Motoryzacja

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

The 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan is about to become the next flagship of Lincoln Mercury, according to Mark Fields, Ford Motor Co.'s president of the Americas.
Fields spoke briefly Monday night at Metropolitan Lincoln Mercury in Garden City, one of the nation's top Lincoln Mercury dealers, to a crowd of several hundred VIP's who gathered to see the unveiling of the car.

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.

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.

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