By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Mercury has been an endangered automotive nameplate for most of this decade.

In recent years it has been threatened with extinction much like Plymouth and more recently Oldsmobile.
 
It would be a shame to see another storied American brand leave the automotive world.
 
Fear not. Help has arrived for Mercury, which was conceived in 1938 to bridge the gap between the pedestrian Ford and the luxury Lincoln brand at Ford Motor Company.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Mercury officials agree it’s difficult to lure customers into a showroom without fresh products.

“We have lost a lot of customers for lack of product,” said Darryl Hazel, president of Lincoln Mercury, in a recent interview.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Some say the Mercury brand is hanging by a thread. There’s talk that parent Ford Motor Company will pull the plug in the near future. 
We agree the product lineup is thin and sales have been in decline, but we discovered over five days and nearly 3,000 miles that there’s still life in Mercury. 


By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

Over the years Ford has a penchant for getting a head start on the competition.

For example, the company started shipping the 2005 Escape in the winter of 2004. Going back a decade Ford introduced the all-new 1997 F-150 pickup in January of 1996.

Mercury Mariner, a compact sport utility based on the Ford Escape, gets the jump start this year. The 2008 Mariner started showing up in showrooms this past winter – at least after January 1.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

We were intrigued during a visit to New York City by the large number of Ford Escape Hybrid taxis plying the streets of Manhattan.

Makes sense when you figure hybrids are at their best in slow stop and go traffic. The gas engine remains at rest much of the time. And a small SUV that will comfortably hold as many passengers and as much luggage as a big Crown Vic while deriving as much as 10 more miles to the gallon is a smart move.

By Jim Meachen and Ted Biederman

When we get a hybrid or other high-mileage vehicle to test drive we have a different goal than perhaps most automotive reviewers. We try to get the worst mileage possible driving with all our bad habits on display.

Sounds crazy huh? But we already know the EPA mileage numbers — which are fairly accurate since the government revised its criteria in 2008 — and we’ve usually already read that some journalist has achieved super out-of-this-world numbers trying to outdo every other writer.