Ford Motor Company has announced that this will be the last year of production for their Mercury line.
Mercury's demise follows a string of famous American nameplates that have been dropped over the last year, including General Motors Co.'s Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer. Ford plans to focus on the design and marketing of its more upscale Lincoln brand — including offering a compact Lincoln sedan — to replace sales that dealers will lose from the closure of the Mercury line. Mercury and Lincoln vehicles are often sold side by side in auto showrooms. There are no standalone Mercury dealers in the U.S., and Ford doesn't expect the closure of the brand to result in any job cuts at the automaker.
Have you seen the below ad from General Motors claiming that they've repaid their loan from the federal government "five years early and with interest"? Yeah, not so much.
Lawmakers, and even the inspector general for the bailout fund GM borrowed from, point out that General Motors only repaid the bailout money by dipping into a separate pot of bailout money. They say the company did not actually use its own earnings to make the early payment and are questioning why executives are making such a big deal out of it.
They borrowed more to payback the first loan and have the nerve to crow about it. And their second lie: "The $6.7 billion is also just a fraction of the $52 billion General Motors received in government aid. Grassley said lawmakers are being told government losses on GM are expected to exceed $30 billion." Unreal.
Ford Motor Company has announced that this will be the last year of production for their Mercury line. 