Mercury Meta One Concept Sports Advanced Safety Systems

While technologies such as LDS and CMbB may be a first for North American vehicles, Ford has derived the innovative

Showcasing technology instead of design, the concept's sleek body is tastefully fitted with Mercury's new corporate image. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada)

features from production vehicles around the globe. French carmaker Citroen recently announced that it will be equipping its VW Golf-sized C4 hatchback and C5 luxury sedan with a less complex version of the LDS system featuring seat-vibration warnings.

The other new technology, CMbB, is a more complex version of adaptive cruise control, available on a multitude of high-end luxury cars such as Audi's new A6 and Jaguar's XJ sedan, which slows the vehicle down when sensors detect a vehicle ahead. The Meta One is a marvel in that it integrates these technologies, and that it takes them to the next level to create a truly safe vehicle.

Mercury's Meta One concept, despite its forward-thinking approach to safety, is a rather ordinary vehicle in terms of design. Aside from its rear-hinged 'suicide' doors, it takes its basic stature and profile from Ford's Freestyle crossover utility vehicle. The concept's sleek body is tastefully fitted with Mercury's new corporate image, including vertical-stack headlamps, oversized deep-dish wheels and a waterfall chrome grille as seen on the Montego sedan, Mariner compact SUV, Mountaineer midsize SUV and Monterey minivan. With such a conservatively penned concept car on its hands, it's no surprise that during the Meta One's unveiling Mercury announced that it is preparing to release its own variation of the Freestyle for a 2007 model year debut.

As it stands, Mercury's presence in Canada is rapidly disappearing. After pulling the plug on the slow-selling Sable midsize and the lukewarm Marauder muscle sedans, all that's left for sale at Ford dealers is the aging Grand Marquis, which also faces a questionable future. Whether or not Ford will revive the brand in Canada by importing more than one model is unknown, but with tastefully styled, luxury-clad versions of Ford's bread-and-butter vehicles, including the upcoming Mazda6-based Milan and the production version of Meta One, Mercury would definitely have the products available in its lineup to compete head-on with European-influenced Chrysler and GM rivals.