Chattanooga area Mercury dealers expressed surprise and disbelief at an Associated Press report Friday that Ford Motor Co. is prepared to chuck its Mercury line following a 74 percent decline in sales since 2000.
Dealers claimed the brand, a middle child between Ford and Lincoln, retains a degree of customer loyalty.
At Mullinax Lincoln Mercury in Cleveland, Tenn., general sales manager Ken Woodby called the news "speculation," and said the announcement was "far-fetched."
"Everything we hear from Ford is that Lincoln Mercury is here, and will be here," Mr. Woodby said. "This would be a reversal from before."
It doesn't make sense to kill off the brand because the company has already spent money on new models, he said.
"We have new products coming out for Mercury for 2011 and 2012," Mr. Woodby said. "Mercury's introducing a new vehicle along the lines of the new Ford Festiva, which should be very popular."
Bob Brooker, president of Brooker Ford, Lincoln and Mercury of Dalton, Ga., said he hadn't heard anything specific from Ford on the matter, but he said there were no sacred cows in the gloomy business environment.
"They are looking at everything," he said. "These car manufacturers are going through a metamorphosis; they're not the same animals we dealt with 10, 15 or 20 years ago."
Mercury's decline in sales from 528,033 in 1985 to 92,299 in 2009 isn't unique, he said, because virtually all domestic brands were sideswiped by changing economic conditions and increased competition from abroad in the last few years.
In the meantime, Mr. Brooker has no specific plans to deal with Mercury's potential demise.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," he said. "It's an ever-changing business, where nothing is sure except change."
Called "a forgotten brand" by John Wolkonowicz, an auto analyst with IHS Global Insight, Mercury sells modifications of existing Ford vehicles.
FAST FACTDomestic brands killed by Detroit automakers in recent years* Plymouth -- 2001* Oldsmobile -- 2004* Pontiac -- 2009* Saturn -- 2009Source: The Associated Press, General Motors
The Associated Press reported Friday that Ford will wind down the Mercury division, launched in 1939 by Edsel Ford to better compete with GM's multi-brand strategy, once the auto company completes talks with Mercury dealers to close or merge their showrooms.
The report follows moves by Ford in the past three years to unload its foreign brands, including Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.
In the meantime, Mercury still outsells Ford's Lincoln brand, which the Wall Street Journal reported Friday could also be on the chopping block, by about 10,000 vehicles.
Mountain View Ford Lincoln Mercury, owned by the Watson family, purchased its Lincoln-Mercury franchise from David Doster of Lawrence-Doster in 2006.
Representatives from the Watson family could not be reached for comment Friday.
Mercury had 1,780 dealers in the U.S., as of a 2009 SEC filing, and has four models, the Milan, the Mariner, the Mountaineer and the Grand Marquis.
Representatives from Ford did not respond to requests for comment.