The Ford Motor Company have announced that this Fall, sorry, this Autumn, the Mercury name will be no more. This name may not mean a lot to people on this side of The Pond but it will be sadly missed by me. As you will note from the photograph above, I have owned a couple of Mercurys in my time - and in the 1970s, they seemed a lot more exciting than the European cars of the time: Vauxhall Viva anybody? VW Variant?
The one on the right used to be green and it has two dogs in the back. The one in the middle was a Fire Chief's car and the one on the left was an ambulance - all, unfortunately, have seen better days and are now serving time in the care of my sons.
That was a time when Mercurys were real, exciting-looking cars in their own right.
The Mercury name today is used as a luxury brand name for the ordinary Ford range. Sort of like Vanden Plas was for British Leyland as opposed to how Lexus is for Toyota. There are no specific Mercurys, just rebadged, poshed-up Fords. This meant that they could not sell off the whole brand like they did with Aston Martin, Land-Rover, Jaguar and Volvo. They could just sell the name, I suppose - but I doubt if they will.
So farewell, Mercury, Another One Bites The Dust.
(See what I did there - Freddie Mercury - Queen - good, eh?)
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