Mercury Rising

Dearborn September 3, 2004; Bloomberg News reported that Ford Motor Co. picked the name Milan for a new midsize Mercury sedan that goes into production next year, Ford chief operating officer James Padilla said recently, as the company seeks to reverse declining sales of the brand.

U.S. sales of Mercury cars such as the Sable sedan and Mountaineer sport utility vehicle fell 23 percent last year to 202,257, compared with a 1 percent industry decline, and are down from a 1978 peak of 579,498. Mercury sales declined 0.9 percent, to 117,862 in this year's first seven months.

New products are part of chief executive William Clay Ford Jr.'s plans to generate $7 billion annually in pretax profit by 2006 following $6.4 billion in combined net losses in 2001 and 2002.

The Milan is one of as many as 10 models that will be based on the same platform, or group of major structural components, such as Mazda Motor Corp.'s Mazda6 sedan. Ford owns one-third of Japan-based Mazda.

Sales of Ford-brand Lincoln and Mercury vehicles fell 3.7 percent in the first seven months of this year as the company's market share fell to 18.5 percent from 19.6 percent, Autodata Corp. said.