CHICAGO AUTO SHOW PREVIEW: Mercury to introduce luxury minivan - Ford Forums

Stacy94PGT · 02-10-2003, 10:24

By Rick Kranz
Automotive News / February 10, 2003

Ford Motor Co. will use the Chicago Auto Show to spell out big plans for Mercury.

The company this week will unveil the 2004 Monterey, a new minivan, and show images of a new premium sedan coming in the 2005 model year.

The new vehicles are part of an overhaul of products from the struggling and indistinct Mercury brand. The brand will add a 2005 sport wagon based on the Ford Escape and a mid-sized, front-drive sedan off the Mazda6 by 2006. Eventually, one of the new sedans will replace the Sable.

Mercury's 2005 premium car is expected to be the brand's flagship sedan. The unnamed car will share architecture with the Ford Five Hundred, a premium front-drive sedan that will be offered with all-wheel drive. A continuously variable transmission and a six-speed automatic transmission will be offered on the Ford brand car.

J Mays, Ford Motor's vice president for design, wants the Five Hundred to bring a higher level of refinement to the Ford brand.

"The Five Hundred looks like it costs $10,000 more than it does," he said at last year's New York auto show. "It's conservative (in) style, upscale, with a nice amount of wood and aluminum finishes on the interior."

A Lincoln Mercury manager said, "The Mercury version is a notch above that and more contemporary."

The Monterey minivan, based on the replacement for the Ford Windstar, will stress personal comfort and luxury. For example, the Monterey's instrument panel will feature a satin-aluminum finish, and the front seats will be heated and cooled.

The Monterey goes on sale this fall. It also will offer side curtain airbags for all three rows of seats, front- and rear-object sensors, and tire pressure monitors. A 4.2-liter V-6 engine will be standard; a smaller V-6 engine will be standard on the Ford model.

Mercury has been without a minivan since the Villager was dropped during the 2002 model year. While Mercury priced the Villager from $20,000 to $28,000 without optional equipment, the automaker is aiming the Monterey at the $30,000-plus market, including Chrysler Town & Country buyers.

Mercury expects nearly 45 percent of Monterey buyers to be empty nesters.

(Photo)The Monterey is part of an overhaul of the vehicles from the struggling and indistinct Mercury brand.

Stacy94PGT · 02-11-2003, 21:17

Mercury prepares minivan, sedan
Ford to introduce models at Chicago Auto Show

February 12, 2003
BY MARK PHELAN
DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Ford will introduce a new minivan and full-size sedan intended to revitalize its Mercury brand at the Chicago Auto Show today.

"This signals that Mercury is an intrinsic part of Ford Motor Co. and very important to Lincoln Mercury," said Darryl B. Hazel, president of Ford's Lincoln Mercury division.

The Monterey minivan and Montego sedan should give Mercury its strongest new models in years.

There have been frequent suggestions that Ford might kill the Mercury brand, which sold 15,960 cars and trucks in January and just 263,200 in 2002, a drop of 15.6 percent from 2001.

With the Montego and Monterey competing in two of the industry's most important segments, Mercury's future appears to be safe for at least some time. The new cars borrow their names from previous models but bear no resemblance to those cars.

Mercury will add a small sport-utility vehicle late next year and another car in 2005.

"We need to reestablish ourselves in the car market," Hazel said of the large Montego, which will offer front- and all-wheel-drive models when it goes on sale in 2004. "We are mindful of products that appeal to the broadest part of the market."

Ford also expects the Montego to have fewer low-profit fleet sales than the Sable midsize sedan it replaces, Hazel said.

The Montego shares its platform with the Ford 500 sedan and Freestyle crossover wagon, and will be built alongside them at the Chicago assembly plant.

The Monterey minivan goes on sale this fall. It replaces the small Mercury Villager, which never met Ford's goals for sales or profit. The larger Monterey should be more competitive with leading minivans like the Dodge Caravan and Honda Odyssey, and will have a 4.2-liter, V6 engine, the largest standard engine in its class. The engine provides the most torque of any minivan, Ford said.

The Monterey will also feature a third row of seats that fold into the van's floor and two captain's seats for the middle row.

Other upscale features include stability control, heated and cooled front seats and front and rear ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles when parking.

The Montego's long nose and short trunk borrow from the styling of the Mercury Messenger concept car and indicate the look of future Mercurys, Ford said.

"The Montego gives us a contemporary sedan with good styling and utility," Hazel said. He expects the Montego to attract both current Sable owners and customers Mercury has lost to other brands.

In addition to front- or all-wheel drive, the Montego will offer a choice of a high-efficiency, shiftless, continuously variable transmission or a conventional automatic transmission. Power will come from an updated version of Ford's 3.0-liter Duratec V6.

The Montego will go on sale late in 2004 as a 2005 model.