Motoryzacja

About 100 Lincoln Mercury dealers wrapped up meetings with Ford Motor Co. executives today to discuss the company's future, including Ford's ongoing plan to consolidate its 4,056 dealerships nationwide.

As shares of Ford Motor Co. touched a 22-year low on Monday, about two dozen members of Ford Motor Co.'s Lincoln-Mercury dealer council began arriving in Detroit to discuss the company's future products and direction during private meetings with Ford leaders.

Over an hours-long dinner at Ford Motor Co.'s historic Piquette Plant in Detroit, where the first Model Ts were built a century ago, three of Ford's global leaders reiterated the company's survival plan for the future Monday night.

Ford's revised turnaround plan also calls for almost completely upgrading the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury lineups by 2010.

Lincoln Mercury dealers have lived for years with rumors that the Mercury name would be exiled to history, but the reality may be just days or weeks away.