Mercury's Flagship Grand Marquis Sedan
The Grand Marquis was introduced as a trim line in 1975, and would become a full-fledged model in 1983. Since that time the Grand Marquis would remain Mercury's flagship model. While the car featured the typically boxy design throughout the 1980's, the current look was implement in 1992 and other than relatively minor updates the car has changed little over the decades. The car shares much in common with the Ford Crown Victoria, however the Marquis is placed slightly upmarket. The Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria cousins have been two of the few full-size, rear wheel drive, V8-powered cars to survive through the 1990's.
Mercury's History
Mercury is one of the few brands that did not pre-exist as a standalone company. Mercury was created in-house at Ford to meet market demand and offer competition to other mid-range brands such as Buick, Chrysler, and Oldsmobile. The first Mercury cars rolled off the assembly line for the 1939 model year. In 1945, the Mercury brand was rolled into Lincoln-Mercury to better position the Mercury cars as upmarket offerings associated more with Lincoln than with Ford.
Mercury has produced a large number of popular models, including the famous 1949 Mercury Club Coupe that is popular with car customizers. The 1949 Mercury introduced a whole new styling concept which was a dramatic change from previous models. The styling of the 1949 Ford and Mercury products greatly influenced how cars were styled throughout the 1950s.
Currently, all Mercury vehicles share platforms with Ford vehicles, which has caused a lack of differentiation between Ford and Mercury offerings. This lack of differentiation has cause Mercury sales to steadily decline from its peak in the late 1970s. Attempts to revive the performance image of Mercury that the company enjoyed during its earlier years have largely failed. The most recent attempt was the reintroduction of the 2003 and 2004 Mercury Marauder, named after a full-size high performance Mercury built in the 1960's. The new Marauder was a Grand Marquis with some sheet metal picked up from the Ford Crown Victoria. Sales of the 302-hp V8-powered car were sluggish, at best, and the experiment was ceased after only 11,052 units were built.
Mercury's Future
Due to Mercury's overlap with other Ford products and steadily decreasing sales, Mercury has been named as a potential target for a complete phase-out. No definite plans have been issued by Ford at this point, however the Mercury brand had been scrapped in Canada as of 1999. The only Mercury vehicle sold in Canada is the Grand Marquis, which is sold as a Ford, but badged as a Mercury.
Mercury currently sells less than 200,000 units per year, which is less than either Plymouth or Oldsmobile during their respective phase-out periods. There are no longer any Mercury-only dealers left in the US, with all Mercury dealers being part of a multi-brand store. The last Mercury-only dealer resigned his franchise late in 2007.
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