Mercury was a brand of medium-priced automobiles that was produced by American manufacturer Ford Motor Company between the 1939 and 2011 motor years. Created by Edsel Ford in 1938, Mercury was established to bridge the gap between the Ford and Lincoln model lines within Ford Motor Company. From 1945 until its closure, it formed half of the Lincoln-Mercury Division of the company.
In addition to serving as a combined sales network for Ford's two premium automotive brands, Lincoln-Mercury also represented the Continental (1956–1960), Edsel (1958–1960, formally designated Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division), Comet (1960–1961), Capri (1970–1978), De Tomaso (1972–1975), and Merkur (1985–1989, forming Lincoln-Mercury-Merkur). Through the use of platform sharing and manufacturing commonality, Mercury vehicles often shared components and engineering with Ford or Lincoln (or both concurrently), serving as counterparts for vehicles from both divisions.
Following an extended decline in sales and market share for Mercury, Ford announced the closure of the division at the end of 2010.
History
During the mid-1930s, under the leadership of Edsel Ford (1893–1943), son of Henry Ford (1863–1947), the Ford Motor Company discovered that it needed to expand its brand footprint to match its largest competitors. In 1935, Ford offered only its namesake brand and the cars of its more expensive luxury vehicles of its Lincoln Motor Company division. In contrast to the comprehensive line of brands available from General Motors (seven) and the Chrysler Corporation (four), Ford offered its Ford Standard/DeLuxe V8 range and the Lincoln Model K. In contrast to the Ford V8, the Model K was among the most expensive vehicles built and sold then in the United States, rivaled in price by the Cadillac V-12 (and V-16), Duesenberg Model J, and the flagship lines of the Germans' Mercedes-Benz and the British of Rolls-Royce.
To address the gap between Ford and Lincoln, Ford Motor Company launched its own version of the late 1920s General Motors Companion Make Program, leading the company to expand from two nameplates to five by the end of the decade. For 1936, Lincoln-Zephyr was introduced as a sub-marque of Lincoln, giving the line a V12 car competing against the LaSalle and Buick, plus the notable revolutionary streamlining style of the Chrysler Airstream and the Airflow, along with the Packard One-Twenty. For 1938, De Luxe Ford became a sub-marque of Ford, offering a higher-price V8 car with a model-specific interior and exterior trim. personally selecting the Roman god's name from over 100 options – in spite of the name having been used just four years earlier for the Chevrolet Mercury and no fewer than seven separate failed automobile companies from 1903 to 1923.