Retail Mercury Production Ends This Sunday
Production of Mercury cars and SUVs for retail customers will end this Sunday, according to Ford. On that typical day of rest, the last retail 2011 Mercury Mariner will be built in Kansas City, Ford spokesman George Pipas said. Mercury production will continue until the end of the year, but those vehicles will go to fleet operators such as Hertz and others, not into customers’ hands.
With the end of retail production so near, you’d think incentives should be great on Mercury vehicles. But to the contrary, they’ve actually gotten worse.
Since our last reporting, Mercury inventory on Cars.com has actually increased dramatically with 5,724 vehicles listed, a near 20% increase since late August. An even greater proportion of that inventory is now 2011 model year vehicles, which indicates that this is fresh inventory.
In August, Ford built 9,039 new Mercury vehicles — 2,976 Mariners, 3,399 Grand Marquis, 2,013 Milans and 651 Mountaineers. That’s an astonishing 120.2% increase in Mercury production month-over-month. Mercury still outsold Lincoln by nearly 9% in total volume in that same month. Dealers will sell Mercurys to customers as long as the inventory lasts, according to Ford.
Below are current Mercury incentives, which are good through Monday, Oct. 4.
- 2010 Mercury Grand Marquis: 0% for 36 months, plus $1,000 bonus cash and two years of free maintenance, or $4,000 in total cash back
- 2010 Mercury Mariner: 0% for 60 months and two years of free maintenance, or $2,000 in total cash back
- 2010 Mercury Mountaineer: 0% for 36 months, plus $1,000 bonus cash and two years of free maintenance, or $3,000 in total cash back
- 2010 Mercury Milan: 0% for 60 months and two years of free maintenance
- 2011 Mercury Milan: 0% for 60 months, or $2,000 cash back
- 2011 Mercury Mariner: 0% for 60 months, or $2,000 cash back
*Incentives may vary by region
2010|Mercury|Milan
2010|Mercury|Mountaineer
2010|Mercury|Mariner
2010|Mercury|Grand Marquis
2011|Mercury|Milan
2011|Mercury|Mariner
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Mercury <> Ford vehicles are so closely similar to each other that Ford only needs to supply a new grille, a couple of new badge emblems, hub caps/rims, and new owners manual to the Mercury dealers, and wah-la, there come a bunch of new Ford vehicles for immediate sales! They can even call it "Ford XXX - Special Mercury Limited Ed."
Haha, j/k here.
While Amuro is joking, he's not really that far off reality. Mercury's are essentially a special package of an existing Ford vehicle, and as such, consumers don't have to worry about being able to gets parts and service for the discontinued brand in the future. This should help the vehicles continue to move without additional incentives due to the brand's death. This hasn't been true in other brand discontinuations lately, which perhaps explains the, at first seemingly, odd behavior with incentives here.
WTF?!?!?! $30k for a Grand Marquis!?!? Talk about overpriced; even if it offers a lot of equipment it's still a grandma-mobile no matter what.
Mike, you know the Toyota Avalon starts at over $32,000 right? And the Buick Lucerne is $29,730. Both cars come with a V6 to the Mercury's V8 and have are considerably smaller.
Is the Avalon still on production?
Are you talking about retail customers and you are adhering it with SUV's
Yes the Avalon is still on production...
@ Rockaby,
I've to agree with Mike on this one. You do know that the CV/GM have been here since the 90's (1992 to be exact), and virtually unchanged, right? Except for some cosmetic differences, and the improvement on the box frame, there's really no value added (to the customer) for this vehicle!. It was sold for 20K back then, so have no idea what the extra 10K is for.
On contrary, the 2010 Toyota has lots of changes compared to its 1st generation model, and it was selling b/n 23K to 27K back in 1995. The car had its last major change - new engine, new platform, new transmission, etc. - back in 2006. At least there's sthg to justify the price increase.
AR, I hear ya. Makes sense. I mean you have to adjust for inflation a bit, but considering how many reused parts they have you'd think they're able to make it at a much lower cost than the competition. Beats me.
I wouldn't mind replacing my '89 Sable with a Grand Marquis.
You know In 1992, the Mercury Panther and Ford-platform cars had undergone most drastic changes since their production in 1979.