In a move that will sadden many car fans in the United States, Ford Motor Co. has announced that it intends to close its Mercury car division in an effort to stream line its focus. This means that Mercury will join other previous American stalwarts such as Pontiac, Hummer and Saturn in the grave of now defunct car makers. This comes as a surprise to many industry experts because the car sales in the US have been so strong in 2010, posting record gains all through the first 5 months of the year, but Ford intends to focus its efforts on only its most profitable divisions and avoid those which are not quite as good of a return on investment. Mercury had only been making up around 5% of Ford’s overall sales and not proven to pull its weight in terms of profitability, struggling to keep up with the other divisions. However, the name plate was certainly famous and will be missed by many car collectors who now expect the value of more recent Mercury vehicles to begin to rise.
Instead of focusing on Mercury, Ford will now swing its attention over to its Lincoln division and work to improve both the design of the vehicles and market them even more strongly in order to compete in the higher end vehicle market. The upscale car division will be used to replace sales at the dealership level for those dealerships that had been offering Mercury on their lots. In the past, Mercury and Lincoln had often been shown side by side so the arrangement should work in Lincoln’s favor.
