Mercury is an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company founded in 1939 to market
entry-level-luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded
luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick (and former Oldsmobile)
brand and Chrysler's Chrysler brand. Today, all Mercury models are based
on Ford platforms. The Mercury name comes 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
Mercury brand is used in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin
Islands, and the Middle East. In 1999 the Mercury brand was dropped in Canada,
although the Grand Marquis was still marketed there wearing a Mercury badge
through 2007.
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; with the demise of Edsel in 1960, it has been in the Lincoln-Mercury
Division ever since. |
