The entire Mercury lineup was moved down market in 1961, almost directly into Ford territory. Let’s look at the strategy and offerings.
Monterey Four-Door Sedan
In past features here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, we’ve explored how Mercury rambled up and down the mid-priced field in the 1950s. Searching for the division’s ideal market position, the Ford Motor Company tried a low-priced Mercury, the stripped-down 1956 Medalist, then the high end of the market with the 1958 Park Lane. In the meantime, Mercury suffered more than most of the mid-priced brands in the 1958 economic recession. And the brief appearance of the Edsel, wedged as it was between Ford and Mercury, further complicated the matter, generating a $350 million loss for the automaker.
So for 1961, the entire Mercury brand was shifted down market, barely a notch above Ford in pricing and features. (And into the Edsel’s alleged slot, arguably.) The move, directed by Lincoln-Mercury chief Ben D. Mills, one of the original Ford whiz kids, was both a product strategy and a cost-saving measure, as now Ford and Mercury could share even more engineering and compnents. From its 1939 start, Mercury was always based largely on Ford hardware, but now the two products were aligned more closely than at any time since 1948.
Mercury Commuter and Colony Park Station Wagons
With its wheelbase shortened by half a foot to 120 inches for 1961 (just one inch longer than Ford), Mercury could now use nearly all the Ford’s inner body structure, and even some exterior panels, including the roof and doors. The instrument panels were shared, too. The engine lineup was now entirely Ford as well, as the Lincoln-sourced 430 cubic-inch MEL V8 was dropped. Now the Ford 223 CID inline six was available—the first six in a Mercury since its 1939 introduction, when it was officially named and marketed as the Mercury Eight.
Meteor 600 Four-Door Sedan
With the premium Montclair and Park Lane models scrapped, the formerly midrange Monterey was now the top of line. It was joined by two new base models, the Meteor 600 and Meteor 800, borrowing their name from Ford of Canada. (This created two different Ford Motor Co. products in North America with the same name, a story we shared here.) The Meteors were sparsely equipped by Mercury standards, in stark contrast to the luxury cruisers of a few years past like the Park Lane and the 1957 Turnpike Cruiser. Mercury’s full-size price range now spanned from $2,535 to $3,191, kissing close to Ford’s at $2,317 to $2,943.
Mercury produced and sold around 317,000 cars in 1961, a fair-to-decent performance for the brand, at least on paper. But there’s a little more to the story. The compact Comet (below), previously a stand-alone, officially joined the Mercury brand that year, and it contributed 62 percent of the volume. The new car market in the United States was evolving and Mercury would have to evolve with it, along with the rest of the Motor City.
1961 Comet Two-Door Sedan
If you are a motorhead( why else would you be here?) you’ll like this one. In the mid 60s, as a kid, we had a “canned ham” camper, and went to Florida( from Wis) every winter. The old man had a plethora of inept vehicles to pull the camper, each worse than the last. The 1st car I remember was a ’61 Plymouth wagon, but the 2nd car was a ’61 Commuter station wagon just like the photo above. The most vivid memory, was the car, a V8, was making an awful racket. We “camped out” behind a service station in TN. somewhere waiting for them to open. Next day, the mechanic pulled the valve covers off, and the sludge was so thick, you could barely see the rocker arms. He proceeded to “rod” the rocker arms with some wire, and the oil went shooting across the room. I learned some new swear words with that car. The old man never had a Ford product again.
Thanks, Howard. Great story .That was a famous feature of the Ford Y-block V8 — oil galleries sludging up. There were aftermarket kits with external copper lines.
I’m confused about the Meteor brand.
From the 50’s into the 60’s, the Canadian Meteor was a base Ford with different trim, and was like a separate brand. We had a ‘61 Meteor wagon – kind of like the Commuter in the photo, but almost exactly like the Ford in appearance.
Now I see there was a Mercury model called Meteor. In what years was that produced?
As mentioned above, a full-size Meteor was sold in the U. S. for 1961 only. The Canadian Meteor was Ford-based through 1961, but used a Ford body shell rather than the American Meteor (which was the Mercury version of the Ford body!) In 1962 and 1963, Mercury sold the Meteor in the U. S. and Canada as their counterpart of the Ford Fairlane, but it was dropped for 1964. A new Canadian Meteor debuted in 1964 and continued into the 1980s (in later years it was marketed as the Mercury Marquis Meteor (!)…
Thanks Charles for that uh – clarification? lol
Seems we must take pity on the poor Meteor brand – buffeted around from pillar to post!
Originally it was planned to continue the Park Lane and Montclair (presumably with the latter) into the 1961 model year. There was a large, framed photo of the originally planned 1961 Park Lane on the ninth floor of the Ford World Headquarters back in 2001. It was photographed at the Ford Dearborn Test Track (the same background seen in many Ford Public Affairs new model announcement photos back then), so presumably the late series realignment described here occurred pretty close to the eventual Job #1 in late summer 1960. – Tim Boyd