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Ford Excursion With a Mercury Face Is the Premium Heavy-Duty SUV We Never Had

Launched in 1999, the Excursion is the longest and heaviest SUV ever made by Ford. Introduced to compete with the 2500-series Chevrolet Suburban, it was discontinued in 2005, after only a few years on the market.
Mercury Voyager rendering 6 photos
Photo: jlord8/Instagram
Mercury Voyager renderingMercury Voyager renderingMercury Voyager renderingFord ExcursionFord Excursion
Come 2022, and the Excursion is slowly becoming a desirable hauler on the used car market. Back in March, a 101,000-mile SUV from the 2000 model year sold for a whopping $67,500. But I'm not here to talk about why the Excursion might become a classic soon. I'm here to tell you about an opportunity Ford missed a couple of decades ago.

Back when the Excursion debuted in 1999, Ford was still running its Mercury division for mid-priced vehicles that slotted below Lincoln products. And it used it to create premium versions of its SUVs. The lineup included the Mariner, based on the Escape, and the Mountaineer, based on the Explorer.

The bigger Expedition was never sold as a Mercury, but Ford introduced a fancied-up version with a Lincoln badge as early as 1997. I'm obviously talking about the now-iconic Navigator.

The Excursion, on the other hand, was completely ignored as a possible contender for the premium market. All while Ford offered the F-250 truck it was based on, with luxury appointments.

Why am I bringing this up now, more than 15 years since Ford pulled the plug on the big SUVs, you ask? Well, I stumbled onto this cool rendering depicting the Mercury-made, premium variant of the Excursion that Ford never commissioned. And the SUV looks so cool with a massive Mercury grille slapped on its face that I just had to show it to you.

Granted, an awesome appearance is not a solid enough argument for a production version, but I'm pretty sure this thing would have been popular with the Mercury gang.

Instagram's "jlord8" decided to name the SUV the Voyager, a nameplate that the company used for a station wagon back in the 1950s. Based on the 1957 Ford, the Voyager was sold for only a couple of model years in three- and five-door wagon body styles.

But while it may seem like a good idea to revive a nameplate from the past, Mercury wouldn't have been able to use it. That's because the Chrysler Corporation registered the name as early as 1974 and used it on its minivans (both Plymouth and Chrysler) since 1984.

Anyway, it's a cool throwback to a badass SUV and an iconic automobile division that's no longer around.
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Editor's note: For illustrative purposes, the photo gallery also includes pictures of the Ford Excursion

About the author: Ciprian Florea
Ciprian Florea profile photo

Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.
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