Report: Ford has been planning to get rid of Mercury for years

Mercury

Making big headlines last week, it was reported that FoMoCo executives are putting together a proposal to kill Mercury that will be presented to directors in July. New reports suggest that Ford has been trying to kill the 71-year-old brand slowly for a while now by starving it of product.

Sources say that when a plan is proposed to directors, executives will say that they can no longer justify the cost of supporting Mercury in light of the brand’s declining volume.

Apparently, the company has been laying down the groundwork for Mercury’s elimination for years consolidating stores and merging dealer councils.

“Understand, when you kill a brand, dealers sue and win big settlements (unless you go bankrupt),” said Jerry Flint of Forbes.com “But you can get away with it if you starve the brand and then say there’s just no business left.”

We’ve been reporting on Mercury’s vague future since a little over a year now.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)