Lincoln-Mercury closes

COSTA MESA — Costa Mesa Lincoln-Mercury is going the way of, well, Mercury.

The now-empty car lot at 2626 Harbor Blvd. closed Wednesday after 18 years in business, according to an e-mail from owner Paul Fang.

“I feel very proud of my association with the dealers, customers, and employees of Lincoln Mercury and Ford,” Fang wrote in the e-mail sent out to business colleagues and friends. “There is very much a one team attitude and [I had ] sales, parts, service and Ford credit all working together with me and to help me.

“This made my business exit extremely smooth. Everything was done in such a way that leaves me and my employees with a sense of pride and dignity. While this is goodbye for our business relationship together, it is not a goodbye of our friendship.”

Although it is not clear as to why Costa Mesa dealership closed, Ford Motor Co. discontinued the Mercury brand last year. The Lincoln brand will continue to be produced.

Mercury sales accounted for about 5% of total Ford sales in 2009.

“We have made tremendous progress on profitably growing the Ford brand during the past few years. Now it is time to do the same for Lincoln,” Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, told the Los Angeles Times in 2010.