Instead, the division got folded into Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG), placing it with Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Ford's recently purchased Volvo Cars and Land Rover marques.
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| In the past couple years, the Lincoln Mercury division was taken out of Ford's Premier Automotive Group and most of its personnel returned to Dearborn. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
The PAG brands are a large part of the automaker's profitability strategy, but Lincoln started getting lost in the shuffle and some car journalists and Wall Street analysts began opining that Mercury should join Eagle, Plymouth, and Oldsmobile in the auto nameplate trash heap.
After the fall of Ford President and CEO Jacques A. Nasser three years ago, the Lincoln Mercury division was taken out of PAG and most of its personnel returned to Dearborn.
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| After years without solid product planning, Mercury has been reenergized. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada) |
"It was longer than a couple weeks... there clearly wasn't a lot of Lincoln Mercury product planning and was taking a back seat to a lot of the emerging brands (Jaguar, Land Rover, and Volvo) and then we brought them back home," O'Connor said. They are North American products, with some sold in Canada and Mexico, but they are not international products. And, I think the key is that they are back home where the focus is North America and the people know how to put the products together and know what the Lincoln Mercury customer wants--which is American luxury."
Returning Passion to the LM Division
In the past year, Mercury has been reenergized with the new Monterey minivan, based on the new Ford Freestar, and with the new Mariner SUV coming out, O'Connor said. Plus, the Mountaineer SUV, Grand Marquis, and the Marauder, which is a variant of the Marquis, have been selling well. Sable sales have languished, however.