In a move that clearly reflects the intensifying competition in the auto industry, Ford Motor Co. will soon add the 71-year-old Mercury brand to the list of storied Detroit nameplates which have been phased out in recent years.

Ford’s Mercury brand was created by Edsel Ford, the son of legendary Ford founder Henry Ford, in 1939. Of late, the brand has been left with only two models: the midsized car Milan, and the small SUV Mariner.

Going by reports, Ford is likely to inform its dealers that by October this year that it is phasing out the Mercury brand – a decision which a number of industry watchers opine is a result of Ford’s strategic shift of focus on its core lineup of vehicles.

The imminent Mercury phase out will make the brand join other Detroit brands that have reached the end of the road since 2000. These include General Motors’ Pontiac and Saturn divisions - which were eliminated as a part of GM’s last-year restructuring - and Oldsmobile; as well as Chrysler Group’s Plymouth.

With Bloomberg’s Thursday report saying that Ford executives may, in July, request the company’s board to kill Mercury, Jeremy Anwyl, the CEO of Edmunds. com, a Web site that provides car-buying information to prospective buyers, said: “It doesn’t seem like they (Ford) need it (Mercury). There might have been some value there decades ago, but certainly not much today.”