The Mercury brand began when Henry Ford's son Edsel designed a car that didn't quite fit with Ford's traditional fleet of vehicles. Instead, he marketed this car, later known as the Mercury 8, under a new brand. Since then, Mercury has enjoyed a long and storied history that culminated this year, when Ford announced it would cease production of Mercury vehicles.

By the time Ford made this announcement, Mercury had already begun to wind down. Its last vehicle to receive true critical acclaim was the Mercury Marauder, a muscle car that didn't sell well. Mercury only had four vehicles in its lineup for the 2010 model year: the Milan, Mariner, Mountaineer, and Grand Marquis.

Mercury has always existed in between the basic Ford brand and the more luxurious Lincoln marque. The Grand Marquis, Mercury's oldest sedan, is a prime example of this. The car is priced as a full-size luxury sedan, and features a V8 engine and room for six, but is very similar in design to the Lincoln Town Car.

The Milan is the flagship vehicle of the fleet, a mid-size sedan that gets an unrivaled 41 mpg in the city on its hybrid version, and is based off the award-winning Ford Fusion. This is a trend that continues into Mercury's SUVs, with the Mountaineer and Mariner which share platforms with the Ford Explorer and Escape, respectively.

The fleet's main differences are different interior and exterior design elements, but these were ultimately not enough to separate Mercury from its sibling brands.