In business for 107 years, Ford Motor Company has reached the highest of highs with the Model T, Taurus and Mustang. In spite of successes, Ford’s journey also included tribulations such as the Edsel division disaster and a $12.7 billion loss resulting from a dismal 2006 year. Four years after that latest misfortune, Ford Motor Company is now the idolized automaker in the United States and even the world thanks to a completely refreshed business model. The 12 months of 2010 serves as a period of redemption for Ford as they increased sales and market position.

Sales grew across the vehicle spectrum for Ford as cars, trucks and sport utility crossovers all showed consistent growth in 2010. Ford brand car sales have exploded to 591,210 units equating to a 21.5 percent improvement over the 2009 calendar year. Including Mercury and Lincoln, car sales were up 17 percent accounting for a total 696,918 sold. Leading all Ford products in sales is multi-faceted Ford Fusion accounting for 219,219 cars. Set for a redesigned version arriving this spring, the Focus still found 172,421 buyers to be the second-best selling car for the Ford brand.

However, as much as Ford dedicated itself as a car company, the truck division still remains important to the American automaker. Demonstrating the largest year-to-year change upwards by 27.1 percent, the F-Series pickup truck continues to firmly lead every model in sales with 528,349 moving off dealership lots.

Besides cars and trucks, crossover vehicles remained popular within the Ford Motor Company product for 2010. Accounting for 441,925 units, the crossover and utility lineup for the Ford brand was led by the Ford Escape which accounted for 43% of the total vehicle type sales. Showing an amusing bounce over the previous 12-month period, the largely unchanged full-sized Ford Expedition enjoyed a 17.9 percent rise in sales as 2010 indicates that some American motorists are selecting to return to habits existing before the 2008 gasoline price spike.

Recently announcing a renewed commitment to their Lincoln brand, the Ford Motor Company’s 2010 sales figures showed a modest 3.6 percent rise. While the Lincoln MKT has been criticized by industry insiders in late 2010 for less than expected sales, the 7-passenger luxury utility vehicle attracted 7,435 buyers. The Lincoln luxury brand will be planning to pump up MKT sales by availing the large crossover for fleet use in 2011, replacing the outgoing Lincoln Town Car.

In the final year of Mercury, the wind-down of the brand concludes with 93,195 vehicles sold, roughly a 1,000 unit increase over the 2009 sales. In fact, with exception to the Sable which was discontinued for 2010, all Mercury vehicles enjoyed a mild sales increase including the Grand Marquis.

Rejoicing with 2010 numbers being a major improvement over the difficult 2009 automotive sales, the numbers paint a picture of a much different industry. Compared to the 2006 model year, vehicle sale numbers are consistently lower within the Ford Motor Company. Taking previous Ford brands Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo out of the count, total Ford product sales is down by almost 800,000 vehicles. Of note, the 2010 Ford F-Series pickup truck sales were down almost 268,000 units from 2006 tabulations. Though selling fewer vehicles, Ford Motor Company admits their motivations is to maintain profitability.

While Ford’s intentions was to maintain itself as a financially-stable car company, the American automaker did score a major win. In 2006, Ford Motor Company lost its industry standing as the 2nd highest-selling automaker in the United States to Toyota. Thanks to the revitalized Ford and with Toyota suffering through a series of high-profile recalls, the United States auto ranking once again has Ford in the second-highest spot behind General Motors.

Information source: Ford Motor Company

Photo source: Chris Nagy, Ford Motor Company

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1. Ford Hybrid Sales Up 147% Over 2008
2. Ford Rings in New Year with Healthy 2011 US Sales
3. Camaro Beats Mustang In 2010 Sales Race

Wrapping up the look back at Ford Motor Company’s departed Mercury division, the last car to earn profiling is a vehicle that once represented performance and personal luxury in perfect harmony.

Today, the use of the word Cougar (other than referring to a member of the cat family) implies the woman dating a man considerably her junior. However, in the context of the now-retired Mercury division, Cougar symbolizes 33 years of noteworthy American automobile history. Through the soul of Mercury Cougar, this single product is most likely to keep the brand hard-wired in the minds of car lovers.

