Searching for the sweet spot in the crowded mid-price category, in 1960 the Ford Motor Company positioned Mercury as “the better low price car.”
The 1960 selling season found the Ford Motor Company still probing for the right spot in the broad and competitive mid-priced range for its upscale Mercury line. Through the fifties, the automaker had tested the low end of the market (1956 Medalist) and the high end, too (1958 Park Lane), and with the Edsel division fading from the picture, the Mercury brand now had a wider and clearer lane in which to operate.
For 1960, the Mercury line was consolidated on a single 126-in wheelbase chassis, using the semi-perimeter cow-belly frame first seen in production on the 1956 Continental Mark II. Now all three models—base Monterey, Montclair, and deluxe Park Lane—were on the same platform, with a wheelbase seven inches longer than Ford for improved ride quality. A revised ride and handling package Mercury called “Road Tuned wheels” allowed limited fore/aft movement in the front and rear suspension to reduce road shock.
From the beltline down, exterior styling was all new, the work of Arnott B. “Buzz” Grisinger, now executive stylist in the Mercury studio. An industry veteran, he’d designed the 1941 Barrelback woody at Chrysler, then joined Kaiser-Frazer and Willys Motors before landing at Ford in 1955, where he retired in 1970. Grisinger credited Elwood Engel for the tilted taillight assemblies, noting that Engel had a flair for “canted forms” as in the ’58 Lincoln. However, the greenhouse and its large wraparound backlite were carryovers from 1959. Grisinger did an excellent job concealing the ’60 Mercury’s 1959 origins.
Montclair Cruiser Hardtop Sedan
In all three trim lines, the pillarless coupes and sedans were labeled Cruisers, while the two four-door station wagons, base Commuter and deluxe Colony Park with simulated wood trim, were called Country Cruisers, as they were pillarless as well. Convertibles were offered in both the Monterey at the bottom of the line and the Park Lane at the top. Each trim level offered progressively fancier interior appointments, though Mercury claimed “deluxe interiors at no extra cost in every distinctive model,” whatever that could mean.
Monterey Two-Door Sedan
In line with the slogan, “the better low price car,” Mercury prices were actually lowered for 1960. The Monterey two-door sedan, the cheapest Mercury, was discounted from $2,768 to $2,631, while the Park Lane convertible, the most expensive, was reduced $188 to $4,018. Print advertising declared that prices “now start $63 to $66 below the V8 Plymouth Fury or Chevrolet Impala.” And with an additional 494 lbs over lesser cars, the ad writers noted. In the Montclair, Park Lane, and Colony Park, Mercury offered as standard the 430 cubic-inch MEL V8 with 310 hp, the largest-displacement V8 in the mid-priced field.
Mercury’s models and pricing now reached from the top of Ford/Chevy range nearly into the top of the Buick bracket, but sales for ’60 registered only a three-percent increase to 155,000 cars, with the low-priced Monterey contributing the bulk of the volume. Meanwhile, Mercury dealers sold more than 110,000 new Comet compacts—a welcome bounty, though technically it wasn’t a Mercury. For 1961, Mercury took a sharp turn downmarket with the Meteor and Monterey, both closely based on the ’61 Ford.
Mercurys were wonderful cars. Some of my earliest car memories involve Mercurys. In the early 60s, my parents had a pull behind camper, a Shasta, and every year we’d go to Florida( from Wis.) on Christmas break, and every year was a different vehicle. It’s how me and my brother learned so much about cars. The old man generally stayed away from Ford products, but in maybe ’65, he had a yellow ’61 Mercury wagon to pull the camper. I was pretty young, the car couldn’t have been that old, and what I remember most, was camping out behind some gas station in Tenn. waiting for them to open. The motor, a V8, was making an awful racket even the old man knew something was wrong. The mechanic pulled the valve covers, and “rodded” the oil passages full of sludge, oil shooting across the shop. Me and my brother laughed about that, but it worked. After that, he bought a ’62, 4 door, that was my moms favorite car. He had dozens of cars, aside from a ’68 Lincoln I took my road test on, he never had another Ford. Older Mercurys have always, to me, been a “special” Ford, I mean, look at that dash, what the,,,the radio sideways??? WOW! I think only Chrysler outdid Ford in that dept., still it was different than a Ford. I was saddened when the plug was pulled, even though towards the end, they really were just Fords,
Holding onto that wraparound windshield while Ford cleaned up its dogleg for ’60… I dunno, maybe that 126″ wheelbase took the sting out of it
The Comet, per the linked article, was introduced well into calendar 1960 (mid- March). I’m left to wonder how wide a margin it would’ve outsold the big Merc by if they had it for the full model year.
When the 1961 Mercury was introduced, “the better low-priced car” was the slogan for the entire model year…and truth was, it had reverted to the Ford chassis and offered the Mileage Maker Six on the Meteor 600 and 800 models. After three years of fumbling and stumbling, the same Ford-based car was advertised for 1964 as “No finer car in the medium-price field.” Unfortunately, like most middle children, Mercury was never again able to find its identity after the 1957-60 model years…
I think Mercury found its identity with the Couger years, especially the early models. They were marketed in different ways throughout their history, initially as a luxury pony car that was more upscale than the Ford Mustang, and later as a personal luxury car and a mid-size car. Early models emphasized performance and style, while later versions ditched the pony car approach and became a Thunderbird clone.
Towards the end, in the Ford acquisitions era of the late ’90s to 2010, only the Grand Marquis had a strong identity. Mazda was for what the Edsel planners called the “E-F” target demographic, young up-and-comers who wanted something just a little bit nicer than the equivalent Ford (in this case the price difference was an ATP closer to MSRP rather than a higher list price), Volvo was for the “E-M” demo at the high end of the midprice market, and the Grand Marquis was for the Edsel target *cohort*, the people who had been the young up-and-comers of 50 years before.
The rest of the Mercury line was well and truly adrift, Fords with Buick grilles.
The big Mercuries kept their own identities for a while, but the Comets became Fairlanes with different badges by ‘66.