|
About Me
My work has appeared in a number of major publications either as writer, photographer, or source. I enjoy talking about all things automotive. Recent Posts
Categories
Links
CarSpace Hudson's BlogAll around the car world there are stories and these are just a few of them. A new blog is posted every Monday. Sometimes more often. Sep 17, 2007 - The Demise of...MercuryBack in the mid 1990s, anyone who followed the automotive market could see the winds of change. There were brands that were heading for the door, but nobody would say anything official. It had to be that way so that the companies wouldn't lose additional sales and the dealers wouldn't sue. But everyone knew it. First was AMC. When Chrysler purchased American Motors in 1987, it was obvious that Jeep was the target but that the AMC brand and hundreds of dealers would be redundant. AMC became Eagle immediately to redefine the weak brand as a competitor with the European and Japanese brands. Rebadged Renaults (Eagle Premier and Medallion) and co-developed Mitsubishis (Eagle Summit and Talon) couldn't establish the brand properly since neither of the supplying companies were doing particularly well in the US. And so Jeep-Eagle dealers slowly merged with Chrysler-Plymouth dealers. The final straw was when the replacement for the Eagle Vision sedan was rebadged as teh Chrysler 300M leaving only the sporty Eagle Talon coupe. Eagle died with barely a notice. When Chrysler introduced the Plymouth Prowler and Plymouth Pronto concept cars in the mid 1990s, it seemed that the Plymouth brand was ready for a resurgence. It was about that time that Plymouth was oddly missed when the Chrysler and Dodge brands replaced their mid-sized models with all-new vehicles. Plymouth got the Breeze a year later, but it was lacking many options that its siblings had including the popular V6 engine. Sales lagged. Even so, the Prowler was put into production in 1997 to bring attention to the overlooked brand. Aside from the low production roadster, Plymouth's lineup included the compact Neon, the mid-sized Breeze, and the Voyager minivan. Once Chrysler Corporation's highest volume brand, Plymouth had fallen behind even the pseudo-luxury brand of Chrysler in sales. The fact that updated 2001 Voyager lacked "Plymouth" badging was the first tangible sign that the end was near. And so it went that the 2002 Voyager and Prowler became Chrysler models while the Breeze and Neon simply died in 2001. Throughout the 1990s, General Motors tried to re-establish the Oldsmobile brand. First it was "Not Your Father's" car and later became an entry-level luxury import fighter. Neither direction took with buyers and sales continued to slide. Even the introduction of a minivan and sport-ute could help Oldsmobile's slide. In January 2001, the end was announced but legal disputes with dealers kept Oldsmobile alive into the 2004 model year. Even today, not all of the legal issues have been solved but Oldsmobile's story has been basically written into the history books. A sad end for what was America's oldest car brand. Ford is not immune to these kinds of troubles. Everyone knows about the Edsel that was launched just in time for a national recession. Ford's medium-priced brand only lasted three model years before dying in late 1959. But Ford has since lagged behind its Big3 brethern in the number of brands offered. In the 1990s, General Motors had seven American car and light truck brands while smaller Chrysler had five. Ford held onto its namesake brand at the low end, Mercury in the middle, and Lincoln at the top. But Mercury was always being squeezed. Since it was created in 1939, Mercury has been "the other" brand at Ford. Almost all Mercury models were based on Ford-brand products. With rare exceptions, Mercurys were "gussied up" Ford. It helped Ford Motor Company compete with GM's Oldsmobile, Buick and Pontiac brands. It has had some significant products over the years. The 1961 Comet, 1967 Cougar, and 1978 Zephyr were big hits for the brand. But even its hits such as the 1986 Sable were over shadowed by the bigger hits over at Ford. In recent years, Mercury's only products not shared with Ford products (1990 Capri convertible, 1993 Villager minivan, 1999 Cougar coupe) have not been overwhelming successes, leaving Ford and Lincoln to carry the weight of the company. With all of these dark clouds, it's obvious that Mercury has been on the chopping block of every prognosticator for twenty years. Recent articles in Automotive News and other publications have brought this back up by pointing to Mercury's empty product pipeline as proof. But Mercury's pipeline has been quite dry for quite some time. Why is now special? Limited lineup? Mercury has three sedans (mid-sized Milan, full-sized Sable, and extra large Grand Marquis) and two trucks (compact Mariner and mid-sized Mountaineer). That alone doesn't mean much...compared to Buick or Pontiac, that's a full lineup. Dry pipeline? Milan is just a couple of years old. Sable and Mariner are new for 2008. Mountaineer's a few years old and the Grand Marquis is ancient. Sounds like the same problems that Ford has. So what is it? I say it's the new head of Ford, Alan Mullally. He's not a car guy, he's an airplane guy. He has no sense of automotive history, which is a bad thing if you're a car fan but a good thing if you're an investor (I'm the former, not the latter). Mullally needs to cut costs and Mercury is nothing but costs.
