Mercury

Mercury is an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company that was created to fill a price gap between Ford brand models and the more expensive Lincoln brand models.  The original Mercury cars were designed as entry-level luxury automobiles that would compete directly with General Motors’ Buick marquee and other similarly priced and marketed brands. Today, Mercury models are almost identical to corresponding Ford models.

Mercury was founded in 1939 by Henry Ford’s son Edsel, who was successful in establishing Mercury as a brand known for offering quality automobiles at a reasonable price.  In 1945, Ford merged Lincoln and Mercury into the Lincoln-Mercury brand to further separate Mercury models from the Ford brand and market them as a entry-level luxury alternative to the Lincoln brand.  The company has produced a number of unique and successful models, such as the Cougar XR-7 specialty coupe released in 1967.

During the eighties, Mercury’s identity began to fade with the decision build Mercury models that were virtually identical to models released under the Ford brand.  As the company began offering little more than spiced-up versions of Ford models, Mercury began to lose its luxury car identity.  Today, Mercury exists more as a companion marque to Ford-branded models rather than to models released by Lincoln.