The story of the Cougar began in the Ford Motor Company reveling in the runaway success of the Ford Mustang. The pony car allure had Mercury begging for their own coupe roughly two years after the Mustang’s debut. For the conception of the Mercury example, the Cougar was never destined to draw the youthful crowds of the Mustang. Debuting 3 inches longer in wheelbase and 6.7 inches in total length, the Mercury Cougar’s 1967 model year introduction came as a luxury sports car.

Heavier than the Ford Mustang, the 1967 Cougar premiered with some rather alluring features starting with the hidden headlamps. Like the 1949-1951 Mercurys, buyers of the Mercury Cougar were never required to settle for a 6-cylinder powerplant. Promoted with a 289 cubic-inch V-8 engine generating 200 horsepower in base trim, 390 cubic-inch V-8 was also available. Becoming Motor Trend magazine’s Car of the Year in 1967, Mercury sold over 150,000 units of the cougar in its first year as the cat immediately found its stride in the pony car era. Catered for a more premium vehicle market, the Cougar brought many of its convenience features courtesy of channeled vacuum pressure from the engine including the headlamp door panels. A more expensive XR-7 model (a code which would be long used on the Mercury Cougar) also lent high-class items such as a leather interior to the Cougar two-door coupe. The next year, XR-7s accounted for 1 of every 5 Mercury Cougars sold indicating that maybe the market accepts this pony car for luxury rather than performance. In 1969, a big counterstrike was waged by Mercury hoping to ‘eliminate’ that notion.

Mercury’s take on the Ford Mustang Mach 1, the a high-performance Cougar once created through the inspiration from the ‘Eliminator’ NHRA Funny Car driven by “Dyno” Don Nicholson. Given some sassy styling touches such as a ram air hood scoop and rear spoiler, the Mercury Cougar Eliminator featured a best of Ford’s muscle car stock of engines. The Boss 302 engine, the smallest and in fact rarer powerplant inside the Mercury Cougar Eliminator was accompanied by a 351 and 390 cubic inch V-8 before setting up to the 335 horsepower 428 Cobra Jet. Built in 1969 and 1970, two Cougar Eliminators were even fitted with the Boss 429 engine existing as the most rare of 4,517 examples of the Mercury muscle car. Since the Cougar Eliminator’s demise, attention to high-performance never completely returned to Mercury (one exception being for the Marauder).

Abandoning the similar underpinnings of the Ford Mustang in 1974, the Cougar averted the planned downsizing of the pony car but was reunited on Ford’s Fox chassis 6 years later. However, by this time, the Cougar identity had been integrated more closely to the Ford Thunderbird. Both the Cougar and Thunderbird would remain joined until 1997.

Long-associated as a two-door coupe, 1969 to 1973 model year Mercury Cougars were able to assume the form of a convertible. However, as Mercury tipped into the late 1970s, the Ford division chose to redefine the Cougar through greater diversity. Between 1977 to 1982, the Cougar nameplate was worn on a four-door sedan as well as a station wagon as Mercury was intent on using their popular name . Because of the Mercury Cougar being made available in three different body configurations, sales of the model name reached a all-time high. Peaking in 1978 with over 213,000 vehicles sold, the net gain for expanding the Cougar name would be short-lived and a decision came to revert back to a two-door coupe.

The Mercury Cougar was associated with production-derived auto racing through much of its life span. In one of two peak eras for seeing the Cougar name in motorsports, late 1960s saw professional drag racing and the Trans-Am series. The second time period occurred in the 1980s through NASCAR Cup circuit action. Neil Bonnett won Mercury’s final NASCAR Cup series event in 1980 driving a #21 Wood Brothers Cougar to victory at Talladega. After NASCAR, the Cougar made a brief return to the road courses for IMSA competition thanks to the resources of Roush Racing.

As Ford Motor Company dropped the Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar personal luxury cars in 1997, an era ended as a new V-8 powered Cougar would never again roam out of a Lincoln-Mercury dealership. However, to the pleasure of those wanting the Mercury Cougar to continue a modern existence, the brand was able to briefly resurrect the model as a compact sport coupe. Other than the name and two doors, this compact car built between 1999-2002 left little in common with the previous Mercury Cougars. Production wrapped with roughly 150,000 units to complete what was a less successful attempt of Mercury to lure the sport compact enthusiast market. Probably unknown at the time, the discontinuation of the Mercury Cougar’s second coming signified the division would be unable to attract a large enough younger customer base to sustain the its future.

