OH SH!T! LOL, meant to send this elsewhere. I guess my stupidity is
showing.....Hehe, please ignore.
-Ryan
99 DA RC R/T
I'm a moron.....
----- Original Message -----
From: Ryan Stewart <firebird@kymtnnet.org>
To: <dakota-truck@buffnet.net>
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2000 9:00 PM
Subject: DML: Re: Mercury on the move?
> Hello. My account number is: 5000 719 891
> Thank you.
>
> -Brian
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Richard A Pyburn <rap777@juno.com>
> To: <dakota-truck@buffnet.net>
> Sent: Monday, December 18, 2000 4:10 PM
> Subject: DML: Mercury on the move?
>
>
> > Here's an article from CNN financial news that says Mercury may be next
> > to go.
> >
> > http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/12/18/home_auto/mercury/
> >
> > Will Mercury follow Olds?
> > Analysts expecting Ford to follow
> > competitors in thinning out brand
> > lineup
> > By Staff Writer Chris Isidore
> > December 18, 2000: 12:15 p.m. ET
> >
> >
> > NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The Mercury brand could be on a
fast
> > ride down a
> > dead-end road.
> >
> > The brand is in a difficult "middle ground" between
the
> > lower-priced volume
> > brands, such as Ford, and the premium brands in the
> > Ford Motor Co. family --
> > home grown Lincoln, and overseas acquisitions such as
> > Volvo, Jaguar, and
> > most recently Land Rover.
> >
> > After last week's move by General Motors Corp. (GM:
> > Research, Estimates) to
> > phase out the Oldsmobile brand and the announcement by
> > DaimlerChrysler
> > (DCX: Research, Estimates) a year ago that it would
> > drop the Plymouth brand,
> > many believe Mercury will be the next model to be
> > dropped.
> >
> > "The underperformance of the
> > Mercury brand relative to the rest of
> > Ford's brands is glaring," said
> > Jonathan Lawrence, analyst with
> > Dain Rauscher Wessels, who
> > predicts an announcement by Ford
> > as soon as the North American
> > International Auto Show in early
> > January in Detroit. "If you look at the
> > Ford brands, every one has a distinctive identity. All
> > of the Mercury models are
> > basically twins of other Ford vehicles. The only model
> > in there unique to
> > Mercury is Cougar and that's being phased out."
> >
> > Ford (F: Research, Estimates) officials deny there's
> > any plans to drop Mercury,
> > however.
> >
> > "These rumors have been circulating for 30 years and
> > they're still not true," said
> > Jim Trainor, spokesman for Mercury. "Mercury makes a
> > lot of money for Ford
> > Motor Co. The economics are pretty simple. We don't
> > have to be the biggest to
> > make a contribution."
> >
> > But even the company admits it is concentrating far
> > more new vehicle
> > development effort and dollars into the Lincoln brand,
> > and relatively little to
> > Mercury. The overwhelming majority of Mercury dealers
> > are also Lincoln
> > dealers.
> >
> > "That's not to say Mercury will not get new product,"
> > said George Pipas,
> > market analysis spokesman for Ford. "But in terms of
> > the number of new
> > products that the Lincoln-Mercury franchises are going
> > to see coming to
> > showroom, more investment and more product news will
be
> > on the Lincoln side
> > of franchise."
> >
> > Mercury has seen sales fall, although not quite as
> > steeply as Oldsmobile. Still,
> > sales of 339,069 vehicles by Mercury through the first
> > 11 months of 2000 are off
> > 17 percent from year earlier level, as its market
share
> > has slipped to 2.1
> > percent from 2.6 percent in 1999. As recently as 1993
> > the brand sold 483,845
> > vehicles and captured 3.5 percent of the overall
> > market.
> >
> > But Trainor says that some of the Mercury models are
> > doing well in the face of
> > the slowdown. He said the Grand Marquis, with sales of
> > 114,946 year-to-date,
> > should have its best sales in 14 years, although only
> > slightly ahead of year
> > earlier sales. The Sable, a twin of the Ford Taurus,
> > also is ahead of year-ago
> > sales through November.
> >
> > Stepping stone brands become slippery
> >
> > The middle brands were once seen as stepping stones
for
> > automakers to move
> > their loyal customers from lower-price, entry level
> > brands to the higher price
> > luxury brands such as Lincoln or GM's Cadillac. But
> > those lines have been
> > blurring for years, and some competitors, such as
> > Toyota Motor Corp. (TM:
> > Research, Estimates) and Honda Motor Co. (HMC:
> > Research, Estimates) have
> > found success introducing luxury brands such as Lexus
> > and Acura to the U.S.
> > market without offering a middle brand.
> >
> > Even some of those who
see
> > a need
> > for a Mercury brand say
it
> > no longer
> > serves as a much of a
> > transition to
> > higher-priced brands as
it
> > once did.
> >
> > Casey Johnson, owner of
> > Fort Dodge
> > Ford Lincoln Mercury in
> > Fort Dodge,
> > Iowa, a member of the
Ford
> > Dealers'
> > Council, said that most
of
> > his Mercury
> > customers are loyal
repeat
> > Mercury
> > buyers, not people moving
> > up the
> > chain of brands. But he
> > said the brand
> > is still important,
> > especially to the
> > Lincoln Mercury dealers who don't also offer Ford.
> >
> > "All the high-end cars are nice, but for dealer
> > stability volume is key and
> > Mercury is still a higher volume brand," Johnson said.
> > "I think Mercury will be
> > here for many, many years to come."
> >
> > GM had eight domestic vehicle brands when it announced
> > plans last week to
> > drop the Oldsmobile line at the end of the product
> > cycle of current models.
> >
> > More complex marketing needs for Ford
> >
> > While the Ford line-up was once a much simpler, with
> > recent overseas
> > acquisitions it has become far more complex in terms
of
> > its marketing needs.
> > Ford must manage the three home-grown brands along
with
> > Mazda, Volvo,
> > Jaguar, Aston Martin and the recently acquired Land
> > Rover.
> >
> > "Ford says it is committed to the Mercury brand but
> > it's not investing in new
> > products," said Mike Flynn, director of office for
> > study of automotive
> > transportation at the University of Michigan. "It has
a
> > much more complicated
> > set of brands than it had five or six years ago.
> > Mercury has a been a less
> > visible brand than Oldsmobile in the last five years."
> >
> > Mercury is also weighted far more to cars than the
> > light truck models that have
> > grown to capture about half of all U.S. vehicle sales.
> > About 78 percent of its
> > total sales are in car models, an even higher
> > percentage than at car-dominated
> > Oldsmobile.
> >
> > The changes in the U.S. auto market makes ground very
> > shaky for the middle
> > brands, said Paul Ballew, general director, global
> > market and industry analysis
> > for GM.
> >
> > "It's hard to be a niche, unless you're a niche with a
> > specific point of
> > differentiation. The middle market is a very difficult
> > place to be a niche. That's
> > lesson of what we've seen in recent years in Plymouth,
> > Oldsmobile and
> > Mercury."
> > ________________________________________________________________
> > GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
> > Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
> > Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit:
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> >
>
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