Mercury will discontinue its long-suffering Sable sedan after the 2005 model year.

Production of the Sable at Ford Motor Co.'s Atlanta assembly plant is expected to end in April, according to an internal company document. A Lincoln Mercury spokeswoman would not comment on the Sable's end date.

But with two new sedans in the Mercury lineup by fall 2005, the Sable is an also-ran, sources say. Mercury introduced the Montego sedan in September. The smaller Milan sedan will debut next fall.

Dealers have expected the Sable's demise. The Sable wagon was killed this year.

"With the Milan coming, I think that would give us too many cars in that segment at that price point," says George Benson, a Pittsburgh dealer and outgoing chairman of the Lincoln Mercury dealer council.

Benson said the Milan and Montego are big improvements over the heavily discounted Sable, which hasn't received a significant redesign since the 1996 model.

Sable sales have dropped 30 percent this year, to 40,088 vehicles through November. Mercury sold 61,342 Sables in 2003, down from a high of 120,977 in 1993.

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=101362

For those who don't know, the Milan is Mercury's version of the upcoming corporate-ized version of the Mazda 6 platform which is also going under the Ford Futura (well, whatever they end up calling it since Pep Boys wouldn't let em use the 'Futura' name) and the Lincoln Zephyr.

 

Prediction: Mercury will cease to exist by 2010.

Good riddance to the Sable..little more than a V6, 4door barcalounger.

 

Thats what my guess was... told my co-worker that 2days ago.

sable sucked balls anyways as does the taurus.

 

Good news: Sable, which was just a no more than just rebadge Taurus, a mediocre product in itself, is finally gone.

Bad news: Milan is destined for failure with Zephyr selling in the same dealerships.

 

too bad mercury and the other rebadged vehicles didn't die with it

 

Good riddance! I don't know why they don't make Mercury more interesting....and their lineup is just pretty much the same as Ford. They have a new ad campaign "ReDiscover Mercury" or something....not much to rediscover IMO.

 

Milan and Zephyr bode a new era of ... reskinning Blue Oval sedans for Linc-Merc. :chuckles:

No 20th anniversary edition Sable? :cry:

 

Technically they're rebadged Mazdas.

 

The Zephyr will be on an extended wheelbase, I read. Will the Fusion and Milan also be that way?

Yes, they're all mechanical Mazda 6 clones with the same engines. What hp figure were we talking about for the Zephyr though? Not that it matters, the Lincoln Town Car has the same exact power output as the Grand Marquis and Crown Victoria. Ford doesn't even bother trying to differentiate cars by engine output. At least Nissan reskins the Armada SUV for Infiniti and gives it an extra 5 hp or whatever.

 

What's the reason for Mercury to exist in the first place anyway?