While the latest Mercury Cougars can be snatched up between $2,000 to $4,000 on the resale car market, some of the more classical examples of the two-door have drawn some dedicated attention. With many well-maintained conventional pony car Cougars still a steal at under $20,000, a 1970 Mercury Cougar Eliminator equipped with a Cobra Jet 428 engine fetched $128,700 at the 2007 Scottsdale Barrett Jackson auction.

As the final 2010 Mercury clears off the Lincoln-Mercury dealership property, remembering the past successes of the now-idled auto brand by profiling some noted marques is only a snapshot to the devotion and fanfare which continues to reign.

Information and photo source: Ford Motor Company

Related posts:

1. Warm up Once More to Mercury: 1949-1951 Mercury
2. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Marauder
3. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Cyclone

Instead of targeting a single product within Mercury, this dedication is broadly focused on the Mercury fleet which propelled them within some glorious days.

As World War Two ended, and a hungry consumer product were awaiting an automobile viewed as fashionable to their newfound optimism and outlook. Ford Motor Company’s design direction during the post-war era saw was a leader in the formulation to a new American style of motoring. Fully integrated fenders with the body, lack of running boards and lower appearance were aspects Ford chose to pursue in 1949 combining them into a sleek but affordable vehicle. By styling defined as the “inverted bathtub” Coinciding with the release of the new Ford, Mercury achieved its higher class initiative by overshadowing the principal brand.

Called the Mercury Eight, the model years between 1949 to 1951 Up until the late 1950s, a vehicle brand was widely defined by a single car representing their entire portfolio. A wide option list would allow the consumer to adapt the vehicle from a bare bones bargain car to a premium-trimmed edition. In the 1949 introduction, the Mercury started for under $2,000 with a top-priced example costing just above $2,700. Available in four body types including a Sport Sedan, coupe, convertible and two-door wagon, the 1949 Mercury immediately became a sales success selling over 301,000 units.

Unlike Ford badged counterpart, the Mercury brand car was standard with a Flathead V-8 engine. Producing a now mediocre 110 horsepower, the aging V-8 design was still the top powerplant in the Ford arsenal. Through the three-year span, minor adjustments were made to equipment of this Mercury. More chrome was added to the exterior in 1950 while a Merc-O-Matic three-speed automatic transmission became optional equipment in 1951. Naturally, the Mercury car of 1949 would be assumed as the better cruising companion.

The Flathead V-8 immediately became the basis for aftermarket performance enhancement largely creating the automotive accessories industry. With around 900,000 Mercurys built in three years having endured little more danger than the occasional drive by a nervous teenage driver, there was more than enough eight-cylinder Mercury ready to be rodded as a younger, performance-crazed 1950s generation.

The Mercury became a cultural icon for early street rodding and automotive modifications thanks to its appearance in the James Dean classic picture ‘Rebel Without a Cause’. Released in 1955, the movie a 1949 Mercury Coupe presence served as a how-to reference for fashioning customized vehicles in the decades succeeding the film. Making a much smaller cultural impact in 1986, a Mercury also appeared in the Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra where a hot rod version of the vehicle served as the scruffy police officer’s mode of transportation. However, an interesting factoid from ‘Cobra’ is the movie’s star Stallone was the actual owner of the 1950 Mercury.

As the James Dean movie brought light to the up-and-coming sensation of customizing Mercurys, two soon to be prominent hot rod artists would use the 1949 Mercury as a testbed to what would be a fantastic car career. A young car customizer named George Barris and older brother Sam chopped the roof of a Mercury Club Coupe to create the Hirobata Merc. Of course, George Barris went on to design and create several Hollywood movie and television cars including the ‘Black Beauty’ for the Green Hornet tv series and 1960s Batmobile. Ironically, a 1949 Mercury served as a Batmobile in a brief 15-part Batman serial released by Columbia Pictures.

In 1949 and 1951, Mercury was the 6th highest selling brand in the United States . While the Mercury division did experience more robust production years since, the three years of the new post-war era vehicle captured an identity which had allowed the brand to outwit Edsel and Continental.

Information Source: Ford Motor Company, Barris Kustom Industries
Photo source: Ford Motor Company

Related posts:

1. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Cyclone
2. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Cougar
3. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Marauder

Continuing a Monday salute to Mercury which started with the Marauder last week, this time will pay tribute to one of the brand’s most overwhelming forces; the Cyclone.

