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Ford Hopes to Keep Its Mercury Brand Alive by Deriving More New Models <BR>Wed Mar 6,12:46 AM ET <P>GENEVA -- Ford Motor (NYSE: F - news) Co . is refusing to let its aging Mercury brand go the way of extinction that General Motors Corp. did with its Oldsmobile line and DaimlerChrysler AG with the Plymouth brand, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported.<P> <BR>Instead, Ford (F) has devised a plan to keep Mercury alive by deriving more new models for the lineup from vehicles originally designed for the Ford brand. The No. 2 auto maker also plans to stagger product launches between its Ford and Mercury brands, in a move aimed at extending the life cycle and profit potential of its vehicle designs.<P>"The Mercury will have a bright future because it is built with a limited investment on Ford product," Wolfgang Reitzle, chairman of Ford's Premier Automotive Group of luxury brands, said in an interview at the Geneva Motor Show here. Mr. Reitzle declined to say which vehicles would share which platforms. " We [will] now put more Mercury models in place than today. We hope that we can grow the volume."<P>Ford, Dearborn, Mich. , has spent several months looking at the Mercury brand, which some critics believe should be killed given its slowing sales and image as a brand for older buyers. Mercury has been squeezed as more prestigious luxury brands, including Ford's own Jaguar and Volvo, offer models priced to attract upper-middle-income buyers who in past decades might have purchased a Mercury as a step up from the Ford brand.<P>But Ford Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. earlier this year demanded that company managers come up with a plan to save Mercury by the end of this month. Mercury's buyers may be older, and its mainstay products, such as the rear-drive Grand Marquis sedan, may be unfashionable with baby boomers. But the brand is profitable and the Mercury sales volume is critical to the health of the auto maker's Lincoln -Mercury dealerships.<P>Ford and Mercury brand products have long been developed from the same basic chassis, or platform. Mercury's Mountaineer sport utility vehicle, for instance, has the same underpinnings as a Ford Explorer. But both of those vehicles were launched at the same time.<BR>