I have a 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis which I bought used from a Mercury dealer on March 22, 2002. It had about 18,000 miles on it and the remainder of the factory warranty. The car has the alloy wheels and they really get filthy from the brake dust. I do not know if any brake work was done on the car. I tried many different wheel cleaners but the dust in the cutouts is very hard to remove and appears to be baked on. The only way I can get it off is with a wire brush and lots of elbow grease. It takes about a half hour to clean each wheel and even then it's not completely crud-free. Any help would be appreciated.
PS I've still got my 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis which I bought new. It now has about 110,000 miles on it and it is still nice to drive around town but not at high speeds because it uses oil. At lower speeds it uses no oil.
George from MD