Existing as a high-performance edition of Mercury coupes, the Cyclone name debuted as a high-end, performance-minded Mercury Comet (the brand’s equivalent to the compact Ford Falcon). Sold as the Comet Cyclone between 1964 and 1967, Mercury’s intent to tweak the small car with a V-8 powerplant was a developing trend through the mid-1960s. Ironically, it was fellow fallen General Motors brand Pontiac who gave birth to the idea of inserting a high-output V-8 into the 1964 Tempest. Creating the Pontiac GTO, the GM division has been credited for igniting the essence of the muscle car era.

In the Comet Cyclone’s premiere year, a Super 289 cubic inch V-8 engine was employed to produce 211 horsepower. Optional equipment such as special carburetors and valve covers allowed the Comet Cyclone’s engine to be a severe weather system with 271 horsepower. The Cyclone package also fueled the appearance of the Mercury Comet into a more serious street machine. Bucket seats, tachometer and wheel covers are all part of the Comet Cyclone’s look. Over the next few model years, the V-8 engine displacement grew to 390 cubic inches and later up to a 425 horsepower, 427 cubic inch FE engine by 1967.

1968 and beyond, the Cyclone moniker elevated itself to stand solo within the Mercury division. The 1968 Mercury Cyclone also adopted a slick-looking fastback version. The Cyclone fastback was followed-up the next year with the Cyclone Spoiler II (Mercury’s take on the Ford Talladega). A few 1969 Mercury Cyclone became the automotive example of a historic meteorological event. A rare 260 cars are fitted with a Cobra Jet 428 cubic inch V-8 powerplant rated at 335 horsepower. According to a Car and Driver test, the Mercury Cyclone CJ accelerated in a 0 to 60 mile per hour time in 5.5 seconds.

Other rare variants of the 1969 Cyclone included two race car driver-themed models. Mercury Cyclone Cale Yarborough edition(white with a red secondary colour) and the Dan Gurney edition (white with blue secondary colouring) cars are believed to be exceptionally rare vehicles up to this day.

As with practically any vehicle of the muscle car era, the Mercury Cyclone built up its street creditability on the racetrack. Finding popularity in drag racing right off the bat, the fastback introduction made the Cyclone a famous sight in the counter-clockwise action of NASCAR. In fact, the fastback Mercury Cyclone was such a popular body style within NASCAR that the vehicle remained in active duty years beyond its final production year.

One of those late appearances was the 1976 Daytona 500 which featured one of the greatest battles for victory behind David Pearson and Richard Petty. Pearson, driving a Wood Brothers-prepped #21 Cyclone, was fighting off Petty’s Dodge out of the final corner of the race’s final lap until both cars made contact. The Mercury Cyclone of Pearson makes front end impact with the wall while the #43 STP Dodge of Richard Petty skated into the infield suffering severe damage. Despite Petty being closer to the finish line, the Dodge stalled allowing Pearson’s smashed Cyclone to limp to the Daytona 500 win.

Not limited to competition, the Mercury Cyclone was involved in a monumental auto racing honour. In 1966, a convertible GT version of the Mercury Cyclone paced the Indianapolis 500. This Cyclone would be the last Mercury product to serve pace car duties at the Brickyard classic.

While the #21 Wood Brothers Cyclone soldiered into victory lane in the hands of David Pearson, Mercury had already weaved the checkered flag on their street machine. In the last year of production in 1971, only 2,281 examples of the Mercury Cyclone were sold signifying the petering off of the muscle car era. Ending after 8 years inside Mercury’s lineup, the Cyclone two-door allowed Ford Motor Company’s middle child division to summon class-topping speed and adventure.

Information and photo source: Ford Motor Company

Related posts:

1. Warm up Once More to Mercury: 1949-1951 Mercury
2. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Cougar
3. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Marauder

In June of this year, Ford Motor Company brought resolution to the future of Mercury by announcing the brand’s discontinuation. As of the end of 2010, Mercury is going to way of other long-running brands such as Pontiac last year and Plymouth back in 2001.

As the mercury sets on the thermometers for many regions of North America continent, it is worth warming are automotive hearts to 6 of the most significant vehicles to bare the name of the Roman god of trade. For the first spotlight vehicle this standoff of Mercury, let’s be reacquainted to a briefly run but power name; the Marauder.

