Lincoln Mercury’s future uncertain
Dwindling sales of Ford’s Mercury division have dealers worrying about its future. The Mercury division of Ford motors is the mid level brand between Ford automobiles, which constitute a large share of sales, and the higher end luxury Lincoln vehicles.
In an attempt to stabilize the Ford brand in US markets Ford plans to concentrate more on Lincoln which sells European styled luxury cars. Mercury on the other hand has had very few exclusive new products in the recent years and has also not got a version of the popular Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX cross over vehicles.
Mark Fields, Ford’s president for the Americas, said after a meeting with Lincoln-Mercury dealers at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco that “Mercury has a place in our brand portfolio,” however he went on to add that “Any good business on a continuous basis looks at their portfolio. Any good business does that, not just automotive, and that’s part of our process.”
U.S. dealers sold 168,422 Mercury vehicles last year, down 6.9 percent from 2006. Lincoln sales of 131,487 were up 9.1 percent.
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