Ford Motor Co. officials said Friday that the company is reviewing its Mercury division’s future, but so far no decisions have been made.

CEO Alan Mulally said the automaker is reviewing its nameplates, but he declined to confirm reports this week that he plans to kill the Mercury brand.

“We have shared in the past that we continue to look at our portfolio of brands and specific nameplates themselves, but we have nothing new to add to that,” Mulally said in a meeting with industry analysts.

John Schuldt, regional manager for the company’s Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicle operations in portions of five states, including Pennsylvania, said no one should be writing off the Mercury brand.

“This is very consistent with company policy ever since Mulally took over, to conduct a strategic review of every brand,” Schuldt said. “This time around, it’s Mercury’s turn in the spotlight.”

Bloomberg News reported that Ford’s top executives are preparing a proposal for its board of directors that would kill Mercury, with a recommendation to be made in July.

Schuldt said the strategy for Mercury has not changed, and if it had, regional managers and employees would have gotten the word.

“We have new products in the pipeline,” Schuldt said.

Mulally, who joined Ford from Boeing in 2006, is credited with reviving Ford and keeping it out of bankruptcy by emphasizing the Ford brand and selling off pieces of the automaker’s empire, including Volvo, Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.

Mercury was founded in 1939 by Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, as a midpriced alternative between the lower-priced Ford and the premium-priced Lincoln.

Mercury sales peaked in 1978 at 579,498, but last year deliveries plummeted 84 percent to just 92,299. Mercury sales are up 23 percent year-to-date through April, but they still trail Ford Motor’s overall gain of 33 percent, according to research company Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff, N.J. Market share through the first four months of the year remains at 0.9 percent, unchanged from the same time period in 2009.

Schuldt said sales in the Pittsburgh area through April for Lincoln and Mercury combined were up 1 percent, while nationally sales for both brands were down 5 percent.

For the six-month period ended March 31, Mercury sales in the area jumped 21 percent, to 509 vehicles, from the same period one year earlier, according to data from the Greater Pittsburgh Automobile Dealers Association.

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)