Aug 13, 2007 - The Reports of the Minivan's Death are Greatly ExaggeratedWhen I was a kid, most families had a station wagon. It was the symbol of family-mindedness. In the days before widespread use (and laws to enforce it) of child safety seats, having a station wagon told people that you had children. Most wagons held four or five, but the real station wagons held eight or nine. One or two seats in the cargo area of bigger station wagons allowed two or three kids to sit in the “way back.” Some seats faced each other but the way to go was for those seats to face backwards allowing the kids to make faces and hand gestures (like the international symbol for truck drivers to blow their horn) at the rest of the traffic. Chrysler’s last big wagon ended production in 1978 when their full-sized cars were downsized and offered only as sedans. GM and Ford kept the large wagon after their downsizing efforts in 1976 and 1978, respectively. Both GM and Ford offered three sizes of wagons in those days. For young families just starting out, GM had the Chevrolet Vega and Pontiac Astre/Sunbird wagons while Ford had the infamous Pinto and Mercury Bobcat. Mid-sized wagons were large enough in those days to offer rear seats as options. But at the top of the heap were the Chevrolet Caprice, Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser, Pontiac Bonneville Safari, Buick LeSabre Estate, Ford LTD, and Mercury Marquis…the big nine-passenger people haulers. And then the world changed in 1983. The ailing Chrysler Corporation introduced the “maximum space passenger car.” Advertising called it the “Magic Wagon” and corporate engineering called it the T-115, but everyone knows it as the minivan. Introduced as the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager, the minivan turned the marketplace on its ear. It was styled like the full-sized Dodge and Plymouth vans but on a 3/5 scale. Like its larger brethren, the minivans had removable seats in the second and third row for better cargo capacity and a sliding door on the passenger’s side for better access in tight quarters. Like the station wagons it would come to replace, it was based on a car powertrain for better gas mileage, it had relatively compact dimensions so it would fit in a garage, and a low center of gravity for better handling. Chrysler had an immediate success. The four-cylinder minivans got better gas mileage than the full-sized wagons from GM and Ford while still carrying up to seven passengers. GM and Ford were behind the times. GM introduced the Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari while Ford brought out the Ford Aerostar. Instead of being “maximum space passenger cars,” the Big 2 came out with small vans. They were trucks, not cars. Sales were good for GM and Ford, but not the overwhelming success that the minivans were for Chrysler. Traditionally an “also ran,” Chrysler held more than half of the marketplace for this new type of vehicle even after Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, and Mitsubishi joined the fray. It took a few years before the other manufacturers actually understood what a minivan was. GM introduced the “dustbuster” minivans in 1989. Nissan and Mercury teamed up to sell the Quest and Villager starting in 1992. Ford followed with the Windstar in 1994. Chrysler had the corner on this market for over ten years before Toyota and Honda actually introduced similar minivans, and still Chrysler held the lead. Aside from the Toyota Sienna and Honda Odyssey, Chrysler has had no serious competition in this market for nearly a quarter century. This segment sells about a million vehicles a year in North America and three manufacturers make up nearly all of it. Sure GM still makes minivans and Hyundai and Kia have tossed their hats into the ring, but the Dodge Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country remain the best-selling and third best-selling nameplates in this field. And everyone is proclaiming the death of the minivan. Minivans have acquired a bad reputation. It’s not because of anything they do poorly, more to the point that they do something well…haul lots of kids. Everyone knows the “soccer mom” label that has been given to the drivers of minivans, and this has gained a negative connotation. SUVs and, more so, “crossover utility vehicles” have been replacing minivans as the vehicle of choice for parents. These vehicles look more rugged (read: “outdoorsy”) and can have up to three rows of seats. They just fail to have the interior space or handling qualities of minivans. But the neighbors are typically more impressed by an SUV or CUV than a minivan, so utility loses out to prestige. When people ask about vehicles to recommend, I refuse to name SUVs. Unless you’re going off-road or hauling something, these (typically) truck-based vehicles offer nothing to the average driver aside from bad gas mileage and a higher propensity for bad handling. CUVs only improve the gas mileage and handling slightly. But minivans usually top my list, especially if the person has multiple kids and/or large pets. If someone takes my recommendation, I’ve done something to convince them of the utility benefits over the “soccer mom” branding. So far, everyone has been more than satisfied with their choices. And when the handymen of the group realize that a full sheet of plywood or drywall will fit inside of many minivans (something that most SUVs or CUVs cannot claim), they’re even happier with their choice. Concepts by Ford (rejected) and Chrysler (delayed and then approved) became the 1984 Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager. Today, their descendants are still the primary vehicle choice for families. You can keep your Ford Edge and Chevrolet Equinox and Toyota Highlander and Honda Pilot. I’ll keep my Chrysler Town & Country. And whether I’m hauling kids or adults or plywood or a mattress, I’m sure I’ll be doing it easier and more comfortably than anyone in those newfangled CUVs. The minivan is NOT dead yet.
|