Turning back the clock to 1963, the Marauder name was first applied to Mercury’s version of the Ford Galaxie 500. Advertised on introduction as “A new breed of scat”, the 1963 ½ Mercury Marauder debuted content as a ferocious example of the brand’s upscale identity. The a flashy performer, the Marauder’s top engine available was a 427-inch V-8 accounting for 425 horsepower and 480 pounds-feet of torque. Such a well-balanced power and weight combination, a Mercury Marauder was driven by Parnelli Jones to victory in the 1963 Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

Since the introduction of the first Mercury Marauder, this vehicle never became a long-running moniker. With the initial Marauder available until 1965, the nameplate did returned for another brief outing for 1969 as a more lavish two-door coupe. Weighing over 2-tons and never effectively standing as a performance car, this second-generation Mercury Marauder lasted another two years.

23 years later as Mercury suffered a decreasing profile, the Ford Motor Company-based brand exercised a last ditch attempt to improve their presence within an auto market where domestic and import competition was fierce. Summoning their brand history, Mercury revived the Marauder name once more in 2003.

Assembled as a large-scale sports sedan the Grand Marquis-based vehicle, exterior appearance improvements featured blacking out chrome trim, custom alloy wheels and unique headlamps. Returning for the first time since the 1950s, the original badge depicting the Roman god Mercury was worn on the Marauder.

The Mercury Marauder also received a hefty performance enhancement courtesy of the Ford parts bin. Among the leading pieces of donated included a 4.6 liter Modular V8 engine made popular in the Ford Mustang. Producing a throaty 302 horsepower, the V-8 sound was piped through a dual exhaust system with far more dramatics than the Grand Marquis’ standard powerplant.

Lasting just two years, this full-sized sedan was unable to trumpet up initial appeal to the Marauder. The major impairment to the Mercury Marauder could have been the four-speed automatic transmission. Perhaps if the car would have been introduced 4-5 years later, a manually-shifting automatic would have made the Marauder a more satisfying sports sedans. Calls to upgrade the 4.6 liter V-8 with a supercharger were also left unanswered by Mercury. In this latter case, aftermarket performance companies rose to the occasion. Reinhart Automotive belted a Vortech Supercharger onto the Marauder’s powerplant on route to over 450 horsepower.

Much like the first two renditions of the Mercury Marauder, the latest full-sized sedan fizzled out of the marketplace with only a little more than 11,000 built. A concept convertible Marauder was also brought to light at auto show appearances but Mercury had no intentions to build this boulevard cruiser.

Similar to Chevrolet’s brief reintroduction of the Impala SS name with the Caprice body in the mid-1990s, the 2003-2004 Marauders have become cherished vehicles defining the golden years of American motoring where big and brute equaled beautiful.

Information source: Ford Motor Company and Reinhart Automotive
Photo source: Ford Motor Company

Related posts:

1. Warm up Once More to Mercury: 1949-1951 Mercury
2. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Cyclone
3. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Cougar

Through a news release Wednesday, the Ford Motor Company provided a definite end to their Mercury brand after 2010. A mid-level division anchor used to draw general sales to Lincoln-Mercury dealerships, existing franchises converting to Lincoln-only business is understandably concerned about their future appeal. Bringing solace to Lincoln retailers, the announcement for the demise of Mercury details an exciting new path for Ford’s premium brand highlighted new vehicle offerings over the next 4 years.

Pointing to the 2011 Lincoln MKX crossover and an upcoming MKZ Hybrid as immediate new products, a new C-segment (compact) car is officially confirmed as coming down the pipelines. A reversal from the apparent ‘big and beautiful’ philosophy boasted by past sedans and sport utility vehicles, a compact Lincoln was previewed in prototype form in 2009 in the C Concept. A crisp, two-box design vehicle, the Lincoln C Concept projected some optimistic styling inspiration for how the future production compact car may resemble. While no production details have been released, this Lincoln compact car will likely share the 2011 Ford Focus underpinnings along with a powerplant from Ford’s new EcoBoost four-cylinder engine family.

