Mercury‘s glory days are long over, with the brand lacking anything exciting or unique since the muscle car era. With the Grand Marquis scheduled to die alongside its customer base, and every other Mercury product available right next door at the Ford showroom, the storied brand is set to be euthanized by its parent company, Ford Motor Co., according to a report by Bloomberg News Service.

Ford executives are reportedly readying a proposal to kill Mercury, and will present the plan at a board meeting this July. While Ford is in good financial shape, shuttering Mercury would make sense, as two of its four cars are scheduled to die next year, leaving it a lame duck amid strong Ford and Lincoln lineups. General Motors has closed down three brands within the last decade, and Chrysler closed down its Plymouth division in 2001, so the move would not be unprecedented. Ford has spent 88 percent less on the brand from 2005 to 2009, as sales declined rapidly.

[Source: Bloomberg]

With Ford President Mark Fields has already confirmed that Mercury will get a new compact model based on the new Focus platform and now it seems that car’s name has gone public. According to a report by Automotive News, Mercury intends to bring back the Tracer name. This certainly makes sense as the the Tracer was historically the sister car to the Escort, which the Focus replaced.

There’s no word on what exactly will differentiate the Tracer from the Focus, but it’s likely the Mercury will only be offered in four-door form. Oh, and of course Ford will also have to develop a branded MyMercury Touch system to mirror the MyFord Touch and MyLincoln Touch interface systems currently being brought onto the market.

Ford hasn’t given much else in the way of details for the Mercury, but we imagine it could debut late this year as a 2011 or more likely in 2011 as a 2012.

[Source: Automotive News via Autoblog]

Ford is looking to inject some lift into the middling Mercury brand with a new compact car, based on the Ford Focus. While it’s not clear if the model will be a version of the Focus, after all, Ford is planning a total of 10 Focus-based models for the U.S., it is the most likely.

“Certainly, one [variant] will be a Mercury,” said Lincoln-Mercury spokesman Mark Schirmer. “It’ll give us something to put into showrooms, and help energize the Mercury brand.”

Ford recently showed two of the 10 models at the Detroit Auto Show, with the Focus hatchback and sedan. A Focus-based Grand C-Max MPV is also expected later this year.

According to Automobile Magazine, the car is likely to be a Mercury-badged Focus, which makes considerable sense, as this one model could almost double Mercury sales. We can’t imagine a hatchback Mercury, but a version of the Focus sedan is most certainly a possibility.

We expect the model could arrive as early as the LA Auto Show at the end of this year.

[Source: Automobile]

Ford ended 2009 with its highest sales month since May 2008 while gaining its first year-end market share gain since 1995.

Sales were up in every product category in December 2009 as Ford recorded a 33 percent sales increase compared to the same month in 2008.

Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales totaled 179,017 in December. Full-year sales totaled 1.62 million, down 15 percent, but Ford estimates it still managed to increase its U.S. market share by a percentage point to 15 percent, representing Ford’s first full-year market share gain since 1995.

“Ford’s plan is working,” said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing Sales and Service. “Customer consideration continues to grow for our high-quality, fuel-efficient vehicles. In 2010, we will introduce an even higher number of new products, giving customers more reasons to Drive One.”

The Ford Fusion, recently named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, set a new full-year sales record at 180,671 units. Sales for the Ford Escape reached 173,044 units in 2009 for the crossover’s second-best year, including a 75 percent increase in December compared to 2008.

Ford’s F-Series truck had its best sales month since March 2008 with 48,209 units moving in December. The year-end tally of 413,625 units made the F-Series America’s best selling truck for the 33rd straight year, and top-selling vehicle, car or truck, for a 28th consecutive year.

Official release after the jump:

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With the current state of affairs in the auto industry, smaller than expected losses have been cause to celebrate, so imagine the party the folks over at Ford must be having right now as the company announced today that it actually posted a sales gain.

Last month Ford’s 10 percent loss was seen as a sign that Ford is on the right track and that the economy might just be recovering. This month the American automaker posted a two percent increase compared to the same month a year earlier. But that number doesn’t even tell the whole story as retail sales were actually up nine percent. Less impressive fleet sales (notorious for low profit margins) curbed that number down to two percent.

As a sign that Ford is not only fighting off this recession, but that the automaker is actually producing products that consumers want to buy, this sales gain is the first since November 2007.

