1999 Mercury Villager Sport Mini Passenger Van 3-door 3.3l on 2040-cars

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Report: Lincoln getting all of Mercury's ad dollars

Now that the curtain has closed on Mercury, Ford Motor Company will redirect all of its marketing dollars for the oft-overlooked brand to the Blue Oval's luxury outpost, Lincoln. In speaking to Automotive News, the chairman of the Lincoln National Dealer Council, Bob Tasca, Jr., said, "You'll see a lot stronger presence in the advertising of Lincoln in 2011."
Lincoln spokesperson Christian Bokich reminded AN that the automaker is "preparing the way for seven new or significantly refreshed vehicles" that will be launched over the next four years, and the largest ad blitz in 2011 will focus on the refreshed MKX crossover, as well as the MKZ sedan and its hybrid counterpart. Following that, Lincoln has plans to launch a completely overhauled version of its Navigator SUV, an all-new C-segment vehicle and the overhauled 2013 MKZ, which Tasca says will be "strikingly different from its Ford Fusion sibling."
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req. | Image: John Neff/Autoblog/AOL]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ford announces bevy of recalls, 2 of which are recalls on recalls

Ford has announced five separate recalls, affecting 202,000 vehicles built between 2005 and 2014.
It's not been a great couple of weeks for Ford. On October 30, the company announced a 205,000-unit recall, and yesterday, it was revealed that the Ford brand's year-over-year sales were down over 5,000 units while the company itself was down 3,000 units over through October. Now, the company has announced five separate recalls affecting 202,000 vehicles built between 2005 and 2014.

Has the Mercury Marauder gotten better with age?

In the early 2000s Mercury desperately wanted to develop some edge for its brand – seemingly stuck between a quasi-premium, quasi-performance space in the Ford Universe. The Marauder is perhaps the most famous of the vehicles that resulted from those efforts, and is rapidly approaching Modern Classic status, today. Effectively a murdered out Grand Marquis with some updated trim pieces – what are company parts bins for, if not raiding? – the Marauder looked convincingly like a bad guy car. The 4.6-liter V8 under its hood that had been breathed on by engineers for a little more power, kicking out 302 horsepower and 318 pound-feet of torque from the factory. Not exactly Ferrari-baiting numbers, but it'd give your local cop's car a run for its money. Being a wild child of the last decade, of course our friends at MotorWeek had it on the program. What better way to test your mean-mugging muscle sedan than with John Davis' tanned and steady hands?