Over 70 years of history will go away.

 

It's impossible for history to go away. If something has already happened, it can't go away.

On the other hand there will be no future.

 

Mercury's glory is in its past unfortunately. Its time to save Ford and maybe Lincoln if possible.

 

They always do dumb stuff. Remember the Taurus/500 dilemma? That company has a tendency to kill it's own products. They completely destroyed the Cougar when they switched to the fwd chassis. I miss rwd Cougars, and the Mark Series.
But it's too late to save the brand. It has to go.

 

The FWD Cougar was a very nice car, one of Ford's better efforts. But as usual Ford "Launched and Abandoned" the FWD Cougar. Ford sold 57,000 the 1st year, then 40K, 30K, 20K as it was abandoned.

 

Of course it was abandoned to make way for the new Mustang to be assembled at Flat Rock...

 

I was talking about it's heritage being destroyed. Remember when they wanted to redo the Mustang as the fwd Probe?
I agree that the fwd Cougar was a good effort, but then again they let it die too.

 

Same thing happened to Oldsmobile. Did anyone lament its passing? Nope.

Did it's disappearance hurt GM? Nope.

 

The decision to let the FWD Cougar die was made in 2000, long before the decision was made to assemble the Mustang in Flat Rock.

 

You mean those ugly, bloated, over sized, over weight, under powered, ill handling, vinyl roofed 1974-1979 heritage Cougars?

 

Oh yeah those were the products of the time and the hottest growing buyer segment. Every manufacturer was rushing to produce vinyl roofed pillow tufted affordable yatchs costing thousands less than the Thunderbirds, Mark IV's, Rivieras, Eldorados and Toronados many people always aspired to own. Remember this was the 1970's and those cars were the epitome of what people aspired to own. Then suddenly they made afforable and smaller alternatives and people ate them up like the more recent SUV craze.

I do remember the smaller 1971-73 Cougars when they were new and they created a lot of buzz and admiration. Back then everything was big and that was the norm. The Pinto was considered dwarf like a Ford Ka is today.

Of course now when we talk about preserving heritage, it refers more to preserving the attributes of the 1967-70 models being the extended version of a Mustang with luxury styling touches and features. It was the perfect marriage of the Mustang and Thunderbird along with styling details that were somewhat Lincoln-esque and a little bit of European Ford. Back then you could sell cars like combo meals in any size and feautures you wanted.

 

Those big Cougars were a hugh success. Mercury sold more Cougars back in 1977 than all vehicles in 2007.

 

Hey Red Star you doing good back in your homeland?

 

So far so good. I still have problems with a time zone, so pretty much every night I wake up around 2 a.m. and can't sleep.

My buddy took me for a drive in his 2003(?) Focus yesterday (I love that car) and I saw many European Fords here in Serbia, including new Mondeo. I also saw new Fiat 500, it looks a lot better in person than on pictures. We went to see 1957 Cadillac yesterday with only 25,000 original miles than haven't moved from the garage since 1981.

I'll post some pictures when I get back.

 

The Thunderbird and the Cougar were just simply sales sensations from 1977-79.

The switch to four doors an imports changed everything in the 1980's, then later everyone went SUV...

Looks like now the hot segment will be sub-compact and mini cars in the next few years.

 

What I liked about the 67-70 Cougars was that even though they were Mustang based, the styling and trim was so unique and they really put a lot of effort into them to make them unique from the Mustang. Every body panel was different and the interiors looked different and upscale, even though mechanically in chassis and suspension components the Cougar and Mustang were identical.

 

No, I meant the 67-70 and the last of the rwd's. They had a good blend of luxury, style and performance, not the big rolling turds.

 

Mercury dying: No updates planned past 2010


http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/15/m...ned-past-2010/

 

The only current Mercury model I will miss will be the "Mercury Girl"!!!

 

The only model i will miss, is the Mercury Mistress.