Overview & Reviews

Mercury was a division of Ford Motor Company marketed as being somewhat more upscale than Ford. Throughout the latter part of its 71-year history, Mercury's vehicles were essentially Fords with unique styling details and special features meant to enhance their desirability relative to similar Ford products.

It all started in the 1930s, when Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's son, saw an opportunity to create an additional brand within the Ford hierarchy, one that would exist between the everyman Ford Deluxes and premium Lincoln Zephyrs. To achieve this, Edsel felt the vehicles of this new brand should offer distinctive styling along with innovative features and better capabilities. He named the new division "Mercury," after the Roman mythological god. The 1939 Mercury Eight was the division's first car. It distinguished itself from similar Ford products via a 95-horsepower engine that offered 10 more horses than the Ford V8.

The Eight proved to be a hit, with more than 155,000 sold by the early 1940s. Production stopped during World War II; after the war, the brand was realigned more closely with Lincoln. The company grew from strength to strength in the '50s, establishing itself as a maker of vehicles offering style, performance and cutting-edge technology. A dash of glamour was added to the automaker's image when James Dean appeared onscreen in a Mercury in the film Rebel Without a Cause.

The 1960s saw the introduction of Mercury's Comet and Meteor vehicles. The Comet featured diminutive dimensions and luxury accoutrements, while the Meteor was a midsize family car that followed the trend toward more reasonably sized cars. Racetrack wins boosted awareness of the Comet and helped the model make a big splash in terms of sales. By the end of the decade, the iconic Mercury Cougar, a variation of the Mustang, had been rolled out, its Eliminator version taking its place in the pantheon of legendary early muscle cars.

Hit hard by that decade's oil crisis, consumers during the 1970s were hungry for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Mercury responded with a new, smaller Comet and the Bobcat, the former a fancier version of the Ford Maverick, the latter a fancier version of the Ford Pinto. The brand's sales grew during a decade that was filled with turbulence and uncertainty for many competing marques. Mercury further expanded its lineup in the '80s, this time including the small, Ford Escort-based Lynx. Mercury enjoyed success with the 1986 launch of the Sable, a fraternal twin to the Ford Taurus whose sleek, aerodynamic lines and futuristic "light bar" front end styling set it apart from the Ford.

Mercury's sales hit an all-time high during the 1990s that would never again be matched. Minivans and SUVs were a big reason for that as Mercury introduced its Villager minivan and Mountaineer SUV. Late that decade it introduced a new Cougar, which differed from its predecessors by being a front-drive sport compact that also holds the distinction of being the last Mercury that wasn't a rebadged Ford.

The years following the new millennium were challenging for the brand, as changing consumer tastes and a lack of differentiation between Mercury and Ford vehicles hurt sales. Pundits often proclaimed the end of Mercury was near, but Ford kept stating it would keep Mercury around despite offering no hope for any unique future vehicles from the brand. Finally in 2010, Ford pulled the plug on Mercury, putting an end to more than 70 years of car-making heritage.

User Reviews:

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  A Lot for the Money - 2004 Mercury Sable
  By Boomer1 - October 9 - 10:00 am

  I have a C-5 Corvtte that I want to last a long time, thus I added the Sable for routine driving. It is not flashy or super at anythigng, but it is a very comfortble, roomy, peppy (with the 24v engine)and well equipped sedan. With ABS, leather seating, automatic adusting rear view mirror, all power, auto climate control, traction control and side air bags, it cost less than $19,000. I get about 20 mpg in town and 30 on the road. This Sableis the quietest vehicle I have owned. My wifet Maxima seems much noiser by contrast.

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  Luxury and Quality at a low price. - 2002 Mercury Grand Marquis
  By Angelo007 - October 9 - 10:00 am

  While the GM may not have the title of a Lincoln Town car or Cadillac in its name, I cannot find that these other cars can give you the same comforts and quaility of a luxury car at the price that you can get a GM at. So I cannot see myself spending an extra 10 or 15 thousand just for a name so a the Grand Marqui is one of the best value money can buy for a large family car.

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  Proud Mercury Owner - 2008 Mercury Sable
  By Chris - October 8 - 4:03 pm

  I traded in a 2005 Cadillac SRX fully loaded for a 2008 Mercury Sable Premier AWD fully loaded with satellite radio, navigation, rear DVD and bluetooth sync. I am extremely pleased with this vehicle. It rides better and is quieter than the Cadillac I previously drove. It has one of the largest trunks available in a sedan at over 21 cubic feet. I paid $34,500 with all these features...at least $15,000 lower than if I had bought another Cadillac. The Cadillac had poor quality. This vehicle seems to be built solid. It is every bit as luxurious as any other $50,000+ vehicle when fully loaded. You gotta Check it out!

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  New Montego - 2005 Mercury Montego
  By Scott - October 4 - 4:20 pm

  All in all i would say this a very good vehicle.Slightly underpowered but not sluggish at all.

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  what else would i want? - 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis
  By abi1984 - October 4 - 1:42 pm

  i bough the car with 115,000 miles and now it has close to 200,000.. what can i say its my fifth grand marquis,, i love these cars .. never been left on the road.. i would recomended to anyone.. one weak spot r the windows with aint a big deal.. and these new models give trouble with the automatic climate control.. its the most expensibe thing i ever replace on the car.. but other than that what else u want from a car.. wouldnt never change for a cadillac..

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  A good ride - 2005 Mercury Mariner
  By MIke - October 2 - 8:33 am

  A solid small SUV. Nice looking styling in and out. The only drawbacks (So far) are the high door sills and the very poor fuel economy, 15 city, 20 on the interstate, but a good 25 at 60 mph.

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  Love this car - 2004 Mercury Marauder
  By speedfan - October 2 - 2:00 am

  Lots of room, great style, headturner, yes a little slow off the line then watch out. Perfect audio. Very comfy and very safe. Very few cars will keep up with it. This IS the perfect car.

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  1999 Cougar - 1999 Mercury Cougar
  By LMigliore - September 30 - 5:03 am

  Car handles reasonably well. Its almost impossible to shift smoothly; revs dont drop for several seconds. Dies occasionally. Maybe theyve fixed it now. Cant see out the back or sides.

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  Great buy and wont sell it! - 2003 Mercury Marauder
  By Bill Christ - September 29 - 2:50 pm

  Found my 03 Marauder unsold in dealers lot September 07 with 170 KM on it. Bought it $20K less than sticker price. Regretted buying but found I never will sell it. Even my wife loves to drive it! Gas mileage is not good, but in third year of ownership, all I worry about is regular maintenance - no problems. I stupidly installed new snow tires on 17" rims -- my Marauder is running at higher RPMs to run the smaller tirees and the traction control must be turned to off after 40 MPG with the smaller 17" tires, but with snows, I go EVERYWHERE in our Minnesota winter -- I love the my Marauders power, flexibility, and snow travel ability!

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  GetOneNow - 2004 Mercury Marauder
  By Jammin Joe - September 27 - 2:00 am

  Too bad Ford never ADVERTISED this car! The only way I discovered that it existed was seeing it on the cover of an auto rag. This is an EXCELLENT car, worthy of much more acclaim than it will ever receive, as I believe its been slated for discontinuance (Most likely because no one told the marketing department about it!).