Mercure Meta One?

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This is clearly a Freestyle body.
But it is also clearly a Mercury front end….

I thought they had canceled the Mercury version of the Freestyle???
When you think of it, there has been no spy pictures of the revised 2008 Freestyle around. Although we can see plenty of revised Ford 500 photos.
So it looks like the might have decided to kill the Freestyle after all. And basically “give it” to Mercury, who doesn’t have a version of the Edge.

Why not…

Conversation 13 comments

  1. I am not sure if they need another version of this car. Sorry, it does not do it for me. They should instead bring over some of their european designed models in Europe and make them here.

  2. Best idea for Ford is to kill Mercury which is nearly dead anyway.

    Mercury’s only purpose is to give Lincoln dealers a popular-priced car to sell and Lincoln now has that in its Zephyr variant of the Fusion.

    Mercury is a waste of resources and Ford would be wise to extinguish this Ford in drag which is all Mercury has been for years.

  3. I second that. The Milan, Mariner, Grand Marquis, Montery, and Mountaineer are all a waste of time. Mercury is a waste of time. And they still continue to pour money into that brand. This is one of the reasons Ford is going down the drain. That and Jaguar which are draining Ford’s cash.

    I hope Ford gets its head back on straight and dumps Mercury so they can further strengthen their Ford and Lincoln brands.

  4. ford should do what gm is doing with saturn and use it to sell its foreign market cars, like merkur used to be

  5. Great idea.
    I mentioned it before. And I think that’s exactly what they will end up doing if they ant to keep Mercury.
    Just bring over the whole European line and rebadge them.

    It took decades for GM to understand it.

  6. In the late 1980s and 1990s, it would have made sense for Ford to combine its US and European arms for its core range, while Mercury would market the Mazda-engineered models that were being sold in the Asia–Pacific anyway. For example, the Mercury Tracer (Ford Laser) could have been supplemented by the Ford Telstar—already crash-tested and saleable in North America. Mercury could have fought premium imports, Ford the everyday cars.
       By the early 2000s, Ford did a separate Chinese line with the Metrostar (Mondeo with a formal grille) plus an Escape with a Mercury-like front end, well before the Mariner was badge-engineered—these could have formed the basis of a Mercury line in the US.
       Trouble with Dearborn is that despite all that ‘Ford 2000’-speak in the 1990s, nothing could get round Ford’s internal politicking which killed the Contour and Mystique, and anything that the American team didn’t have “ownership” over.
       So what commenters have raised above all makes sense. The result may well be the death of Mercury because Ford was not willing to use economies of scale and global resources.


  7. Anonymous said…

    ford should do what gm is doing with saturn and use it to sell its foreign market cars, like merkur used to be
    6:06 PM
    Vince Burlapp said…

    Great idea.
    I mentioned it before. And I think that’s exactly what they will end up doing if they ant to keep Mercury.
    Just bring over the whole European line and rebadge them.

    Preach it brothers PREACH IT!

    The Meta One would be fine but only if Ford kills the Freestyle (what a joke of a name)

  8. Too right; when I compare the Freestyle to the Australian Ford Territory … well, no prizes for guessing which one looks better and stronger.

  9. There have been pictures posted of a Freestyle with a revised front end sporting the 3-bar styling theme seen on the Fusion and the Edge. In fact the front looked as though it had been lifted from the Edge. It didn’t seem to be a chop either. Sorry, can’t remember where I saw it. Spy Pictures perhaps.

  10. This is not the Meta-One. It is just the Freestyle with the Mercury frontend. The Freestyle will still be sold under the Ford label. Mercury is getting just a rebadged Ford, as usual. More evidence that Ford is unprepared to invest anything significant in either Mercury or Lincoln.

  11. This is not the Meta-One. It is just the Freestyle with the Mercury frontend.

    The Meta-One concept was exactly that, a rebadged Freestyle. Thats why everyone is calling this the Meta-One. The Meta-One concept showed how to properly execute the Freestyle and make it damn nice. Officially Ford has killed the Meta-One and has decided to keep the Freestyle with the updated 3 bar grille. That is why this picture is drawing questions.

  12. Ah that ford, always keeping you guessing! Just once when I found out the answer it wasn’t a big dissappointment!

  13. Hey Vince! Love the Website!! I’m really excited about 2007, some fab cars coming out. I’d love to see some spy pics or any info whatsoever about the redesigned 07 Hyundai Tiburon. Thanks, keep up the kick @$$ site!!!!!

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