馃搶 Mercury (automobile)

馃搶 Mercury (automobile)

The name "Mercury" is derived from the "messenger of the gods" of Roman mythology, and during its early years, the Mercury brand was known for performance, which was briefly revived in 2003 with the Mercury Marauder. The brand was sold in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Middle East. The Mercury brand was phased out in 2011, as Ford Motor Company refocused its marketing and engineering efforts on the Ford and Lincoln brands. In 1935, Edsel Ford designed a more luxurious version of the Ford that he intended to call the Falcon. Since he did not think it fit in with other Fords, he created a new brand named for the Roman god -- Mercury. The 1939 Mercury 8 began production in 1938, with a 95 horsepower (71 kW; 96 PS) V8 engine. 14,000 in 2010 dollars). It was an all new car, sharing no body panels with either Ford or Lincoln.

Its body was six inches wider than Ford and rode on a 116 inch wheelbase, four inches longer than Ford. From the very beginning, Mercury was a division that seemed to have a brand identity that was constantly in the process of finding its place in the North American automotive market. Mercury was its own division at Ford until 1945 when it was combined with Lincoln into the Lincoln-Mercury Division, with Ford hoping the brand would be known as a "junior Lincoln," rather than an upmarket Ford. In 1949, Mercury introduced the first of its "new look" integrated bodies, at the same time that Ford and Lincoln also changed styling radically. Again in 1952, Mercury offered a further modernization in its look. In 1958, the Lincoln-Mercury Division and the ill-fated Edsel brand were joined into the Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division. Due to the introduction of Edsel, the market did not know how to regard Mercury as either an upscale Ford or a entry level Lincoln. It appeared that Ford was using the business model from General Motors, offering brands that were priced at specific levels, with Chevrolet at the bottom of the range, and Cadillac at the top.

Buyers were not sure if Edsel or Mercury were alternatives to Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Buick in terms of equipment offered and marketing department definitions of what the cars were meant to offer. Like Edsel, Mercury was a brand created from scratch as opposed to the 1922 acquisition of Lincoln. Mercury's heyday was in the 1950s, when its formula of stretching and lowering existing Ford platforms proved very successful. The identity of the marque has changed several times throughout its history. During the 1940s and 1950s, the make continued to be moved between a "gussied up" Ford to a "junior Lincoln" and even to having its own body designs. From the late 1950s until the early 1970s, Mercury began to distance itself from Ford and offered several different looking models such as the Turnpike Cruiser, Park Lane, and Marquis. At this time, Mercury's biggest competition was Buick, Oldsmobile, Chrysler's mid-priced products, and higher-end models from American Motors.

In the 1970s, the brand was joined at the hip with Ford again and its image suffered as a result. During the Ford Division's early 1960s "Total Performance" era, Mercury produced some equivalent models, such as the full-size S-55 and the Marauder, which shared the same body styles and mechanics as the Ford Galaxie 500/XL sports models. These big Mercurys were somewhat successful in racing. In 1967, the Cougar was introduced as Mercury's version of the Ford Mustang; although mechanically related, the Cougar's looks were intended to be more of a "European" flavor. Mercury's ride through the 1970s was not gentle, but it fared better than some. Shifting from performance cars such as the S-55, Marauder, and the Mustang-based Cougar, Mercury reverted to its historical role of selling badge-engineered Ford vehicles. Partially as a result of the first gas crisis, the "near luxury" segment was the bread and butter for 1970s American car manufacturers.

However, the segment eventually became saturated. Only Mercury's niche products, like the Cougar XR-7, seemed to find real success with buyers. Much of this might really have had to do with Ford's topsy-turvy financial situation in the seventies. Lincoln-Mercury dealers had plenty of good selling cars, they just were not the right cars. Although the Bobcat trickled out of showrooms, Mercury introduced the Monarch as a replacement for the aging Comet compact. Although still mechanically based on the original 1960 Ford Falcon, the Monarch was intended as a compact near-luxury car; high-trim versions were popular choices as personal cars among Ford executives. In 1978, the Monarch's replacement, the Zephyr was introduced on the Fox platform. An all-new rear-wheel drive platform, it would be used by all late 1970s-early 1980s Mercurys except the Bobcat, Lynx/LN7/Topaz, and the Grand Marquis/Colony Park. In 1971, Mercury introduced the Capri as a captive import from Ford of Europe; as the Cougar grew from a pony car into a personal luxury car, the Capri became its replacement.