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During the last two decades, the Mercury division has witnessed car sales sink from a high of 527,000 cars sold in 1985 to just 202,000 vehicles sold in 2003. The tailspin has been due, in part, to neglect from higher ups within the company who felt that the division was redundant, in other words, what Mercury offered was nothing more than gently rebadged Fords. In many ways this was true. Still, Mercury has effectively served as a bridge to Ford's luxury division, Lincoln, and the retiring of key Mercury models including the Tracer and Cougar has meant that potential future Lincoln owners shopped elsewhere. Indeed, over the past decade, Lincoln sales have dropped dramatically to the point where archrival Cadillac now outsells Lincoln by over 100,000 vehicles per year.

The lists in this article include car models that are more than 180 inches (457.2 centimeters) in length. They include sedans, coupes, and wagons. They exclude any of those models with only a one-year data history, as a one-year data history may provide a weak, and possibly misleading, guide to the reliability that a car buyer may experience in an ownership period of more than one year.