Running On Empty: L.A. Without Cars

Running on Empty from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

As you head for a holiday weekend filled with congested streets, highways and parking lots, we leave you with this glimpse of my hometown, the City of Angels...in a world without gas. The only cars you'll see are parked on the street. It's called Running on Empty, it's by Ross Ching, and it's only been online a couple of days. More here.

Mercury, Dead At 71?

Bloomberg and Automotive News are reporting that Ford is getting ready to wind down the Mercury brand.

Sources say the plan will be presented to directors in July. The stats make a compelling case for euthanasia...the brand's peak sales year was 32 years ago, sales have dropped 74 percent in the last 10 years, ad spending by 88 percent in the last four, and with the 2011 demise of the Grand Marquis and Mountaineer, the brand would have only two models, the Milan and Mariner, clones of the Ford Fusion and Escape respectively.

The truth, of course, is that those were self-inflicted wounds. While Mercurys have had an on and off history of being based on supposedly lesser Fords, there was a time when FoMoCo worked to make them different, establish the argument for spending more for a Merc, and in the process, came up with some compelling and iconic vehicles (helped a bit by Hollywood and the original Mad Men):