Though downsizing luxury brands is widely accepted in Europe and even Canada, the United States auto consumer has not reacted entirely well to smaller luxury vehicles. Lincoln’s main competitor Cadillac encountered a marketing disaster called the Cadillac Cimarron during the mid to late 1980s. While Cadillac stumbled, other European luxury car companies have recently found traction with smaller vehicles. The BMW 1-Series and Audi A3 are two vehicles demonstrating that American tastes may be warming to premium small cars.

Even before the plans for Mercury was divulged, Ford’s premium marque Lincoln enters 2010 within the process of a massive revitalization. Falling victim to the success of their full-sized Navigator sport utility vehicle which started in the late 1990s, their car business suffered from unexciting products. The Lincoln brand was also shuffled within Ford being mismatched with Jaguar and Volvo under a short-lived strategic Prestige brand pairing. On top of this, Lincoln was losing market share to an energized rival Cadillac. As foreign luxury makes were sold off by Ford, Lincoln finally received comprehensive attention.

Selling 82,847 vehicles in 2009, Lincoln has made massive gains in market share gaining 1.8 per cent in 5 years.

Related posts:

1. It’s Official! Ford is No Longer Crazy About Mercury
2. Detroit: 2013 Lincoln MKZ Concept Aims to Relaunch Lincoln (Again)
3. Lincoln Dealers to Undergo Remodeling in Next 2 Years

Late Wednesday afternoon, Ford Motor Company made an important announcement about their brand structure. In light of dropping market share and redundancy, Ford has officially declared the Mercury division will be discontinued following the 2010 calendar year. Accounting for less than 1 per cent of the United States market compared to Ford’s total 16 per cent, Mercury’s corporate portfolio consisted of clone-like Ford products. The 2010 Mercury lineup is made up of three vehicles (Milan, Mountaineer and Mariner) in which the Ford brand built equivalents. The remaining Mercury car, the super-sized Grand Marquis (a name attributed to 2.7 million Mercury sales), is likely to go extinct with the division.

For most of Mercury’s existence, the brand was linked with Ford’s high-end Lincoln vehicles appearing as a lower-cost luxury option. Introduced in 1938 as an up-scale presentation of Ford vehicles, it wasn’t until after World War Two when Mercury made a lasting impression as their 1949 Mercury would become a fabled post-war performer. Featuring fresh, new styling for the era, Mercury also elected to use a larger Flathead V-8 powerplant than available with Ford’s similar car. This made the Mercury a popular choice of hotrodders made apparent in the James Dean classic “Rebel Without a Cause”.

While Mercury enjoyed a landmark year in 1950 selling 293,658 cars, growing pains appeared for the brand in this booming decade. By 1959, sales in the division would fall by nearly half with just 150,000 Mercurys moving out of showrooms. Though economic problems were present in the late 1950s, the Mercury division was hurt by Ford Motor Company’s attempt to launch a separate mid-range brand, the infamous Edsel. Ford maintained confidence in the Mercury brand and would be reward through the 1960s as the division rose back to glory. Only two years later the disastrous 1959 sales numbers, Mercury boasted just under 320,000 cars propped by their popular Comet in 1961. As Mercury continued through the muscle car era, the pride and joy of the division would emerge in their advertised “Luxury Sports Car” known as the Cougar. Approximately 3 million Cougars would be built by Mercury within 34 model years of construction.

With sales of Mercury peaking in 1978, the ensuing years would see the brand fall as creative motivation left the division. In recent years, even casual automotive observers could see the writing on the wall as the Mercury lineup grew stale and advertising presence decreased. Only 90,000 Mercurys were sold in 2009 led Ford Motor Company to make the ultimate decision, sending Mercury to the moon.

As the Mercury brand is being wound down, Ford’s major move will be to satisfy Lincoln-Mercury dealerships. This will be done through financial settlements and a reaffirmed commitment to the Lincoln brand promising dealerships new products to fill the Mercury void. Current Mercury vehicle owners need not be concerned about service and warranty concerns. Ford has pledged that their existing dealership network will continue to provide all parts needed to maintain your Mercury.

In 72 years of existence, Mercury leaves as another departed American auto brand which consumers and enthusiasts are forced to accept as a new auto industry. While not necessarily a bad change for the future of motoring, past vehicles with Mercury badging will be locked in a certifiably glorious time for automobiles.

