In news that will impact the parking lots of retirement homes nationwide, Ford will announce today that they have decided to pull the plug on its Mercury brand of vehicles after 71 years of blandness.

Mercury vehicles, which were supposed to be nicer than your standard Ford cars but not quite as nice as the upscale Lincoln road boats, have seen a precipitous drop in the last decade. Last year, a grand total of 92,299 new Mercury vehicles were sold; in 2000, that number was 359,143. And sales for May 2010 were down another 10.7% over a year ago.

This is just the latest Ford brand to fall by the wayside, with the company having sold off Jaguar, Range Rover and Volvo as part of its restructuring plan in recent months.

It remains to be seen what will happen to those car dealerships who specialize in just Lincoln and Mercury sales. Also, will future generations understand the “hilarious” name of the Ford Lincoln Mercury character from the Kevin Costner epic The Postman?

Ford Board Approves Ending Mercury [WSJ]

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