Ford Motor Company launches Mercury Mariner Hybrid

Ford Motor Company launches Mercury Mariner Hybrid

The success of hybrids being sold in the market by Honda and Toyota has led to American auto giants Ford and General Motors getting interested in launching their own products. While General Motors are in the final stages of collaborating with Toyota on technology sharing concepts, Ford has just launched their second hybrid SUV vehicle in Mercury Mariner Hybrid.

The company launched the sales of the vehicle on Monday. And interestingly, the company is inviting the buyers to order for their vehicles on the net. Ford said in a statement about their initiative to invite people to order online: “The majority of sales inquiries for the Mercury Mariner Hybrid are expected to be taken online with the assistance of ‘Personal Sales Consultants’ who will serve as the primary liaison between customers and dealerships. First come/first served real-time consumer demand will determine which dealers and customers receive the vehicles.”

Ford would be making around 2000 units of this 2006 version model and afterwards the company would increasing the production to around 4000 units. The company has quoted the suggested retail price to USD 29840 and the latest reports from the company said that they have already received around 27 confirmed orders. The model is however around USD 4000-8000 more expensive than the regular version of the Mercury Mariner.

The company has taken the online way of receiving orders looking at the long delivery period of the product to the end client. They want to stay in touch with the customer online informing them about the status of their order and other developments so as to keep them interested in Ford products. Al Giombetti, president of Ford’s Lincoln Mercury division said in a statement: “Buying a hybrid is a major commitment for many people and the time from order to delivery can be much longer than a typical vehicle,” he said. “We want to make sure we stay close to each individual customer and make the experience a rewarding one.”

The company has however not released the date of release of the model to the customers.