This week in 2011, the final Mercury automobile rolls off the line at Ford Motor Company’s St. Thomas Assembly Plant in Ontario, Canada. The last Mercury, a Grand Marquis, is the dying vestige of a marque championed by Edsel Ford to fill the cavernous price gap between the Ford and Lincoln. Introduced in 1938, Ford sold more than 21 million Mercury vehicles during its 71-year lifetime. Being the middle child, it rarely had a distinct image, although it did have a handful of memorable models.
Ashes to ashes, dust to rust. The life of an automobile is fairly limited. And the same can be said for automotive nameplates. With only the rarest exceptions, even the most popular badges have finite lives, as the Ford Model Y and Volkswagen Beetle proved. With the arrival of the 2025 model year there are still more nameplates set to drive off into the sunset, the Chevrolet Malibu being just one of the best-known examples. Here’s a look at some other product lines we won’t see going forward.
President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariff on all goods form Canada and Mexico, plus on all Chinese imports could wind up costing automakers as much 17% from their annual earnings. The estimate comes from a new study from S&P analysts. Check out the story at Headlight.News.
With CEO Carlos Tavares resigning “with immediate effect,” and no successor in sight, Stellantis could face even more trouble trying to resolve the problems that saw its sales, earnings — and stock price tumble so far this year. The lack of a chief executive officer also comes at a time when the Euro-American automaker is set to launch an assortment of critical new products, including the first all-electric Jeep and Ram models aimed at the U.S. market.
With the EV market cooling, hybrids are the hot ticket – and even hypercar brand Bugatti is getting into the game. For just $4 million you can drive off with the new, 1,800-horsepower Bugatti Tourbillion, the first new product from the French automaker since it was taken over by Croatia’s Rimac.
Bugatti is exploring methods to ensure its customers can continue to enjoy their bespoke vehicles including the possibility of giving them their own fueling station at home