Old thread, but I just have to comment. As a Canadian, whenever I hear the British vernacular "Merc" (pronounced Merk) in reference to Mercedes, it just drives me nuts. When reading the word, in my head I read "Merss" with the "c" pronounced as an "s" like it should be, not a "k". Since the 1950s in my experience, here in North America "Merc" has always been a Mercury car or outboard motor. This Britishism really grates on my nerves. It's as bad as NASCAR now using the stick-and-ball term term "playoffs".