if anyone cares, a lot of the strange Canadian cars were built because of Canadian laws requiring X Canadian content to them, but the market being smaller, it was more economical for carmakers to offer stuff like a Dodge that was a Plymouth from the cowl back, a Pontiac that was a rebadged Chevy, and so on. And that lasted quite a long time, I got a look at some crash book pages for 90s Chevy Corsica that noted it was sold as a Pontiac Tempest in Canada - only difference was the badging. Eventually Canada trained the carmakers that they could pull the same crap with US cars and just slap different names on the same shit and the general public would lap it up just the same. Thanks a lot.
Here's some info I dug up for a story I wrote two years ago on a cool little Mercury truck I shot for Custom Classic Trucks. I sent the story to a UK mag, and got a little more room to run with info. In the US, the Lincoln and Mercury brands were Ford Motor Company’s upscale line of cars, while Ford was the more entry-level tier. Ford found that Canadian vehicle sales tended to be more toward the lower end of the cost spectrum, no doubt helped by huge import duties and taxes that added somewhere near 20-percent to the sticker price. To broaden offerings to the Canadian market after the war, Ford launched the Meteor and Monarch nameplates in Canada. Canadian Lincoln-Mercury dealers were given the Meteor as an entry-level car in the upscale class, which was essentially the smaller-bodied Ford car with Mercury trim and appointments. Ford customers got the Monarch as their top-of-the-line offering, which was the larger-bodied US Mercury fitted with “Monarch” badging. Through some mysterious marketing analysis that we’re sure made perfect sense at the time, the upscale Canadian Lincoln-Mercury-Meteor dealers sold pick-up trucks to the country men and farmers, which meant all the Ford trucks sold in Canada were rebadged as Mercurys from 1946 thru 1968. In the US, Ford trucks were given the “F-“ badging to designate their load capacity. For instance the F1 had a ½-ton capacity (1,000 lbs), the F2 was a 1-ton truck, etc. until ’53 when they went with the F-100, F-250 and F-350 models. Mercury trucks carried the same designations, but replaced the “F” with an “M”. The US and Canada signed the Automotive Trade Agreement in ’65, which did away with the corporate taxes and tariffs enough that the Monarch and Meteor lines were no longer needed, and Mercury trucks were phased out by ‘68. For the most part, US Ford and Canadian Mercury trucks were the same, differing only in the letters on the hood and tailgate, some dash trim, and the occasional splash of chrome to go with Mercury’s more upscale image. Canada’s market was much smaller than the US, and Ford/Mercury of Canada sold only about one-tenth as many trucks as Ford USA sold, making Mercury trucks rare in Canada, and nearly unknown in the US. At car shows, most people mistake the 1952 M-1 for the more familiar Ford F-1. *** And there ya go. While we're on the subject of Canadian iron, Pontiacs were higher on the food chain down here in the States, while Canadian Poncho's were essentially rebadged Chevy cars. (hence the "Pontiac" script SBC valve covers, and the Poncho wagon with a 409 I saw) Also, the Buick Special was the bottom of the line Buick in '54, and came with a smaller 264 inch engine. The Century (same body), Super and RoadMaster (big body) cars came with the bigger 322. Canadian Specials came with the 322. -Brad
They'd be the ones blocking the left lane of I95/I75 with their bigass motorhome with the dorkey maple leaf sticker on the back.
Come guys, Dont be pickin,on our American friends. How would you like to be stuck with 250 million others in such a tiny little country. Give them a break,eh!
Ain't it the truth, Canada's population is 4/5 that of California. It would be worse here if the girls weren't so pretty, 18 million of them. Ah, the joy of prickly cross-border banter. Wife grew up on the shores of Lake Superior, I hear it every day. Viva la difference! Thanks for Steppenwolf, made the 60's more interesting.
That's how you fix your hair before you hit the slopes. Lots and lots of pomade incase you get going really fast backwards.
[ And what the hell's a Ski Doo?[/QUOTE] I'm moving to where you live, assuming you also don't know what a 'snow brush' is.
The Jalopy Journal