Ford’s sales and marketing VP Ken Czubay credited the company’s fuel-efficient vehicles, combined with the government’s Cash-for-Clunkers program for the positive results. “We had another strong month in progress before the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program started,” he said. “Our products, our dealers and our advance preparation enabled us to leverage the program and drive traffic and sales to another level. In addition, we achieved a sales increase even though we decreased incentive spending in an increasingly competitive environment.”

Particularly successful models for Ford included the Fusion, Escape, Ranger and Flex. Fusion sales were up 66 percent; Escape sales were up 94 percent; while Ranger and Flex sales were both up 65 percent over a year ago. In addition Ford saw a drastic increase in the number of customers opting for hybrids, with Ford’s hybrid lineup (including the Fusion, Milan, Escape and Mariner) posting an increase of 323 percent.

Official release after the jump:

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Ford has just confirmed that it will bring an EcoBoost 4-cylinder engine to marker starting next year. The new engine will be a 2.0-liter gasoline four-cylinder and use a turbocharger to deliver at least 230hp and 240 ft-lbs of torque.

Much in the way that the 365-hp EcoBoost V6 delivers V8 power with V6 duel-economy, the EcoBoost four is designed to deliver V6 power with four-cylinder fuel-economy. Ford says it should deliver a 10 to 20 percent fuel-economy improvement over a similarly powerful V6 engine.

Ford will no doubt begin to use this new EcoBoost four as a replacement for many of its V6 engines in models like the Fusion, Edge and Escape/Mariner. There is the possibility that we could see the turbo-four replace the base V6 powerplants in models like the Mustang and F-150. Some rumors, however, have indicated that the Mustang could use the 3.7-liter V6 from the Lincoln MKS.

As with the current EcoBoost V6, Ford seems dedicated to using the new engines in higher-end trim levels of cars, such as with the SHO or the EcoBoost version of the Flex. That being said, there is potential that this new EcoBoost four could see its way in to a sporty version of the Focus.

Even smaller displacement (1.0- to 1.6-liter) EcoBoost engines are expected to follow for use in the Focus and the upcoming Fiesta, as Ford has its eye on becoming a bigger player in the high-volume sub-compact segment.

By 2010 Ford says it will have improve the fuel-economy of its vehicles by 20 percent as compared to 2005, with a goal of a 35 percent improvement by 2015.

[Source: Car & Driver]

The last Mercury Sable will roll off the assembly line this Thursday. The latest casualty of the worldwide economic downturn, the Mercury-branded Taurus has been produced alongside its vastly more popular brother since 1986 – with a short production stoppage in 2006.

While Ford recently unveiled an all new Taurus, the decision was made to hold-off on a Mercury version based on the same chassis and instead dedicate current advertising and future R&D resources to the Taurus.

Including the Sable, Mercury is comprised of five models, however, both the Mountaineer and Grand Marquis are expected to suffer the same fate as the Sable in the near future.

Mercury sales continue to decline (as do vehicle sales in general), but as Mercury is already a more niche market brand even small changes in volume can drastically effect profit margins.

The Detroit News spoke with Analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics, who says that Mercury will likely continue-on, avoiding the fate of several if General Motors’ smaller brands. “Keeping Mercury allows them to do specialty vehicles that appeal to different demographics,” he told the Detroit newspaper, noting that both the Milan and Mariner have been a hit with Latinos and women.

This being the car’s eulogy, we’d like to say something nice about it, but we have as many emotions about the Sable as Spock does about, well, anything.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Just as General Motors announced it’s GM Total Confidence plan earlier today, Ford is getting into the incentive game with its new Ford Advantage Plan.

The “Plan” one-ups GM’s offer by covering 12 months of car payments for anyone who loses their job. Better still, the Ford will make those payments up to $700.

“Consumers remain anxious about the economy and their own outlook for the future. We at Ford want to do our part to rebuild faith in the marketplace by offering payment protection on every new Ford, Lincoln or Mercury vehicle for up to a year if our customers lose their jobs,” said Ken Czubay, vice president of Sales and Marketing.

The Ford Advantage Plan also includes zero percent financing on select Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles.

Ford is not, however, offering a “negative equity” plan like General Motors, instead citing that FoMoCo cars have a high residual value.

“Ford’s improvements in quality have contributed significantly to our year-over-year improvements in residual values,” said Czubay.

“This is the strongest product lineup we have ever offered. When you combine these great products with payment protection, 0 percent financing and support for local charities, customers can feel confident about getting back into the market for a new car or truck.”

The Ford Advantage Plan runs from today until June 1st.

Official release after the jump:

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