Remember last month when we asked you to guess the name of the new Focus-based small Mercury? We assumed Ford'd go retro and revive a name from the past. We were right. It'll be called the Mercury Tracer. What?
One nameplate we didn't figure they'd revive is absolutely the craptastic one they'll probably use. Ford executives told dealers Sunday at the make meeting that the small Mercury is coming in 2011, the same year the Focus arrives. Two dealers who attended the meeting say the car will be dubbed with the dead-since-1999 Tracer name.
"Here in the United States, the trend toward fuel-efficient vehicles is very important, and the trend toward small cars is coming back," Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said after the meeting. "Our strategy is pretty simple: have a broad-based lineup."
And oh, how that name brings back memories of high school. None of them positive, of course, but memories nonetheless.
[via AutoNews]