When the Big M ruled the road...

I've been reading all the posts about the end of the line for Mercury, as Ford announced they are killing off the...

<BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

 

Here's to a great 71 years.....well at least 20 of those were great but you get the point!

I've got one of those oddball '52 Mercurys but I love it all the same! Here's a picture of my wife that we had done for her Maternity pics. Mercury is part of the family no matter what now.

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One of the both of us....


Let post pics of any of our Mercury's that are on topic as a tribute!!!!

 

those will be some great pics to look back on during the retirement years!<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

 

Here's to 71 years.

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Heaven knows I miss my Mercury's, but not what they build now. I have no remorse for the re-badging that goes on today.

 

Nice convert!!!!

 

What a sad day it will be when there are no more mercs being made

 

I was raised in a Merc family.both my folks had mercs when they met in the early 50s,in1958 my dad boought my mom a 58 parklane ragtop (black) she drove it everyday in tucson mostly with the top down,she would go years at a time with out putting the top up,in 68 she traded it in for a new montego mx ragtop(orange) they gave her $150 trade in on the 58.Ive still got the 68 montego and gettin it back on the street soon.(yeah its a OT car).in my thinkin Merc died when they did the F**ked up logo and lost its heritage..............going to miss Merc!

 

It is sad to lose another American auto maker but Mercury hasn't done anything significant in quite awhile. The Cougar of the mid '60s may have been the last thing...nothing else is coming to mind. They were just too stagnant, even for Detroit and Ford never seemed to care about the brand. I'm surprised that it made it this long and as somebody else stated most people probably thought the brand was already dead. Sad none the less.

 

Mercury died long ago. no one noticed. the only thing changing with these recent developments is the signage at the dealers.

 

Sad news, but this doesn't surprise me in anyway.

 

I have a '52 Merc that i love and the sad part about all this is that the parts that are already hard to find are going to go through the ROOF and they will be out of reach to us people that dont have tons of money will not be able to afford to keep them on the road!!!!!

 

gonna buy me a Mercury...cruise up and down the road...Steve Miller Band did it also...

 

This is my Merc

 

Damn that Merc is Sweet Jive Bomber!!!!

 

Mercury's history has always fascinated me. It always seemed that Ford could never decide whether it should be a junior Lincoln or a senior Ford. In latter years, it became pretty much a badge-engineered version of the latter, with, at most, mild styling changes.

Frankly, I think with Detroit's focus on SUVs over the last fifteen or so years a lot of brands got diluted to the point that they're almost meaningless: Lincoln Navigators and Cadillac Escalades come to mind. Go back a little over half a century and what did the Lincoln and Caddy (and Imperial, for that matter) mean? Status and success for the owner of one of these 'Fine Cars' (a prestige car, like Mercedes and Lexus is today, for those too young to have been around in those days).

Automotive history is littered with brands that became irrelevant to their target markets. In my 57 years I've witnessed the demise of Kaiser, Willys, Nash, Rambler, AMC, Edsel, Hudson, Studebaker, De Soto, Plymouth, Imperial, Oldsmobile, Packard, Pontiac, most of the British marques and now Mercury. R.I.P...

 

GEEZ JIVE BOMBER...I was thinking MOPAR...POP.

 

Here's a cool old pic from back when FoMoCo still marketed "THE BIG M":


The 1956 Mercury XM Turnpike Cruiser concept car toured the US in style!


... and speaking of FoMoCo's marketing of their Mercury line ... Lincoln~Mercury was the primary sponsor of the ED SULLIVAN television shows (1948-1962) ...

Here's a clip from a 1954 show:

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... and a clip from a 1956 show:

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Its a sad ending for a car that still sat in about the same position as the original '39 model, an upscale Ford with more gadgets an power. Markets rule the auto industry, and the customers just werent there to support it, but then the customers were like me, old farts. The Merc, along with cousin 'Vic Ford' were the last of the big cruisers, with powerful V8, body on frame, rear wheel drive American cars. Used by law enforcement for years they were solid dependable cars, basic transportation for Police, and favorites of gramp,s an grammy,s to the end. I love my '99 Gran Marquis even with 129k trouble free miles on the odometer. I think I will soon sell her tho, as soon as I find a good Marauder, to buy.

 

Pontiac and Mercury, two of the coolest brands from the past. Now at least our grand children and their grand children will associate those names with the models of glory, not the diluted crap of today. RIP.

 

I've had a 54 Merc,a couple of 60s Cougars,a Cougar XR-7,and a Mercury Zephyr coupe with a small V-8 that made me a whole bunch of money.I loved them all.

 

My daughter celebrates the merc...





Cheers,

Drewfus

 

Yessir...

 

The only Merc. I own, a 1970 Monterey Conv. The lowest production body style Ford made in 1970. A whole 581 copies.

AND IF ANYONE, I MEAN ANYONE, KNOWS WERE A GOOD PASS. DOOR FOR THIS CAR IS PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Mercury, Pontiac, and Plymouth..... 3 makes that I'll reminisce about, just like the older folks did with Desoto, Studebaker, and Packard. (glad I saved one from the crusher when I did, now that I think about it.)

 

Sad news. Another great old American icon bites the dust and another foreign product, supporting foreign workers, will surely take its place in the near future.

 

Jive-Bomber, I see that you've visited the world famous "Fred Stoke Ranch".......