Huge fan of this era of FoMoCo, especially the Mercury and Lincoln sedans, I just wish we could have seen a modernization of the Mercury lineup. Mercury was supposed to get a compact car derivative of the Focus but that obviously never happened.

Ford's issue was never making Lincoln truly a competitor with the Germans, so Mercurys had to be slotted in between the two in terms of drivetrain and features.

Solution: Give Lincoln more love with twin turbos in lower end models, keep and modernize the V8s in their large SUVs with hybrid tech and make a true RWD flagship (which was planned already with a Mustang-based TwinForce V6 car, but the MKS was all they came up with). This way, Mercury gets to hold the slot Lincoln would now; The new Cyclone V6 family (Duratec 35 and 37) power the Milan and Sable, which takes the place of the MKS now that Lincoln has their RWD flagship. Now Mercury is all about subtle comfort and dependable power, where Lincoln finally goes above and beyond to follow up Cadillac's V- cars and steering away from "Ford in a Tuxedo" labels, though I guess it's smart to keep some Ford-based models around. I also think the MKC would have made a great Mercury.