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Are you in the market for a new car in San Francisco and are considering a product built by America’s Big 2.5? If so, then I have some bad news: the last U.S. domestic automaker dealership has just shut up shop. San Francisco Ford Lincoln Mercury on Van Ness Avenue closed a few weeks ago, leaving some 50 employees out of a job. Ford Lincoln Mercury presidente Mel Turner told the San Fransisco Chronicle: “We are proud to have served the San Francisco community and will be focusing over the coming weeks on helping employees through this transition and ensuring our current customer commitments are met.”
There are some three million former Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer customers in the United States, all of whom will unlikely ever have the pleasure of buying a newer model of their current make again. These are some of America’s defunct brands, all gone the same way as Plymouth, DeSoto, Packard and many others. These latest additions were culled following General Motors bankruptcy reorganisation in 2009. And Mercury owners are in the same boat. 
Now, Ford and GM are desperately trying to hold onto these “brand-less” customers. Accoriding to a report from the Wall Street Journal, in this year alone, 70% Pontiac owners, 71% of Saturn owners and 65% of Mercury owners who traded in their vehicles left with something other than a Ford or GM product.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it has opened a preliminary investigation concerning 200,000 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs from the 2010 and 2011 model years, after receiving several complaints that the window glass in the tailgate allegedly shattered without warning. The safety agency said it received 18 complaints noting that “the liftgate window glass shattered spontaneously, while opening the liftgate or while closing the liftgate. In one alleged injury incident, the complainant and her 10 year old son were cut by glass fragments."
