During the 1990′s and early 2000′s Mercury hit a successful bump in minivan sales with their Villager vehicle. Take something like the Transit Connect, where you can have a family van, work truck or even taxi cab, and Mercury could really come into it’s own again – not leaving it up to another version of the Mariner. I guess the point here is if you’re going to keep Merc a rebranded Ford company, give them a few models that will garner attention.