Photo and Information Source: Ford Motor Company

Related posts:

1. Warm up Once More to Mercury: 1949-1951 Mercury
2. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Marauder
3. Warm up Once More to Mercury: The Cyclone

In 2004, Ford released the Escape Hybrid – the first hybrid SUV on the market. Mostly slow-selling at first, increasingly high gas prices have helped Ford sell every Escape Hybrid they can produce. 2006 marked the release of the Mercury Mariner Hybrid. Mechanically identical to the Escape, the Mariner offers buyers an alternative to the Ford model – the only difference is styling and a better interior.

New for 2009: Overall engine output is increased from 153 horsepower to 177, due to the increase in engine size from 2.3 to 2.5 liters. The engine is mounted to the same CVT transmission as last year. The once four-wheel disc brakes have now been replaced by inferior drum brakes in the rear. That one’s a mystery to me. Buying a 2009 model now gives you more standard equipment – Ford SYNC is now standard, as is satellite radio, and steering-wheel mounted audio controls. Overall refinement and drive quality has also been increased for 2009. The design carries over from 2008.

Trims and Options

The 2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid is offered in front-wheel-drive (FWD) or all-wheel-drive (AWD) models, and has only one (well-equipped) trim level. The FWD Mariner starts at a hefty $29,750, while the AWD model will set you back at least $31,500. Seemingly expensive, but not so much when you consider a Nissan Altima Hybrid with a few options is priced around the same.

Included in the $4000 Hybrid Premium Package is the voice-activated navigation system, heated leather seats, a better sound system, ambient lighting, a reverse sensing system, and roof racks. The navigation system is also available as a stand-alone option for $2000. A power moon-roof is optional for $800.

You get your choice of five exterior colors (ice blue being my favorite,) but you can only have a light-colored “stone” interior. Not good for those with kids who like to spill kool-aid on the seats, or simply don’t like light interiors.

Driving

Driving characteristics in the Mariner Hybrid were impressive, both when in hybrid mode and electric-only. I liked being able to cruise at speeds up to 40 mph in electric mode only, although you still have to accelerate lightly. The “Green zone” on the tachometer is great, but could have been better at helping the driver stay in electric mode by varying more with accelerator input. Transition from electric to hybrid mode was smooth; sometimes you couldn’t even tell the gas engine turned on if you weren’t listening. Although more powerful than last year’s model, the 2.5 liter engine is still struggles and vibrates under medium to hard acceleration. Hopefully next year’s model will be more refined.

Steering was responsive and light, the ride wasn’t too soft or too rough, and maneuverability was great. There is somewhat high wind and road noise at highway speeds, which infers poor insulation. My biggest complaint about driving was the touchy brakes, which also felt uneven and unbalanced at times.

The interior is comfortable and well laid-out. The cruise and audio buttons of the steering wheel controls are smart, and the ice-blue color of the gauge cluster is cool and modern. There is plenty of room for driver and passenger to stretch out, although the back seats could be a bit tight for taller passengers on long trips. Cargo room is impressive at 66 cubic ft. Ford did a good job hiding the hybrid batteries in a way that doesn’t take up too much interior room.

Worth noting: The navigation system seemed incomplete. Many roads had “incomplete mapping data,” and would not take us on those roads during a route, essentially taking the long way around instead. This happened in many places, and made us uncomfortable using the navigation in fear that we would be going out of our way unnecessarily.

The Mercury Mariner Hybrid is rated at 34 city, 31 hwy mpg, while we actually saw an average of 34.7 mpg – mostly highway driving. I’m still amazed at getting small car fuel economy out of an SUV. During the few times we did have to fill up, the capless fuel filling system was convenient.

Overview

I was surprised at how much I like the 2009 Mercury Mariner Hybrid. If you need the space of an SUV but are worried about the high fuel costs, the Mercury Mariner Hybrid (along with its sibling Ford Escape Hybrid,) is the best in its class. Although a bit pricey, you’re getting class-leading fuel economy, plenty of interior room, luxury features, and a comfortable ride.

Let dealers compete for your business and have the upper hand in negotiations before going into the dealership. Find the Lowest Price on Your New Car at CarWoo Today!

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1. 2009 Chrysler Aspen Hybrid Review
2. Ford Hybrid Sales Up 147% Over 2008
3. It’s Official! Ford is No Longer Crazy About Mercury