Mercury was an automobile brand made by the Ford Motor Company, a United States automaker. Classic Mercury models included the Comet, Grand Marquis, and the sporty Cougar and Cyclone. Mercury also sold a small line of sedans and sport utility vehicles (SUV’s). Edsel Ford, son of the American automaker Henry Ford, created Mercury in 1939. He named the new motor company after Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods and the god of roads and travel in Roman mythology.
The first model, the 1939 Mercury Eight, was similar to other Ford models of the time but had a larger engine. During World War II (1939-1945), the U.S. government halted automobile production to focus on wartime needs. From early 1942 to August 1945, Mercury combined with Ford to manufacture aircraft, jeeps, tanks, trucks, and other military equipment. After the war, Mercury merged with Lincoln—another Ford line—and introduced significant new style changes. The 1949 Mercury Coupe became a symbolic “hot rod” after the movie star James Dean drove one in the 1955 motion picture Rebel Without a Cause.
Beginning in 1951, all Mercury models ran on “Merc-O-Matic” automatic transmissions. Automatic transmissions, unlike manual transmissions, do not require drivers to operate a gearshift and clutch to change gears (see Transmission ). Mercury models soon sported new designs for headlights, bumpers, hoods, and windshields. The 1954 Mercury Sun Valley came with a “transparent-top,” one of the industry’s first sunroofs.
In the 1960’s, such sportier Mercury models as the Cyclone, Marauder, and Meteor became common sights on racetracks across the United States. In 1967, Mercury introduced the popular Cougar sports car.
Fuel crises in the 1970’s turned the auto industry toward smaller, more fuel-efficient models. Mercury models gradually shrank in size and included the compacts Capri and Lynx. In the 1980’s, Mercury sales relied on the new Sable and Topaz sedans and the Villager minivan. These models continued into the 1990’s, boosted by Mercury’s entry into the SUV market with the 1997 Mountaineer.
Mercury sales dropped in the 2000’s, despite the introduction of the Mariner compact SUV and Milan sedan. In 2010, Ford announced that it would stop producing the Mercury brand. The last Mercury car, a 2011 Grand Marquis, rolled off Ford’s assembly line on Jan. 3, 2011.
See also Ford Motor Company .
