SPEAKING OF AULD LANG SYNE – AT 10:19 P.M. ET:  We noted the death of Kodachrome a few days ago.  We note now another passing.  RIP.  From The Detroit News:

As of today, the Mercury name disappears from dealerships, marking the end of a once-heralded brand that was a step up from Ford, the everyday people's car.

Today, few recall that Mercury once was beloved as a stylish and powerful ride. It had roles in movies ranging from "Rebel Without a Cause" (James Dean was behind the wheel of a customized 1949 Mercury) to "On His Majesty's Secret Service," in which James Bond's love interest drove a souped-up red 1969 Cougar XR-7 known as the Eliminator.

Their fans aside, recent Mercurys weren't different enough from Ford to attract auto buyers in sufficient numbers, experts say.

"Mercury has been a redundant brand for Ford for at least the last five years, if not longer," said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends and insight for the auto research website TrueCar.com. "For the most part, they were just cosmetically enhanced Fords."

That is the fault of bad, uninspired management.  Ford, however, in the last few years, seems to have snapped back, but too late to save Mercury.

Mercury was designed to be an automobile "for the aspirational class," Toprak said, "for those who couldn't quite afford a Lincoln but wanted something more distinctive than a Ford. But that strategy didn't stick."

Through November, 84,802 Mercurys were sold, a 57 percent decline from the 195,949 sold just five years before, according to TrueCar.com figures. And 2010 Mercury sales represented less than 5 percent of Ford's total sales of 1.7 million, TrueCar.com said.

Ford was candid about Mercury's declining appeal in June, when it said it would eliminate the line. "Mercury's customer profile, pricing and margins are almost identical to Ford," the company said in a statement.

COMMENT:  Same old Detroit story.  Had they worked on producing a superb product, this wouldn't have happened. 

Back in the 1970s, a polling firm asked American and German car executives what they did.  The American executives would generally answer, "We sell cars."  The German executives would answer, "We make cars."  That's the difference.

There are some fine American cars coming off the assembly lines today.  But I wonder if our industry can ever regain the lustre it worked so hard to lose.

January 1, 2011