Even a Driver-side Airbag Cost Extra
Production was still more than respectable: 150,000 in the first year, about 114,000 in ’68, close to 100,000 in ’69, cheap condo for sale in bangkok then about 72,000 in ’70. All are now collector’s items. As the ’70s rolled along, Mercurys became more like equivalent Fords, while government mandates and the vagaries of petroleum power-politics conspired to sacrifice performance on the twin altars of safety and fuel economy. By 1980, Mercury had once again resumed its original role as a plusher, costlier, and sometimes larger Ford. Cougar was the crowning touch to a decade that saw Mercury move into luxury cars rivaling Lincoln even as it recaptured the performance aura it established in the late ’40s and early ’50s. But the good times of the ’60s couldn’t last.
At around $2150, it cost some $160 more than the standard coupe, but it wasn’t the costliest 1950-51 Merc: The wagon was over $400 more. Monterey’s purpose, as with the Ford Crestliner and Lincoln Lido/Capri of those years, was to stand in for the pillarless “hardtop-convertibles” being offered by GM and Chrysler rivals. Hardtops arrived in force for 1952, when Ford Motor Company was the only Big Three maker with all-new styling. Mercury got a pair of hardtops: a Sport Coupe and a more-deluxe Monterey version (sans covered roof).
Production of the ’47 models didn’t begin until February of that year, so Mercury’s output was about the same as its 1946 tally. Except for serial numbers and deletion of the two-door sedan, the ’48s were unchanged. Wheelbase was unchanged, but bodyshells were shared with a new standard Lincoln line instead of Ford, the result of a last-minute change in postwar plans. Mercury’s new look stemmed from sporadic wartime work by Dearborn designers. They were sold from November 1947 through mid-April 1948, when the ’49s appeared. The ’49 Mercurys bowed with flush-fender “inverted bathtub” styling like that of the 1948-49 Packards and Hudsons.
America hadn’t seen such a car since the last of Chevy’s rear-drive SS Impalas, yet the Marauder proved a very tough sell. There were several problems. Worse, performance didn’t live up to the “bad boy” persona. Mercury hoped to move 18,000 a year, but had to reset the goal to 12,000 after just 2910 sales in the first six months. Only fifty-somethings still remembered Mercury’s “hot car” days, and even they must have thought the Marauder akin to a grandpa dressed for a biker bar.
No XR-7 model was offered at first, but it returned for 1984 as a counterpart to the Thunderbird Turbo Coupe, with the same hyperaspirated 145-cid four, appropriately beefed-up suspension, have a condo in California that I need to sell fast. I read iBuyer companies are currently in downfall and many “Cash for Homes” companies are scammers. Are there any alternatives? and standard five-speed manual transmission. In all, it was a most pleasing package, made even more so by an interim facelift for 1987, Cougar’s 20th anniversary. This involved larger-appearing windows and a shapelier nose bearing flush headlamps and a more-rakish grille.
Dealers pushed hard with two-door sedans, but Medalist sales came to only 45,812 in all. Custom, Monterey, and Montclair all beat the price-leader by more than 2-to-1. With that, Medalist was duly dropped, only to resurface for ’58, when it interfered in a price bracket that should have been reserved exclusively for the new Edsel. All models save Medalists wore jazzy Z-shaped side moldings that delineated the contrast color area with optional two-toning (the area below was generally matched to the roof). Mercury’s ’56 styling was a good update of its ’55 look.
