import dealer here in the states. Just like Saturn is for GM, and in fact Pontiac at this point The rebadge thing only works for certain car manufactures, and in this case, the only difference is the badge....

@andrew
I said the same thing 6 months ago.

They also need to move lincoln up market more. That way there will be less of a crossover area. It will also let them bring over euro fords as fords with crapier trim. Right now it seems like some of the cars just get rebadged 6 times for all their shared companies.

They need to be less afraid to produce shocking designs with atleast one of their names.

Ford really hasn'y done Mercury any favors in the past. Essentially, they are mechanically similiar models to Ford with different front/rear fascias. So, I agree with the majority of posts that Mercury is dead in the water. Ford has been and should continue to utilize the safety/driving dynamic expertise of Volvo and Ford is pretty reliant on Mazda for small engines/vehicles. Lincoln should really follow Cadillac's lead in producing distinctive, iconic vehicles.

hasn't-sp

Maybe sell it to the same people who bought Oldsmobile...oh, wait.....

Maybe sell Mercury to the same people who bought Oldsmobile...oh, wait.....

Sell off Volvo but sell Mercury? rebadge the rebadged Ford products and call it a day. Ford Grand Marquis.

Porsche/VW can buy up Volvo and use the factories to build more VW's and Audis.

cheers,
Bob

sell Volvo to Hyundai.

Mercury? Who cares?

Ford has never been able to manage any kind of synergies:
1. not between the Ford USA and Ford Europe teams (note the endless mis-alignments on Focus, Modeo,...),
2. never between Mazda and Ford USA

Only for the S40, Mazda3 and Euro Focus, there was a platform strategy that actually had a saleable output. But that was kept outside the USA and had most benefits for Ford.

Then we had Jaguar-Lincoln.... no comments.

All other synergies were 'badge jobs': S80/XC90 to Ford 500 conversion, Mazda Coupe to Mercury conversion, and never did anything in the market.

Ford is a deeply troubled company that should focus on the right segments, and align the competences around that. That means a greater role of the Eu/Japan design teams, a heavier organisational focus on the leadership of platform teams. And maybe a small team doing Trucks out-of detroit.

Downstream, i wounder how many brands this sick company can afford, i'd say max 2.
If Toyota and Honda are reluctant to go beyond 2, than that is a good benchmark.

I had no idea that a common platform for Mazda3, Mazda5, Volvo S40, V50, C30, C70, Ford C-Max, Focus Mk2, and Kuga was considered poor synergy.

With the exception of the full-size pickups, virtually every US ford is based on a global platform.

The use of the common C170 platform in the first generation focus seems trivial by comparison when you consider the big picture.

Disclaimers:

Yes I know that the D2C Mustang platform is not shared, but it is derived from the DEW which is, which supports the synergy claim.

I also recognize that the US spec focus is on the prior generation C170 platform, but the drivetrain shares a lot with both Mazda and Focus Mk2.

Renault should be interested for volvo.

@bubba 551

One, yes, one platform after years of ownership. Then still with only 20% commonality. That is a really good reason for Eu2b+ on your balance sheet....

The rest is badge engineering....

And , yes, Ford may have to clean-up some factories before the sale and include a douwry. Otherwise no buyers.

@lowest

I was unaware that commonality was the goal, since that truely would be badge engineering.

I thought that the goal of synergy was to be able to reuse the same underlying platforms and drivetrains to produce product offerings tailored to specific markets and segments.

In other words, one size (i.e. offering) does not fit all, but many offerings can leverage common engineering, development, and supply chains.

Having Mercury is stupid. If I was looking for a small SUV I could go with an Escape or a Mariner and have the exact same SUV. Why NOT get rid of Mercury?

Lincoln is Ford's bling brand for rappers, athletes, and attention wh*res. Ford should keep Volvo for the rest of us folks who want lux (and safety) without all the bling.

Is there still that many old farts buying Mercurys that Ford decided to keep building them? They should sell Mercury designers first, then drop the brand.

Oldsmobile - Dead
Plymouth - Dead
Isuzu - Leaving US this year
Mercury - Kill it

Regarding Volvo, I don't know the facts behind the technology swap value and the $ its producing or draining...

But Ford should look at what GM did with Saturn and use this brands to rebadge Opel vehicles in US. Ford should do the same with Euro Ford models and put them under the Mercury brand.

I think this will up the value or cache of Mercury which is what its suppose to be...and make it a true product as oppose to a cosmetic facelift over the ford lineup.

Just want all Big 3 to sell and keeps jobs and hopefully create new ones!!!

Regarding Volvo, I don't know the facts behind the technology swap value and the $ its producing or draining...

But Ford should look at what GM did with Saturn and use this brands to rebadge Opel vehicles in US. Ford should do the same with Euro Ford models and put them under the Mercury brand.

I think this will up the value or cache of Mercury which is what its suppose to be...and make it a true product as oppose to a cosmetic facelift over the ford lineup.

Just want all Big 3 to sell and keeps jobs and hopefully create new ones!!!

i got a wonderfull idea! what about volvo buying volvo!
then the cars will be reliable, safe, reliable and have good preformance. and volvo could start producing b230's again. if that happens bmw, audi, mercedes and ford and som japanese crap will go in bankcrupcy :)